Helpful Score: 4
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND was the June 2015 pick in my online book club, The Reading Cove, and I'm still yawning.
It starts out interestingly enough, with Lila disappearing and leaving her freeloading son behind without a trace. The son calls his mother's best friend, Elena, who then proceeds to take the reader into one long, meandering, mundane, fickle, petty, plotless and rambling flashback of their childhood and adolescence in 1950s Naples, Italy.
The book ends when they're 16, which means you basically have to read the next book in the trilogy to get any conclusion for the way this book began. Oh, joy!
No thanks.
I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend this book at all because, while it was grammatically solid, the narrative style itself felt akin to the ramblings of grade school journal entries. D.
It starts out interestingly enough, with Lila disappearing and leaving her freeloading son behind without a trace. The son calls his mother's best friend, Elena, who then proceeds to take the reader into one long, meandering, mundane, fickle, petty, plotless and rambling flashback of their childhood and adolescence in 1950s Naples, Italy.
The book ends when they're 16, which means you basically have to read the next book in the trilogy to get any conclusion for the way this book began. Oh, joy!
No thanks.
I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend this book at all because, while it was grammatically solid, the narrative style itself felt akin to the ramblings of grade school journal entries. D.
Helpful Score: 1
My Brilliant Friend written by Elena Ferrante and translated by Ann Goldstein is the first in a quartet, documenting a friendship between Elena and Lila. Told from Elena's perspective, this book is a child's view of childhood and her community with an undercurrent of sadness running through it. Having read this book alone, the story is incomplete. I enjoy it, but it does not elicit an emotional connection to keep me reading through the remainder of the series.
Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2015/12/my-brilliant-friend.html
Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2015/12/my-brilliant-friend.html
I loved reading this book. The writing was beautiful (which requires a nod to the translator, Ann Goldstein, who made the English so natural I forgot it was a translation by the middle of the first paragraph), and the story was amazing. Ferrante is ridiculously talented. She laid out the strong and conflicting emotions of childhood effortlessly, and without nostalgia or indulgence. I loved that the story was told from Elena's point of view, so we can see how Lila's natural talent causes Elena to strive for and achieve more than she would have if she hadn't known Lila. **spoiler** At the end of the book it seems that Elena will go on to be more successful, but Lila will always have been the smarter and prettier of the two. Does she even still love Lila? Can you love someone who is so much more special that she seems a world apart from you? Or has she just been enthralled with Lila all along? I can't wait to read the other two books in this series.
I enjoyed this novel all the way through. I found it easy to read and incredibly engaging. The fact that it's translated from Italian and follows girls as they grow up in 1950's Italy made it extra interesting to me. The story was compelling and sucked me in at the beginning. I loved all the characters and became very invested in them and their stories. I especially loved how the young people are all intertwined despite their family histories. I did think the language was fairly simple and the author a bit repetitive but it didn't make me any less engrossed in the story. Once I got about 20% in, I finished the book in less than 24 hours and could hardly put it down to go to sleep or do other things! I was disappointed to discover that the current day portion from the very beginning of the book never came back into play and I didn't like the abrupt ending. But I understand that this author views the series as one full story so I will certainly go on to the next book as soon as I'm able! I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good novel that's not very complicated.
