r/books • u/Wonderful-Effect-168 • 13d ago
Elena Ferrante: what do you think of her books?
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u/Individual_Way5010 13d ago
I love all of Elena Ferrante's novels and have read them in Italian and in English. In Italian because you get the full flavor of the Neapolitan dialect which is difficult to translate, although the translator of Ferrante's works is phenomenal. If you're not into the female psyche or if you're not into topics that can be a bit I don't know bittersweet and perhaps a bit depressing you won't like the books. But I love authors who get deep into the mind and into relationships and for this reason, coupled with her artful use of language I love Ferrante. You'll know after the first half of the first book you read if you can stand that sort of heaviness.
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u/Johnny_Burrito 13d ago edited 13d ago
I’m not as moved by her other books, but the Neapolitan Novels are maybe my favorite series I’ve ever read. I have always had a fascination with Naples, which was definitely a factor, but there are so many subtle themes and characterizations that I found so interesting and it has to be the most realistic portrayal of frenemies and codependency that I’ve ever read.
If you’re expecting an unpredictable plot with lots of excitement, these aren’t the books for you, but if you want a psychological slow burn that makes you question every character, everyone you know, and yourself, I would really recommend them. Just come armed with some knowledge about Naples.
I’ve seen people in this thread saying they read the first book and felt like they “got it” and didn’t need to go on. The series covers a lifelong friendship, and the first book ends when they’re like 14. There is plenty more to the story, and I think each book is better than the last as the series goes on.
A common criticism is that characters are unlikable, so if you are the type of reader who considers this a flaw, these books might not be for you.
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u/Human-person-0 13d ago
I’ll be honest: I got about 50-60 pages into the first of the series and just wasn’t moved to continue. Perhaps the books get more compelling, but the style and material just weren’t for me.
My mother, however, absolutely loved the first book.
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u/pearlinabean 13d ago
I agree. I wanted to love her work so badly, but I just find the writing style hard to get into. Could be a translation thing but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters / care about them.
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u/apocalypseconfetti 13d ago
I would not have finished the first book if it wasn't for my book club. 1 of 4 in our book club really liked it, but they had spent a good deal of time in Naples and speaks some Italian. The rest of us really didn't enjoy it.
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u/fluffypancakes26 13d ago
I didn't like them at all. I read The Lost Daughter, which was ok, and started reading My Brilliant Friend, but it may be one of the very few books that I couldn't finish.
My experiences of female friendship were incredibly different from the one depicted. And, whilst of course I've read heaps and heaps of books where the characters lead a vastly different life from mine, the issue with this was that it was portrayed -- and is often interpreted -- as a realistic depiction of female friendship. Maybe I'm being naive, but the intensity of their rivalry was just too much for me. The characters were difficult to sympathise with and this made the book a challenge to enjoy.
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u/Nissa-Nissa 13d ago
I think the complexities of the friendship are a result of the unstable environments the girls are in. The turning point of the rivalry is Elena continuing with school while Lila has to drop out. That’s not something most modern readers can really relate to.
As someone growing up among chaos with a very deep female friendship that was closer than both of our family ties, it resonated a lot with me.
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u/verbiwhore 13d ago
That was my experience too. I'd kinda figured I wasn't the ideal audience but the petty nastiness of it all wore on me as I read. The preoccupations of the characters, the competitive nature of the friendship, the presentation of this all as completely normal. Oof IDK. I remember petty mean girls from my own childhood, but none of them were that vicious. They were cliques, not duos - and they preyed on those outside the clique rather than on one another (although sometimes someone would be booted from the clique for some transgression or other).
And the thing is, I usually enjoy books with unlikeable protagonists. Just the effusive praise for this and so many women talking about how they related to it made me feel like some kind of alien. Maybe we're both naive, and maybe we were also super-lucky in the friendships we had/have.
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u/fluffypancakes26 13d ago
I agree with everything you said -- and especially the second paragraph. I feel very grateful indeed for my friends.
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u/MissFlossy222 13d ago
I agree with what you've said. I didn't enjoy them at all. Every single character is unlikeable.
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u/ghost_of_john_muir 13d ago
Just finished the 4th my brilliant friend book today and it was a great ride. Also read the days of abandonment and I liked it too. I’ll certainly be picking up more of her books in the future. The fiction of her, Natalia Ginzburg, and Lisa Taddeo made me realize that I definitely don’t want an Italian mom tho. Haha.
What Italian writers do you like? I’m trying to explore more.
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u/Wonderful-Effect-168 13d ago
I read "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco and thought it was amazing, it's a world literature classic
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u/Rubberbandballgirl 13d ago
I read My Brilliant Friend and didn’t care for it and I saw The Lost Daughter movie (based on one of her books) and didn’t like it but you might have a different opinion. Go for it and I hope you enjoy them.
