Elena Ferrante: The Story of a New Name
Part 2 of Ferrante's quadrology (as for my review of Part 1)... pure rock'n roll it is. Spoilers ahead.
The story begins at Lila's wedding with Stefano Carraci, right where the first book ended. Already during their honeymoon, Lila and Stefano descend into a cycle of provokation and abuse. After a while, however, Lila learns how to manage her violent husband and seems to be settling (or resigning) into the new circumstances. She gets pregnant but loses the baby.
Elena and her neighborhood boyfriend Antonio Cappucio break up, apparently due to to his upcoming military service but mostly due to Elena's continuing affection for Nino Sarratore. At school, Elena is being intellectually promoted by her teacher, Professor Gailani, whose daughter is dating Nino. Elena and Lila have their first longer term fallout after a party at Professor Gailani's place, where Elena moves elegantly in new intellectual circles, while Lila feels awkwardly left out (and jealous of Elena).
They reconcile and decide to spend summer holidays together in Ischia. The stay proves to be a decisive turning point for the two womens' story. Elena's secret intention behind the holidays is to be close to Nino, who is also in Ischia. In what is one of the most gripping parts of the novel, we see the slow unfolding of an affair between Lila and Nino. Elena, visibly under shock, reacts by spending a night with Nino's father. Another prolonged break ensues between Elena and Lila.
Elena gets accepted into university at Pisa, while Nino and Lila continue their affair. After running away from Stefano for a couple of weeks, Nino breaks up with Lila and she returns, pregnant, to her husband. In the coming years, Lila is all focused on raising her son Gennaro. At the same time, Stefano begins an affair with the sales clerk in his family's grocery.
The story ends with Lila running off with her long-term admirer, Enzo Scanno, and her son Gennaro. In order to make ends meet, Lila takes up work in a meat factory. While Lila and Enzo are not romantically involved, they seem to form an increasingly deep bond, united in studying together late at night. In the end of the story, Elena gets her first novel published, starting a promising literary career.
"My brilliant friend" was already a great read, but, in retrospect, it was no comparison to the second part of the Naples novels. The story really picks up pace, especially after Lila and Nino begin their affair in Ischia. As said before, Ferrante provides one of the best depictions of friendship and the lives of young adult's in all their complexity. The innocence that was still somehow there in Part 1 is lost. To use a concept introduced by Lila, the margins of the characters are "dissolving" in a microcosm of adultery, rivalry and violence. All this takes place against the contemporary social habits and politics of 1960's Italy which Ferrante so brilliantly depicts ... overall, nothing less than amazing.
Random movie reference:
Difficult one. The whole dynamic between Elena, Lila and Nino kind of remotely reminded me of Noodles, Max and Deborah in Once Upon a Time in America.
Favorite quotes:
"I understood only later that I can be quietly unhappy, because I am incapable of violent reactions. I fear them, I prefer to be still, cultivating resentment. Not Lila." (Elena)
"I got low marks in chemistry, art history, and philosophy, and my nerves were so frayed that right after the last bad grade I burst into tears in front of everyone. It was a horrible moment: I felt the horror and pleasure of losing myself, the fear and the pride in going off the rails." (Elena)
"I started to borrow novels from the circulating library, and read one after the other. But in the long run they didn't help. They presented intense lives, profound conversations, a phantom reality more appealing than my real life." (Elena)
"Even if you are better than me, even if you know more things, don't leave me." (Lina to Elena)
"She had felt the need to humiliate me in order to better endure her own humiliation." (Elena about Lina after the party at Professor Gailani's which led to their fall-out)
"She was born like that, she could have learned the art of engraving merely by studying the gestures of a goldsmith, and then be able to work the gold better than he." (Elena about Lina)
"Neither she nor I would ever have him. But both of us, for the entire time of the vacation, could gain his attention, she as the object of a passion with no future, I as the wise counselor who kept under control both his folly and hers. I consoled myself with that hypothesis of centrality." (Elena about Lila when Lila's affair with Nino is about to begin)
"The more Lina is surrounded by affection and admiration, the crueler she can become. She's always been like that." (Elena to Nino about Lila)
"Naples had been very useful in Pisa, but Pisa was no use in Naples, it was an obstacle. Good manners, cultured voice and appearance, the crush in my head and on my tongue of what I had learned in books were all immediate signs of weakness that made me a secure prey, one of those who don't struggle." (Elena about her return to Naples)
"I understood that ... I had made the whole journey mainly to show her what she had lost and what I had won. But... she was explaining to me that I had won nothing, that in the world there is nothing to win, that her life was full of varied and foolish adventures as much as mine, and that time simply slipped away without any meaning, and it was good just to see each other so often to hear the mad sound of the brain of one echo in the mad sound of the brain of the other." (Elena about her meeting with Lina in the end of the book)
Part 2 of Ferrante's quadrology (as for my review of Part 1)... pure rock'n roll it is. Spoilers ahead.
