Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - De geniale vriendin

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De geniale vriendin by Elena Ferrante

27 reviews

breadwitchery's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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knowmadic_369's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After learning that her lifelong friend, Lila, has vanished, 66-year-old Elena Greco sets out to document everything she knows and remembers about her. Through Elena's eyes, we see a complicated but intense friendship develop as she recounts their childhoods in their impoverished Neapolitan suburb. Her story chronicles the two girls' interactions with each other and their community, and it soon becomes clear that the friendship, however strong and loving, bristles with rivalry and envy. While the girls' entries into adolescence take them down different paths, they face the challenge of finding balance between dependence and independence, rivalry and encouragement, but also the challenge of finding a place for one another in their changing lives.

I don't doubt for a moment that My Brilliant Friend will be my best read of 2021. Ferrante's emotive writing stirred a slight obsession in me and led me to do something I've never done before: immediately reread a book. The story embedded firmly in my mind and I had the need to learn and understand their stories more deeply. I'm insanely happy to know that there are three more books to read in this series and that I won't say goodbye to these characters for some time.

I would like to kick off my review by stating that My Brilliant Friend is especially strong in the area of characterization. Some readers might find Ferrante's cast too dense and can easily get confused between the numerous secondary characters - I know I did. The story includes about eight families and each family member is named and described to some extent. Their own stories are interwoven with both Elena and Lila's own, and you soon realize that these characters possess their own important place within the bigger picture. To help readers navigate between all the different names and families, Ferrante included a useful character list at the beginning of the book. You can easily page back and and forth to remind you who is who and how are they linked.

Except for the potentially overwhelming cast, the characterization is beautifully executed. The descriptions of characters are comprehensive and include both physical and psychological details. You truly get to create a mental picture of their appearance and their personalities with Ferrante's detailed portrayals. The characters are also all vivid and dynamic and most of them undergo some level of character development. What is lovely is that you are intimately part of every step of those developments, especially Elena's. I personally found her narration relatable and realistic. She recounts her childhood with such clarity and in such detail, but at the same time reflects on it with keen understanding of herself and her childhood circumstances. While she recounts her transition from child to teenager, it's gripping to read her tumultuous thoughts and feelings towards herself and her surroundings while simultaneously reading her acute insight as the 60-year-old narrator.

The amazing characterization is best experienced in the beautifully complex relationship between Elena and Lila. The dynamics of their relationship are intricate and at times slightly harmful. Even though you can clearly see the love and admiration they have for each other, particularly Elena's passions, there is a dominant strife between them. In some ways, these girls are polar opposites and Elena frequently, at times somewhat obsessively, comments on their differences. Elena is the sturdy, reliable, good character; Lila is the unpredictable, turbulent, bad character. They are both intelligent, but wheras Elena's intelligence stems from hard work, Lila's brilliance seemingly comes natural and thus Elena feels the need to compete and keep up. You can say that the rivalry between them originated in this academic sphere, but then evolved to more social domains later on in the book when the older girls started attracting the attention of boys. From start to finish, you clearly see how both girls, not just Elena, envy one another and how their self-worth is dependent on how they measure up against each other. It's a turbulent relationship and Ferrante depicts it artfully.

The pacing of the book confused me, though, since it's slow and fast at the same time. For the first half of the book, I struggled to move through the story and I felt that nothing was really happening in terms of plot development. In hindsight, I realize this was due to a lack of focus on my part and a busy schedule; during my second read I could easily pick up on subtle plot points that moved the story on. That being said, this is not a plot driven story and you don't really feel like there's much action. In that sense, the story reads slow. You're constantly waiting for something to happen, but nothing big actually happens, although the first novel ends on a slight cliff-hanger and leaves you feeling quite panicked. It's like the book is building towards something but we never find out what. I suspect the true climax (that's to say if there is one) will be in the second or third book of the series. So this lack of prominent action might be off-putting to some readers who prefer a more animated storyline. I however appreciate the stronger focus on character development and wasn't bothered by a slower pace.

But as I mentioned, on the other hand, My Brilliant Friend also has a fast pace, particularly in terms of time. When Elena begins her story, she starts at the age of what I guess is 6 years, when she started school. The first book ends when she's 16. So in 300 pages, Elena takes us through 10 years, without it actually feeling like 10 years. At times you still have the image of a little 8 or 9-year-old girl in your mind, but then you're actually reading about a 14 or 15-year-old. I think Elena's secondary school experience was described in only a few chapters and then you're transported into her high school life where more pressing matters take place.

The setting is one of the aspects of the book that I feel most conflicted about. I love the placement of the novel. I mean, I love all things Italy, so I immediately fell in love with the setting. I also believe that Ferrante is as successful in her descriptions of the setting, as she is in her descriptions of characters. As a reader, you truly taste the bitter flavor of impoverished Naples in the 1950s. The sounds and appearances of their neighborhood gives off a sense of being choked by dust, misery and oppression. Your understanding of the setting is even more vivid when the characters start venturing farther out of the neighborhood, especially when Elena visits the island Ischia.

