Name: My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels, Book One
ISBN: 9781523452309

Bibliomaniac

Aubrey Holbrook

You Need To Read This Book because this will help you dive deeper into the world of Elena Ferrante. My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels - Book One is a brilliant novel that introduces us to an extraordinary friendship between two equally dazzling girls. Told almost entirely as a reflection, the novel has little dialogue and can be quite confusing! Let the Sidekick to My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels, Book One help you get a firm understanding of the many characters and themes in this magnificent novel. In this sidekick you'll find: Chapter Summaries Characterization of main characters Symbols Themes Discussion Questions Disclaimer: This book serves as an accompaniment to the bestseller "My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels - Book One" by Elena Ferrante. It is meant to broaden the reader's understanding of the book and to offer some insights which can easily be overlooked. You should order a copy of the actual book before reading this.

Sidekick

My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels, Book One

I would have done anything for her, on that morning of reconciliation: run away from home, leave the neighborhood, sleep in farmhouses, feed on roots, descend into the sewers through the grates, never turn back, not even if it was cold, not even if it rained.

aywen

How sweet everything is, I thought, when the day is fine and every good thing seems to be waiting for you alone. 

Camille

I realized that with those last words she had admitted that I was important to her, and I was happy.

Lila was able to speak through writing; unlike me when I wrote

I read and I saw her, I heard her. The voice set in the writing overwhelmed me, enthralled me even more than when we talked face to face: it was completely cleansed of the dross of speech, of the confusion of the oral;

“Not for you: you're my brilliant friend, you have to be the best of all, boys and girls." 

It's been at least three decades since she told me that she wanted to disappear without leaving a trace, and I'm the only one who knows what she means. She never had in mind any sort of flight, a change of identity, the dream of making a new life somewhere else. And she never thought of suicide, repulsed by the idea that Rino would have anything to do with her body, and be forced to attend to the details. She meant something different: she wanted to vanish; she wanted every one of her cells to disappear, nothing of her ever to be found.

A mysterious inversion of attitudes had occurred: I, despite the rain, would have continued on the road, I felt far from everything and everyone, and distance—I discovered for the first time—extinguished in me every tie and every worry

Thus she returned to the theme of "before," but in a different way than she had at first. She said that we didn't know anything, either as children or now, that we were therefore not in a position to understand anything, that everything in the neighborhood, every stone or piece of wood, everything, anything you could name, was already there before us, but we had grown up without realizing it, without ever even thinking about it.

We told each other everything, even the little things, and were happy. 

Stefano, according to Lila, wanted to clear away everything. 

. He didn't want to pretend it was nothing, as our parents did, but rather to set in notion a phrase like: I know, my father was what he was, but now I'm here, we are us, and so, enough. In other words, he wanted to make the whole neighborhood understand that he was not Don Achille and that the Pelusos were not the former carpenter who had killed him. That hypothesis pleased us, it immediately became a certainty, and we had an impulse of great fondness for the young Carracci. We decided to take his part.

We went to explain to Rino, to Pasquale, to Antonio that Stefano's invitation was more than an invitation, that behind it were important meanings, that it was as if he were saying: before us some ugly things happened; our fathers, some in one way, some in another, didn't behave well; from this moment, we take note of that and show that we children are better than they were.

The fact remains that I, who had successfully completed a theological correspondence course, raised my hand and said that the human condition was so obviously exposed to the blind fury of chance that to trust in a God, a Jesus, the Holy Spirit—this last a completely superfluous entity, it was there only to make up a trinity, notoriously nobler than the mere binomial father-son—was the same thing as collecting trading cards while the city burns in the fires of hell.

Beatrix

I couldn’t believe that he was an ordinary person - a little short, a little bald, a little out of proportion, but ordinary - so I waited for him to be transformed.

‘yes,’ I thought, maybe she’s changing, and not only physically but in the way she expresses herself. It seemed to me, articulated in words of today, that not only did she know how to put things well, but that she was developing a gift, that I was already familiar with, more effectively than she had a la a child she took the facts and in a natural way charged them with tension. She intensified reality, she reduced it to words, she enchanted it with energy. But I also realised with please that as soon as she began to do this I felt able to do the same, and I tried and it came easily.

