A review by savvylit
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Days of Abandonment plunges readers into bitterness, pettiness, and rage. Realizing that her marriage was a lie, Olga completely loses her sense of self. Without her marriage and its routines, she completely forgets how to care for herself and her children. The rage and confusion crescendos into one terrible day when Olga finds herself trapped in her apartment. On that day, she realizes just how much she needs to rediscover who she is and how to be. This is a heavy and dark book that unabashedly examines female rage and the ways that wives & mothers are often expected to give all of themselves to their families.

"At every crisis of despair I had set aside my own crises to comfort him. I had disappeared into his minutes, into his hours, so that he could concentrate. I had taken care of the house, I had taken care of the meals, I had taken care of the children, I had taken care of all the boring details of everyday life, while he stubbornly climbed the ladder up from our unprivileged beginnings. And now, now he had left me, carrying off, abruptly, all that time, all that energy, all that effort I had given him, to enjoy its fruits with someone else, a stranger who had not lifted a finger to bear him and rear him and make him become what he had become.”
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