My Brilliant Friend

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Average customer rating 4.7 (6 comments)

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The first of the Italian writer Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, “My Brilliant Friend” tells the story of the friendship between two young girls, Lila and Elena. Set in Naples, Italy in the 1950s, it also explores themes of poverty, social class, gender, and education – particularly, what happens to brilliant students (especially girls) who are not provided with adequate educational opportunities. Ferrante’s tone is very honest and intensely personal – this was a book that I couldn’t put down, and which left me eager to read the remainder of the Neapolitan Novel quartet.

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Men, take note...rejecting this book because it is the story of two girls would be a big mistake. It is true, that the two principal characters are women, but it is so much more. OK, now that I have addressed men and other reviewers have addressed women, allow me to address another possible audience: Italophiles, i.e., people who love Italy, people of Italian descent whose ancestors are Italian or those who are interested in their Italian familial heritage. Firstly, the book is set in Naples and moves to other places nearby, Ischia, Florence etc. It is not a travel memoir per se, but, the place descriptions of Naples are spot on accurate and you may want to take some time to google the streets and monuments and landmarks that are part and parcel of the story. This slowed down the reading of the book, but, for me, made it immeasurably richer. PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT THIS TITLE IS THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY, SO, WHEN YOU GET TO THE END OF THIS BOOK, IT IS NOT OVER WITH YET. OH WAIT A MINUTE, THE TRILOGY DID NOT FINISH THE STORY, SO, IT ENDED UP BEING FOUR BOOKS. YOU MUST READ ALL FOUR. All four books are FIVE STARS. Also, for those who are not Italian, the names of the characters have associated nicknames and the families of the characters are extended. For Italians too, even friends who are not blood relations are part of La Famiglia, The family. Do not let this deter you because each of the four volumes has a listing of the characters and their families in the front.

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"There are no gestures, words, or sighs that do not contain the sum of all crimes that human beings have committed and commit." If you even have a mild interest in literature, you've probably heard about Elena Ferrante four-book series called "The Neapolitan Novels." Set in a poor neighborhood in Naples, this first volume chronicles the close, but sometimes strained relationship between the narrator and Lila, the spirited, brilliant friend of the title. It has something of a Victorian novel feel in that it fully immerses you in the detailed, vivid world of it characters, but there's nothing old fashioned about it, and Ferrante is particularly aware of the malignant power of men. To address two other reviews, I don't think it's accurate or helpful to call their relationship "co-dependent," nor do I think characters have to be empathetic to be interesting. I mean, are Macbeth and Richard III empathetic? A great novel; one of the best of this young century. Followed by "The Story of a New Name."

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"My Brilliant Friend," which unfolds in Naples, Italy, in the 1950s, follows two girls growing up in a poor neighborhood. Both are exceptionally intelligent, but numerous forces -- from parental expectations to early marriage -- threaten to keep them hemmed into an ordinary, possibly even dull, life. Will they stay in school? Remain friends? Make it out of their neighborhood? Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, which has earned comparisons to Jane Austen's novels, begins here. I initially found the large cast of characters overwhelming, but by the middle of the book I was entirely absorbed by the story. I plan to continue reading the series.

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Elena Ferrante is a master storyteller. "My Brilliant Friend" eloquently and steadily unfolds the story of a friendship between two young girls In a poor Naples neighborhood in the 1950's. The story weaves the challenges of growing up, envying friends and loving them, class issues in poor communities and sacrifices people must make to survive, with various threads of changing times, domestic violence, gangs, status, love, romance, and young people finding their way. Ferrante's descriptions and writing style gently envelops readers as she takes us through time with Lenu and Lila and many others.

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In a working class neighborhood of Naples in the 1950s and 60's two little girls grow up best friends. It's a story of the rise of feminism in a patriarchal culture, as relevant today as it is in villages in Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other parts of the world. Societal corruption, economic class and family loyalties challenge and shape the fates of the two friends in surprising ways. Courage and intelligence come up against traditional misogynist beliefs that support entrenched systems of power and influence. I had forgotten the way little girls think and perceive the world. The inner realities of these two young girls come alive in a way that reminded me of a way of being I had forgotten. Complex characters, beautifully written, Ferrante has a fatalistic and at the same time realistic sense of the world, and a fierce love for every part of a woman's mind and soul.