My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

A number of people have told me they couldn’t get past the first chapter or so of this book. I don’t know whether it was the content or the language that made it so difficult for them, but for me this book is absolutely mesmerising. I decided to re-read the whole series and am finding it twice as enjoyable second time around, when I’m not so anxious about where the story is heading and can concentrate on the detail. It’s the story of the intellectually incandescent Lila, and her friend and narrator of the story, Lenu. It traces their friendship from the age of six to sixteen, through the slums of post WWII Naples. On this read, it’s the life of the city that I’m focusing on, the attitudes towards women, the posturing and brutality of the males that is accepted as normal, the disregard of education, the limitation of expectations. Having lived in Italy and spent some time in Naples, a lot of the subtext is very familiar. So I’m living with these characters as they moved backwards and forwards between the intimacy of best friends forever and the competition, coolness and sometimes even open hostility that occurs in all children’s friendships. Throughout Lenu the observer struggles to understand this brilliant but damaged friend who both inspires and frightens her.