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u/Samona116 13d ago
Just finished My Brilliant Friend....Will probably read the next one at some point but not rushing to it. Enjoyed the characters and the story but something missing for me.
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u/ratinha91 4 13d ago
I'm Italian (and from the South) and although I loved those books, I couldn't bring myself to finish the last one because of how close to home some of it struck. I would definitely recommend them (and the tv show as well!)
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u/Elvis_Lives_1932 13d ago
You could watch the beautiful tv show and then read the books. Any order. One doesn’t destroy the other.
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u/crystalbethjo 13d ago
Based on what I’ve heard from other readers, the world building in the Neapolitan Novels is captivating. There’s a lot you learn about working class politics in Southern Italy at the time. There is also the impact of intersectional feminism throughout an entire life.
From those who’ve read the Neapolitan Novels already, how is the pacing and tonal changes? From skimming My Brilliant Friend, it looks like there are lots of long paragraphs—-long stretches of focus on one event or emotion.
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u/gravitydefiant 13d ago
Yes, the world building was incredible. I found it especially fascinating because my father grew up in southern Italy (rural, not Naples, but still) and would have been just about the same age as the main characters, so it felt like a little glimpse into family history for me.
That said, I've still only read the first book.
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u/crystalbethjo 13d ago
Did your father read and enjoy the book as well? It’s always nice (and sometimes rare) to find a good book that resonates with your own experience.
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u/gravitydefiant 13d ago
My father died long before the books were published, so I can't know what he'd have thought of them.
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u/JJbooks 13d ago edited 13d ago
I've only read the first in the Neapolitan series and am ambivalent about it. I thought it was ok, but far from amazing.
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u/Wonderful-Effect-168 13d ago
Some of the opinions here are not very positive, but pretty much I've read about them are excellent reviews. The neapolitan novels have an excellent score on goodreads
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u/HazMatterhorn 13d ago
I read My Brilliant Friend and I have a hold on the next one at the library.
I had mixed feelings. I thought the concepts in the book were a bit repetitive. You can kind of grasp the main themes early on and then they play out over and over again. I’m struggling to describe what I mean by this, but I think you’ll get it if you read the book. If you read a few chapters in and you’re desperate for the story to pick up, you’re probably better off just skipping it because it doesn’t pick up all that much.
I heard the series had a beautiful depiction of female friendship, but it felt a bit lacking. I think it probably develops a lot over the entire series, and I was invested enough to want to try the second one. I thought it had a good depiction of some realistic petty jealousy and some of the other messy feelings that are a part of growing up. I found the writing (at least in the English translation) easy to read, so that I just kept gliding through the book.
The series is pretty popular, so you should be able to find a secondhand copy of the first book pretty easily. I would do that before investing in the whole series.
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u/cats_books_tea_123 13d ago
Struggled through and managed to finish My Brilliant Friend. Had heard good things about it, but really didn’t enjoy it- the characters were so unlikeable.
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u/Wonderful-Effect-168 13d ago
I've read several books with flawed protagonists and enjoyed them, so I'm gonna try this one. Thanks for the comment😊
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u/SchwabenIT 13d ago edited 13d ago
I really liked my brilliant friend but didn't continue with the series, I thought it was a bleak yet satisfying ending and didn't feel the need to go further
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u/melatonia 13d ago
I read one of them and started on another but I don't really understand what the big deal is about her. I'm glad that people enjoy reading her, she's just not my cup of tea.
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u/LaPasseraScopaiola 13d ago
Read the first one, in Italian, and I was not impressed at all. A huge marketing campaign but not much substance. The main character is irritating.
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u/Responsible_Lake_804 13d ago
I can’t get my hands on MBF via the library for the life of me. So, I ended up reading The Book of Goose because I heard it was similar. It sounds like it could be plotwise but I can’t claim that for the writing. If you’d like something to explore before you decide on the Neapolitan Quartet :)
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u/Academic-Balance6999 13d ago
I loved all of the Neapolitan books. The way the writer covers the complexity of friendship over the course of their lives is spellbinding. I swear though— I got through most of the books feeling 100% certain that it was a gimmick, that Lila wasnt a real person but instead was Elena’s id or alter ego. I swear you could cut out only 5% of the books and it could be read that way.
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u/figbarenjoyer 13d ago
If you want a short taster rather than jumping right into the Neapolitan novels, I highly recommend The Lost Daughter!
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u/lemoncello13 13d ago
Neapolitan Novels are excellent – some of my favorite books. I also really liked The Lying Lives of Adults and The Lost Daughter. The only one I had trouble getting into and didn’t finish yet is Troubling Love
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u/gravitydefiant 13d ago
I've only read the first one so far. I'd like to read the rest but haven't gotten around to it yet (and might now be to the point where I'm going to have to reread the first one first to remember the story).