I felt grieved at the waste, because I was compelled to go away, because she preferred the adventure of shoes to our conversation, because she knew how to be autonomous 

I did not feel homesick…I missed only Lila

good and evil are mixed together and reinforce each other in turn 

I realised how the idea of the riches girls dreamed of was changing further, the treasure chests full of gold pieces that a procession of servants in livery would deposit in our castle when we published a book like Little Women, riches and fame, had truly faded. Perhaps the idea of money, as a cement to solidify our existence and prevent it from dissolving, together with the people who were dear to us, endured.

She spoke with a different sort of determination, calmer, as if it were no longer necessary to fit to the death for every little thing.

Elena Ferrante

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila. Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and The Lost Daughter. With this novel, the first in a trilogy, she proves herself to be one of Italy's great storytellers. She has given her readers a masterfully plotted page-turner, abundant and generous in its narrative details and characterizations, that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight her many fans and win new readers to her fiction.

My Brilliant Friend

l🌀

L'amica geniale : Bd. 3: Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta

L'amica geniale

Dani

Bello en su sutileza y lenguaje simple pero de una profundidad enorme

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

L'amica geniale #1

Jennifer

I didn't know there was a white trash version of people in Italy until I read this book. I didn't know anything about poverty in Naples, Italy in the 1950s-60s. I had no idea what a poor girl struggled with in this country and now vastly different it was from being poor in the US. The abuse and violence was shocking to me. I just had no idea, or, I couldn't picture such class warfare in other countries. But, now, I feel like I see how the mafia exists. Also, why is everyone so bitterly angry over seemingly petty events all the time?? On a separate note, I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been obsessed with a friend and wanted nothing more than to be accepted and loved by this friend, especially in childhood and/or adolescence. But also felt a strange sense of competition with. I think we all have someone like that. Because this book was originally written in Italian, the English translation says things like the character spoke "in dialect" or the character spoke "in formal Italian". Because of this, I feel like anyone who is reading in English is missing out on some crucial nuances. It definitely takes away from whatever is being said. The locations in which certain scenes take place matter, too, and because there's no map in the book for reference, I feel like I'm missing out on more meaning there as well. I could Google it, but I don't care that much.

This book has left me with a feeling of impending doom and i fear that my emotions are in haywire for me to even articulate a reaction. 

march🐇

This book has left me with a feeling of impending doom and i fear that my emotions are in haywire for me to even articulate a reaction. 

Frustratingly good

I swear to God Lenu has gotta ditch Nino, he's the 1950s equivalent of a Letterboxd boy 

Regan Martin

I was expecting to love this book (complicated relationship between childhood besties - relatable), but I really didn’t! Found it very slow with minimal plot, and a disappointing ending. The Nápoles vibe was cool though. I’ll have to do some investigating though as it’s such a beloved book, maybe there’s something i just didn’t get 

Allegrachatterjee

Ann Goldstein

My friendship with Lila began the day we decided to go up the dark stairs that led, step after step, flight after flight, to the door of Don Achille's apartment... I waited to see if Lila would have second thoughts and turn back. I knew what she wanted to do; I had hoped that she would forget about it, but in vain. My Brilliant Friend is a ravishing, wonderfully written novel about a friendship that lasts a lifetime. The story of Elena and Lila begins in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. The two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else, sometimes to their own detriment, as each discovers more about who she is and suffers or delights in the throes of their intense friendship. There is a piercing honesty about Ferrante's prose that makes My Brilliant Friend a compulsively readable portrait of two young women, and also the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country.

The Neapolitan Novels, Book One

rereading this as a woman in my twenties feels like reencountering the original enchantment with the novel, with reading, with books——with language. Ferrante is and always will be sweeping and original; there is a way she writes desire/fear/hunger/hunger/hunger that I haven't been met with anywhere else just yet. leaving this novel feeling like a much younger version of me, trembling with excitement, crafting an argument in my head to justify to my mother why I have to get my hands on the next three books right now

biddy

ferrante's describing rino at the fireworks party... chills +.5 stars for that scene alone. feminine relationship with rivalry and jealousy very well done.

