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A review by teresatumminello
Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante
4.0
Based on the two Ferrante novels I've read so far (the other being [b:The Days of Abandonment|77810|The Days of Abandonment|Elena Ferrante|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412532798s/77810.jpg|75142]), I predict the title of this one will describe my relationship with all her works. Though I wasn't as drawn in at first by the narratorial voice here as I was with that of "Days", I ended up feeling much the same about both. They are not novels I can say I've enjoyed as they are so unsettling, but each has gotten under my skin and stayed there. Here too are abandonment issues: an anxious child unreasonably (perhaps) fearing that the better parent will leave her; the bad parent feeling abandoned by those he'd terrorized, including the anxious adult the narrator Delia has become.
An abusive, controlling husband and a obsessive lover (or is he?) are not the only ones Ferrante seems to indict. The "casual" misogyny is horrifying too: men who stare at, or even rub up against, girls and women on public transportation; men who follow teenagers on errands in their working-class neighborhoods, drawing close to the frightened girls to hiss obscenities, and laugh. Delia has heard these obscenities since she was a very young child and can no longer tolerate her local dialect, preferring to speak formal Italian instead, which in turn makes those in her hometown uncomfortable.
Though I feel anxiety doing so (I think this is what is termed an addiction), I've just requested [b:The Lost Daughter|1058564|The Lost Daughter|Elena Ferrante|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412529680s/1058564.jpg|1045137] from the library ...
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Miscellaneous:
I'd thought I was reading Ferrante's novels in publication order, but I discovered that this (1991) actually came before "Days" (2002).
I've noticed the same quirks in both books: instead of semi-colons, commas mostly are used to join complete thoughts; and the word "definitively" is used rather often.
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Updated (Feb 11):
I'd wondered if the first 'quirk' I noted above was due to the translator's trying to get a sense of the Italian into the translation. This is from the translator herself:
An abusive, controlling husband and a obsessive lover (or is he?) are not the only ones Ferrante seems to indict. The "casual" misogyny is horrifying too: men who stare at, or even rub up against, girls and women on public transportation; men who follow teenagers on errands in their working-class neighborhoods, drawing close to the frightened girls to hiss obscenities, and laugh. Delia has heard these obscenities since she was a very young child and can no longer tolerate her local dialect, preferring to speak formal Italian instead, which in turn makes those in her hometown uncomfortable.
Though I feel anxiety doing so (I think this is what is termed an addiction), I've just requested [b:The Lost Daughter|1058564|The Lost Daughter|Elena Ferrante|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412529680s/1058564.jpg|1045137] from the library ...
*
Miscellaneous:
I'd thought I was reading Ferrante's novels in publication order, but I discovered that this (1991) actually came before "Days" (2002).
I've noticed the same quirks in both books: instead of semi-colons, commas mostly are used to join complete thoughts; and the word "definitively" is used rather often.
*
Updated (Feb 11):
I'd wondered if the first 'quirk' I noted above was due to the translator's trying to get a sense of the Italian into the translation. This is from the translator herself:
'... what we would think of as a run-on. But of course Italian can do that, I mean, for one thing there are genders, so you can have an adjective not near its noun, because you know from the ending that it goes with that noun, but in English you can’t do that. Things have to be closer together or connected by clauses, like, “who is,” “that is,” “that was,” whatever. But they’re very full sentences ...'http://www.europaeditions.com/news.php?IdCategory=7