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A review by printempsdesens
Storia del nuovo cognome by Elena Ferrante
emotional
inspiring
tense
- 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
5.0
Wow I finished to read this second chapter days ago and I had to take a break to digest everything. I don’t even know where to begin with, this book has brought to the surface so many emotions that I feel overwhelmed into writing this and - little Lenu moment - this review will not give justice to this masterpiece.
In this book we dive back into Lila and Lenu’s world right where we left them: Lila is now married to Stefano Carracci dealing with her wife “duties” to which the title is refereed to.
There is an atmosphere of big changes, in particular into the long parenthesis in which the two girls find themselves to spend the summertime together along with Pinuccia, Bruno and Nino Sarratore. The most important element that characterizes the book is the grotesque description of bodies and things breaking their superficial apparent boundaries to reveal its truest and rotten core. One of my favourite part is when Lenu reflects on motherhood and the way woman’s bodies transforms in order to attend the “good wife duties”
In this book we dive back into Lila and Lenu’s world right where we left them: Lila is now married to Stefano Carracci dealing with her wife “duties” to which the title is refereed to.
There is an atmosphere of big changes, in particular into the long parenthesis in which the two girls find themselves to spend the summertime together along with Pinuccia, Bruno and Nino Sarratore. The most important element that characterizes the book is the grotesque description of bodies and things breaking their superficial apparent boundaries to reveal its truest and rotten core. One of my favourite part is when Lenu reflects on motherhood and the way woman’s bodies transforms in order to attend the “good wife duties”
“She didn't want to become like our mothers, neighbors and relatives, who looked like they had lost their female features. They had been eaten away by the bodies of husbands, fathers, brothers whom they ended up resembling. Did this transformation begin with regnancy? With housework, with being beaten? […] Would Lila's delicate face burst open to reveal her father's? And would my parents emerge from my body?”
Meanwhile Elena goes further with her education receiving a scholarship for a master degree in Pisa. Life far from home will not be easy, in order to fit in she finds herself changing the way she talks, acts and thinks. Thanks to that she acknowledges class consciousness and tries to find a balance between the neighborhood her roots and the academic context.
I can’t put in words what this book means to me, the female experience is written in a such unique and true manner that you can start to relate to the feelings even if you haven’t lived Lila or Lenu’s lives. I can’t wait to read the third chapter which I have a feeling will be my fav one.