Tom Koss

I waited months to be able to borrow this book. Read glowing reviews about how Ferrante is one of the greatest Italian novelists of our time. And nonetheless, spent 75% of this book thinking to myself “what the helly?” I agree with other reviews that there must be something off with the translation from Italian to English. 

Redeeming factors, that in a strange turn of events left me curious about the next book in the series: The setting. I’m fascinated by Naples and its tortured past. Lenu and Lina’s complicated, enduring female friendship. What happens next for them? 

I don’t think I can put myself through another one of these books, so going to checkout the HBO series instead. 

Kaitlyn Wendler

I waited months to be able to borrow this book. Read glowing reviews about how Ferrante is one of the greatest Italian novelists of our time. And nonetheless, spent 75% of this book thinking to myself “what the helly?” I agree with other reviews that there must be something off with the translation from Italian to English. 

Redeeming factors, that in a strange turn of events left me curious about the next book in the series: The setting. I’m fascinated by Naples and its tortured past. Lenu and Lina’s complicated, enduring female friendship. What happens next for them? 

I don’t think I can put myself through another one of these books, so going to checkout the HBO series instead. 

this was really good. i wasn't sure why it was number 1 book of the century but after the ending i can see why. it touches on themes of love, poverty, and womanhood. 

jules

The start of my favorite series of all time

Janice Adamo

i gobbled this book in like 1.5 days holy fuck. ferrante is SUCH a brilliant storyteller, what with her imagery and dialogue and pacing (the build-up to that final paragraph!). what i was really blown away by was her ability to capture human nature and relationships—especially the titular one—in full breadth, a quality i so love in austen and tolstoy. she illustrates adolescence and childhood insecurities and jealousies and neighborhood conflicts and the desperation of wanting to matter to a dear friend so, so well

alice

This was really so beautiful and so sad. My brilliant friend does such a good job of encapsulating the mind of a young girl. It made me reflect on my younger years and my friendships with other girls at that quite significantly, the love and affection border lining obsession, the envy, the need to replicate and perfect. I felt that once again I was in 2nd grade and couldn’t decide if I loved or hated her, wanted to spend every moment of my life with her or couldn’t stand the thought of being in her shadow anymore. The constant state of being in over your head and never feeling enough.

khwaiish 

This was really so beautiful and so sad. My brilliant friend does such a good job of encapsulating the mind of a young girl. It made me reflect on my younger years and my friendships with other girls at that quite significantly, the love and affection border lining obsession, the envy, the need to replicate and perfect. I felt that once again I was in 2nd grade and couldn’t decide if I loved or hated her, wanted to spend every moment of my life with her or couldn’t stand the thought of being in her shadow anymore. The constant state of being in over your head and never feeling enough.

Splendid

Really captures the essence of girlhood, and how the minor differences result in major changes, and how your background often not only shaped but also forces your future. loved YAY

Stas

Beautiful, immersive writing. A raw, unfiltered look at female friendship thru childhood and adolescence. This book is visceral, there is something so heartbreaking about brilliant young women falling through the cracks, having their dreams crushed by poverty and familial expectations. 

This book was a slow read and some passages were quite dense but it was so worth the time spent. 

Alli

Beautiful, immersive writing. A raw, unfiltered look at female friendship thru childhood and adolescence. This book is visceral, there is something so heartbreaking about brilliant young women falling through the cracks, having their dreams crushed by poverty and familial expectations. 

This book was a slow read and some passages were quite dense but it was so worth the time spent. 

