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alexandra_o's review against another edition
4.0
Toto bolo veľmi príjemné čítanie, odporúčam si knihu kúskovať vzhľadom na mnoho podnetov na zaujímavé myšlienky, aby každý text dostatočne doznel. Zaujímavý náhľad a preniknutie do mysle autorky.
thereallt's review against another edition
4.0
Worth a read. Interesting to get a different POV than through Ferrante’s novels.
carlinwho's review against another edition
3.0
“A young woman I’m very fond of said to me: it’s always a problem with men, I’ve had to learn not to overdo. She meant that she had trained herself not to be too beautiful, too intelligent, too considerate, too independent, too generous, too aggressive, too nice. The “too” of a woman produces violent male reactions and, in addition, the enmity of other women, who every day are obliged to fight among themselves for the crumbs left by men. The “too” of men produces general admiration and positions of power.”
barel93's review against another edition
I can't imagine Ferrante ever writing something that would disappoint me and there is plenty here that reminded me of how good she is at exploring mundane feelings and experiences (like jealousy, or growing old) and in the process unearthing something about them that leaves you unsettled. The feeling, in a sense, that she has seen something in you that you were trying very hard to keep hidden, perhaps even from yourself, and she just slaps you with it and you remember that perhaps you are not such a good person after all, and you are far from special.
That being said, I must admit that the mini-essay format is not my favourite. There is something about the paragraph-length meditation, and perhaps the rushed deadlines for weekly publication, that don't give Ferrante the space and time she needs to shine. Some of these essays bordered on trite.
That being said, I must admit that the mini-essay format is not my favourite. There is something about the paragraph-length meditation, and perhaps the rushed deadlines for weekly publication, that don't give Ferrante the space and time she needs to shine. Some of these essays bordered on trite.
cubanita's review against another edition
4.0
This is not my favorite Ferrante book, but since I find her voice so compelling, I raced through the book anyway, recognizing, like an old friend, some of the essays that I had already read when they first appeared in the Guardian. The essays that had stayed with me still felt as strong, like the one about mothers that says, "For a long time, I felt that to stop loving her was the only way I had to love myself" and the one about linguistic nationalism which contains the treasured line I have been quoting for over three years now: "Translation is our salvation: it draws us out of the well in which, entirely by chance, we are born." Some of the other essays felt less memorable and I think the overall effect of gathering them all together in one volume only highlights this. Nevertheless, even less-than-memorable writing by Ferrante is still good writing and the brevity of this book makes it perfect for keeping on hand to read while waiting in line at your child's school pick-up, for example, or late at night when you are too tired to read more than a page or two. (Or maybe your attention span has been wrecked by pandemic disaster scrolling? This book would be good for those in that predicament as well.) The accompanying illustrations by Andrea Ucini, which appeared alongside her Guardian columns, are delightful. And, of course, the translation is impeccable, doing an excellent job of explaining some of the particularities of the Italian language to which Ferrante refers.
cameliarose's review against another edition
5.0
All my female friends are in awe of The Neapolitan Quartet and Elena Ferrante. I confess I haven’t read the books, although I have watched and loved the TV series. It is not because of the lack of interest, but my embarrassing avoidance of long multi volume books. So, when I heard that there was an essay collection by the same author, I immediately looked for it, and I was not disappointed.
52 brief essays in one slim volume. So very relatable. Some of my favourites:
Odious Women
Pregnant
Linguistic Nationality
Daughters
The Male Story of Sex
Women Who Write
Women Friends and Acquaintances
I could spend two hours quoting half of the book.
“Being Italian, for me, begins and ends with the fact that I speak and write in the Italian language.”
"I love my country, but I have no patriotic spirit and no national pride."
"I am Italian ... in the only way that I'm willing to attribute to myself a nationality. I don't like the other ways; they frighten me, especially when they become nationalism, chauvinism, imperialism and reprehensibly use language to WALL THEMSELVES IN, either by cultivating a purity as pointless as it is impossible, or by imposing language through overwhelming economic power and weapons."
“I greatly fear the generations who don’t proudly leave their parents behind, but I am also frightened by those who, at 20, leave their parents behind to embrace the morales of the grandparents and great-grandparents. I don’t understand the young people who would replace the world today with a “golden age” when everyone knew their place–that is, in an order based on sexist and racist hierarchies. Sometimes, especially when they declare themselves fascists, they don’t even seem like young people, and I tend to treat them even more harshly than the old people who inspired them. Dreaming of returning to a past is denial of youth and it grieves me to discover that young women, too, dream those dreams.”
52 brief essays in one slim volume. So very relatable. Some of my favourites:
Odious Women
Pregnant
Linguistic Nationality
Daughters
The Male Story of Sex
Women Who Write
Women Friends and Acquaintances
I could spend two hours quoting half of the book.
“Being Italian, for me, begins and ends with the fact that I speak and write in the Italian language.”
"I love my country, but I have no patriotic spirit and no national pride."
"I am Italian ... in the only way that I'm willing to attribute to myself a nationality. I don't like the other ways; they frighten me, especially when they become nationalism, chauvinism, imperialism and reprehensibly use language to WALL THEMSELVES IN, either by cultivating a purity as pointless as it is impossible, or by imposing language through overwhelming economic power and weapons."
“I greatly fear the generations who don’t proudly leave their parents behind, but I am also frightened by those who, at 20, leave their parents behind to embrace the morales of the grandparents and great-grandparents. I don’t understand the young people who would replace the world today with a “golden age” when everyone knew their place–that is, in an order based on sexist and racist hierarchies. Sometimes, especially when they declare themselves fascists, they don’t even seem like young people, and I tend to treat them even more harshly than the old people who inspired them. Dreaming of returning to a past is denial of youth and it grieves me to discover that young women, too, dream those dreams.”
susanafernandes_2025's review against another edition
3.0
Autora escreve de forma complexa , demasiadamente floreada para mim sobre temas até interessantes mas que devido à densidade do seu vocabulário e estrutura frasica me deixaram aborrecida e até irritada pelo “snobismo” da escrita.