The story begins at Lila's wedding with Stefano Carraci, right where the first book ended. Already during their honeymoon, Lila and Stefano descend into a cycle of provokation and abuse. After a while, however, Lila learns how to manage her violent husband and seems to be settling (or resigning) into the new circumstances. She gets pregnant but loses the baby.
Elena and her neighborhood boyfriend Antonio Cappucio break up, apparently due to to his upcoming military service but mostly due to Elena's continuing affection for Nino Sarratore. At school, Elena is being intellectually promoted by her teacher, Professor Gailani, whose daughter is dating Nino. Elena and Lila have their first longer term fallout after a party at Professor Gailani's place, where Elena moves elegantly in new intellectual circles, while Lila feels awkwardly left out (and jealous of Elena).
They reconcile and decide to spend summer holidays together in Ischia. The stay proves to be a decisive turning point for the two womens' story. Elena's secret intention behind the holidays is to be close to Nino, who is also in Ischia. In what is one of the most gripping parts of the novel, we see the slow unfolding of an affair between Lila and Nino. Elena, visibly under shock, reacts by spending a night with Nino's father. Another prolonged break ensues between Elena and Lila.
Elena gets accepted into university at Pisa, while Nino and Lila continue their affair. After running away from Stefano for a couple of weeks, Nino breaks up with Lila and she returns, pregnant, to her husband. In the coming years, Lila is all focused on raising her son Gennaro. At the same time, Stefano begins an affair with the sales clerk in his family's grocery.
The story ends with Lila running off with her long-term admirer, Enzo Scanno, and her son Gennaro. In order to make ends meet, Lila takes up work in a meat factory. While Lila and Enzo are not romantically involved, they seem to form an increasingly deep bond, united in studying together late at night. In the end of the story, Elena gets her first novel published, starting a promising literary career.
"My brilliant friend" was already a great read, but, in retrospect, it was no comparison to the second part of the Naples novels. The story really picks up pace, especially after Lila and Nino begin their affair in Ischia. As said before, Ferrante provides one of the best depictions of friendship and the lives of young adult's in all their complexity. The innocence that was still somehow there in Part 1 is lost. To use a concept introduced by Lila, the margins of the characters are "dissolving" in a microcosm of adultery, rivalry and violence. All this takes place against the contemporary social habits and politics of 1960's Italy which Ferrante so brilliantly depicts ... overall, nothing less than amazing.
Random movie reference:
Difficult one. The whole dynamic between Elena, Lila and Nino kind of remotely reminded me of Noodles, Max and Deborah in Once Upon a Time in America.
Favorite quotes:
"I understood only later that I can be quietly unhappy, because I am incapable of violent reactions. I fear them, I prefer to be still, cultivating resentment. Not Lila." (Elena)
"I got low marks in chemistry, art history, and philosophy, and my nerves were so frayed that right after the last bad grade I burst into tears in front of everyone. It was a horrible moment: I felt the horror and pleasure of losing myself, the fear and the pride in going off the rails." (Elena)
"I started to borrow novels from the circulating library, and read one after the other. But in the long run they didn't help. They presented intense lives, profound conversations, a phantom reality more appealing than my real life." (Elena)
"Even if you are better than me, even if you know more things, don't leave me." (Lina to Elena)
"She had felt the need to humiliate me in order to better endure her own humiliation." (Elena about Lina after the party at Professor Gailani's which led to their fall-out)
"She was born like that, she could have learned the art of engraving merely by studying the gestures of a goldsmith, and then be able to work the gold better than he." (Elena about Lina)
"Neither she nor I would ever have him. But both of us, for the entire time of the vacation, could gain his attention, she as the object of a passion with no future, I as the wise counselor who kept under control both his folly and hers. I consoled myself with that hypothesis of centrality." (Elena about Lila when Lila's affair with Nino is about to begin)
"The more Lina is surrounded by affection and admiration, the crueler she can become. She's always been like that." (Elena to Nino about Lila)
"Naples had been very useful in Pisa, but Pisa was no use in Naples, it was an obstacle. Good manners, cultured voice and appearance, the crush in my head and on my tongue of what I had learned in books were all immediate signs of weakness that made me a secure prey, one of those who don't struggle." (Elena about her return to Naples)
"I understood that ... I had made the whole journey mainly to show her what she had lost and what I had won. But... she was explaining to me that I had won nothing, that in the world there is nothing to win, that her life was full of varied and foolish adventures as much as mine, and that time simply slipped away without any meaning, and it was good just to see each other so often to hear the mad sound of the brain of one echo in the mad sound of the brain of the other." (Elena about her meeting with Lina in the end of the book)
