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A review by mcnamaste
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
5.0
You know that book, that you put down, take a deep breath and are like... "Woahhh..."
This was like that for me.
I read the first in the quartet and liked it, but this book resonated so much more with me as it follows Lenuccia and Lila into womanhood with all the complex emotions involved. Some of the themes Ferrante touches on are motherhood, marriage and self-discovery.
It's interesting to observe - as the girls mature - the dynamic of their friendship. Elena feels genuine envy and at times almost hatred for Lila, but is unable to detatch, just as she finds it hard to shake her origins, with the dialettal accent, and stigma that goes with that. There's a love-hate dynamic with jealousy and competition between the two young friends as they both follow very different paths. The intensity and complexity of female friendship are explored in this and the first novel, in a very relatable way.
I had planned to take a break from these books after this one but the moment I finished... I needed to start the next, just to see what would happen - by now I'm invested in the story of these two girls and the others in the neighbourhood.
This was like that for me.
I read the first in the quartet and liked it, but this book resonated so much more with me as it follows Lenuccia and Lila into womanhood with all the complex emotions involved. Some of the themes Ferrante touches on are motherhood, marriage and self-discovery.
It's interesting to observe - as the girls mature - the dynamic of their friendship. Elena feels genuine envy and at times almost hatred for Lila, but is unable to detatch, just as she finds it hard to shake her origins, with the dialettal accent, and stigma that goes with that. There's a love-hate dynamic with jealousy and competition between the two young friends as they both follow very different paths. The intensity and complexity of female friendship are explored in this and the first novel, in a very relatable way.
I had planned to take a break from these books after this one but the moment I finished... I needed to start the next, just to see what would happen - by now I'm invested in the story of these two girls and the others in the neighbourhood.