But I guess it is the true and vivid depiction of the setting that also bothered me most. The characters' behaviors truly reflect their time. There's a lot of violence, enough to turn some readers away from the book. The violence isn't graphic, but it's frequent and written as very commonplace occurrences - which I trust they probably were in those times. Already in the first few chapters do you read about beatings, rock throwing, threats, shouting and cursing, and to make matters worse, these conflicts mostly happen among the neighborhood's children and within families. Your heart bleeds for the characters at times, because reading it from a present time perspective, you understand that this violence is unnecessary and harmful, and shouldn't be accepted so generally by the characters.

One aspect of the novel that left a bitter taste in my mouth was how young the girls are in relation to the book's events. In our current time, we would shudder at the thought of a 16-year-old marrying a 20-something. But in the story, it was encouraged, almost forced, and it feels wrong to place such a big life-changing event on what is undeniably still a young girl. I didn't pick up on this slight discomfort in my first time reading My Brilliant Friend, but it was much more prominent in the second reading.

No doubt this book won't be for everyone, but what I definitely am sure about is that My Brilliant Friend is a good book, a skillful and artful composition with numerous great qualities.

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cerilouisereads's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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soli's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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boy_topics's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Coming from an Italian family, this book hit close to home. The way the stories are told remind me of those my father and his siblings have recounted over the years. Ferrante is a beautiful writer, even in translation her storytelling is cutting. This book spoke to me and my heart. It is the first in a long time that I haven't been able to put down. I cannot wait to continue on with this series.

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abbystevenson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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betttyy8's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“It was an old fear, a fear that has never left me: the fear that, in losing pieces of her life, mine lost intensity and importance.”

Elena Ferrante, in the first of her four Neapolitan novels, introduces us to the relationship of her two protagonists, Lenù (Elena) and Lila. The story of these two young girls is told by Elena in her 60s, looking back over their friendship after her lifelong friend’s son calls to tell her that Lila has disappeared. From her recollections, she relates, in this first instalment, the story of how these two girls meet and the push and pull of their friendship through their childhood and adolescence. The tale reflects not just on the girls, but on postwar Italy, and the restrictive impact of poverty and traditional gender roles on the directions of their lives.

I borrowed this book from my partner’s mother, who is Italian and who loves this series. I was a little nervous – that anxiety of potentially not liking something that someone you care about really likes. Luckily, Ferrante’s work is so piercingly honest and beautifully written, I needn’t have worried. It did not take long for me to be completely sucked into the world of these two young girls in 1950s Naples. I was captivated and by the end I felt a deep connection to the story and to these women. It was one of those books that, once I'd finished it, I couldn’t pick up another book for a few days. I needed to sit with this one for just a moment longer.

What I loved most about this book was the examination of female friendships. I don’t feel there are enough genuine and unflinching depictions of these fundamental relationships that often shape a part of who we are as women. Ferrante beautifully moves through the initial almost infatuation of a new friend and the way that can turn to competition and agitation as you compare yourself to them. Telling the story through Lenù’s honest narration, reflecting on her own emotions now as an adult, allows us to see and to understand the ebb and flow as Lenù in turn admires and admonishes Lila without ever actually losing any love for her. I adored the way that Lenù articulates those complicated emotions of getting frustrated with a friend and wanting to distance from them but ultimately being unable because the connection and everything you’ve been through together is too much to just walk away.

As well as these emotions as children, Ferrante follows them through the move to adolescence and how all of these feelings and complications are compounded by their changing bodies, boys, and the reality of their circumstances. Particularly, the ease with which Ferrante ties their friendship to the society around them is masterful. Part of the struggle between Lenù and Lila is that while both of them are brilliant (as the title clues us to) only one of them really has the ability and the means to go on to further schooling and the way that this alters and impacts their relationship to each other. Although we do not get the perspective of Lila herself, Lenù’s insight as the narrator and as the closest and dearest friend – even at the worst points in their friendship – paints a picture of the way that Lila forges herself in light of her circumstances, how she has to give up her intellectual pursuits in order to secure her and her family’s future, and how this dims the light of a rebellious and free thinking young girl.

Weaved through this book as well is a reflection on Italian society post World War II. A large part of this is the gender politics. There are some harsh and confronting moments of male violence (both physical and sexual) against women and this is not just accepted, but expected. Women are ‘used’ to being beaten by fathers and by husbands. The pervasiveness of this is such that Ferrante rarely discusses it with any particular weight. It is clear from particular moments of violence that she is intent on conveying the seriousness of this problem, but the way that she refers to the everyday violences and violations conveys the sheer normalcy of these experiences for women in this environment. The violence between the men, which also features quite heavily, is linked to the wider historical context, with the sons of men of different political positions – communists and fascists – often duking it out. These are grudges that are inherited but the outward aggression of the sons speaks to the postwar generation’s rebellion against their parents and the violence they wreaked on the country and the world.

The only thing I found at all frustrating was keeping track of quite a large cast of characters but that is helped immensely but the cast of characters in the front of the book, that clearly delineates who each person is and what their connections are. Other than that, I cannot praise and recommend this book more. The only reservation is that the descriptions of physical and sexual violence have very real potential to be triggering so if you are sensitive to that (I am and had to take time away from the book after one particular instance), then I would recommend proceeding with caution.

Overall, a beautifully written, honest, and resonant portrayal of the complications of growing up as a woman and the importance and tension of young female friendships.

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