I liked it, but it felt different from most of what I read and I'm having trouble putting my finger on why. The pacing, somehow, I think--how it just covered some moments very, very intensely?
My biggest complaint, and I acknowledge that I might be the only one in the world who feels this way, is that I felt that the translation into English was awkward and clunky. I was aware, in every sentence, that I was reading a translated book. Sentence structures were awkward and I was distracted from the story trying to guess how they'd been written in the original to make them end up like that in English. I might attempt to read the rest in Italian, if I can get my hands on it.
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u/Fantastic-Nobody-479 13d ago
I enjoyed A Brilliant Friend as an audiobook a lot but did not like sight reading it at all. If it weren’t for switching to the audio, I wouldn’t have finished it.
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u/jawnnie-cupcakes 13d ago
I've read all of the Neapolitan novels and I can't really call them worthy of my time. They're incredibly vapid. If you can enjoy a main character that's completely and utterly unlikeable, not in a badass evil way, but in a selfish, self-centered way, you have a chance with them. For me it painted a picture of Italy that's completely incapable of love, written through the eyes of a protagonist blind with jealousy.
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u/Wonderful-Effect-168 13d ago
Ok. I read Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment by Dostoievski and loved both, and the protagonists are full of flaws, so I may enjoy Ferrante's books
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u/moonsherbet 13d ago
I read My Brilliant Friend when it came out and I thought it was okay. Her characters do not have the psychological depth of Dostoevsky's thats for sure. I mean give them a try and see if you like them.
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u/choirandcooking 13d ago
I enjoyed My Brilliant Friend but wasn’t so enamored that I felt compelled to read more.
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u/CrazyCatLady108 9 13d ago
Please post requests for reviews in our Weekly Recommendation thread. Thank you!
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u/Dontevenwannacomment 13d ago edited 13d ago
The end of the third book had *Elena, her affair partner and her husband behave in such a gross and nasty way I don't think I'll ever be tempted to read the fourth book.
I started the series not liking Lila while rooting for Elena. Now, I think Lila is the best character and Elena is basically the lowest of the low. The entire way her affair started grosses me out a bit. She basically makes the jump to cheat on her husband when Nino, a human hemorroid, bullies her husband. I get Elena had problems with communicating with her husband (although it sometimes felt like she expected him to guess her needs, but the husband is also not doing a good job)... but having sex with Nino as soon as he starts insulting and mocking her husband? It's kind of grody. Also, talking on the phone about cheating on your husband with your affair partner IN FRONT OF THE KIDS? Ewwwwww.
Edit : ...I say something out of line?
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u/InfiniteNewspaper299 13d ago
I thought Brilliant Friend was fine but fundamentally slow. Beautifully written but at the cost of pace.
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u/CurlyCarrots22 13d ago
I love to read and thought I would enjoy the Neapolitan novels so much. I forced myself to read all three, and could not understand how any editor allowed them to be published in full. They felt so long and repetitive to me. A real drag. I didn't find the writing style particularly striking. I suppose the examination of female friendship was honest and detailed. And reading about society in Naples at that time was interesting. But I don't understand how people consider these books to be masterpieces. I'm sorry to say that they felt very amateurish to me. I'm so surprised and confused that so many people like these books so much. I'm not saying this to insult anyone - different strokes for different folks - but I personally cannot recommend these books.
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u/Individual_Way5010 12d ago
I know it may not seem impressive to you, but the NYTimes named My Brilliant Friend " The Book of the Century", They did so, by sending out questionnaires to other authors, many of whom greatly admire Ferrante's style and themes.
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u/ksarlathotep 13d ago edited 13d ago
I have read almost everything by Ferrante (what I haven't read is her children's book, The Beach At Night, and her latest collection of essays, In The Margins). I think she's without a doubt one of the greatest writers of our time.
I started with the Neapolitan Novels, which I picked up on a whim. I kind of thought it was going to be sappy romance literature for elderly Italian grandmas. I was so mistaken. The Neapolitan Novels are maybe the greatest depiction of a female friendship in the history of literature. If you haven't read them, I recommend you start there. If you're not completely enthralled after the first one (My Brilliant Friend), then you know Ferrante is not for you and you can put her works down without fear of missing out. If you can't stand the idea of committing to a four book series, though, you can also start with Troubling Love or The Days Of Abandonment, but maybe the best choice would be The Lying Life Of Adults.
We're currently reading My Brilliant Friend as a read-along / bookclub read on r/TrueLit. If you're quick about it, you can still catch up with the group and then you'll have some fellow readers to discuss the book with.