Elena Ferrante proves herself to be both a talented novelist and disarming social anthropologist with this unflinching portrayal of girlhood.

daphne

thunderous simplicity. this book cut me beyond bone, "dissolved margins", shaved me down to nearly nothing, sometimes cornered me off the page. throughout the day every few hours or so i would find myself bent over bursting into small tears. instead of sliding breezily into my head quotes, themes, atmospheres and passages from this book intruded me. prob biased but yeah this shit fucks. easy read all in all tho

saleha

Care lettrici, cari lettori, provate a leggere questo libro e vorrete che non finisca mai.
Elena Ferrante, con il suo nuovo romanzo, torna a sorprenderci, a spiazzarci, regalandoci una narrazione-fiume cui ci si affida come quando si fa un viaggio con un tale piacevole agio, con un tale intenso coinvolgimento, che la meta più è lontana e meglio è. L’autrice abbandona la piccola, densa storia privata e si dedica a un vasto progetto di scrittura che racconta un’amicizia femminile, quella tra Lila Cerullo ed Elena Greco, dall’infanzia a Napoli negli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso fino a oggi. (back cover)

Infanzia, adolescenza

È bellissimo come sia reso chiaro che la riflessione su certi aspetti della vita, dei libri, della musica sia il risultato di una ricerca costante di dialogo con le altre persone. Un bel libro su come sia importante la condivisione delle proprie esperienze con le altre persone, sicuramente per la compagnia ma, soprattutto, per il costante desiderio di confronto e competizione. Grazie alle altre persone ci allarghiamo come un elastico, arrivando a stenderci sempre di piú. A volte scappa la presa e torniamo indietro di corsa, a nasconderci nei posti che conosciamo meglio. Altre, quando ci stendiamo piú lentamente, ci abituiamo al cambiamento, al confronto, diventa piú facile migliorare.

Ho apprezzato moltissimo il modo in cui questo libro è scritto, i capitoli corti ma pieni di significato. Qualsiasi evento è importantissimo per spiegare il rapporto tra Lila e Lenú, la vita nel rione, il modo in cui i genitori continuano a vivere in noi nonostante siamo persone totalmente diverse.

mirta <3

È bellissimo come sia reso chiaro che la riflessione su certi aspetti della vita, dei libri, della musica sia il risultato di una ricerca costante di dialogo con le altre persone. Un bel libro su come sia importante la condivisione delle proprie esperienze con le altre persone, sicuramente per la compagnia ma, soprattutto, per il costante desiderio di confronto e competizione. Grazie alle altre persone ci allarghiamo come un elastico, arrivando a stenderci sempre di piú. A volte scappa la presa e torniamo indietro di corsa, a nasconderci nei posti che conosciamo meglio. Altre, quando ci stendiamo piú lentamente, ci abituiamo al cambiamento, al confronto, diventa piú facile migliorare.

Ho apprezzato moltissimo il modo in cui questo libro è scritto, i capitoli corti ma pieni di significato. Qualsiasi evento è importantissimo per spiegare il rapporto tra Lila e Lenú, la vita nel rione, il modo in cui i genitori continuano a vivere in noi nonostante siamo persone totalmente diverse.

vivid and precise but her writing style really dragged for me… it kind of works bc life does feel like forever from 0-16 or whatever but i didn’t get the same immersion w days of abandonment. really love the relationship between elena and lila ofc, i feel like modern conceptions of friendships are usually really pacified but jealousy / envy / resentment are more common than people like to admit

chiara

so so personal and intimate. elena ferrante took the universal female experience of unrelenting platonic, romantic, sexual, familial love bridled with envy and pride and trapped it within the pages of this book. i think you better than me in every way and i will make sure you never know it. without you i feel the absence of a limb. i need you like a man dying of thirst. i need you to need me like i do you. i’m glad you made it out. couldn’t you have taken me with you? 

si erra

The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else, as their friendship, beautifully and meticulously rendered, becomes a not-always-perfect shelter from hardship. A memorable portrait of two women, My Brilliant Friend is also the story of a nation. Through the lives of Elena and Lila, Ferrante gives her readers the story of a city and a country undergoing momentous change.

I was reminded of my childhood friend, and the times we would run to each other’s houses at any free moment. The moments of unconscious comparing and jealousy, the loss of childhood innocence and gaining of insecurities and anxieties. We grew up together, knowing each other’s ins and outs and united by our interests. 

My Brilliant Friend holds the nostalgia of having a best friend. 

gracie

I was reminded of my childhood friend, and the times we would run to each other’s houses at any free moment. The moments of unconscious comparing and jealousy, the loss of childhood innocence and gaining of insecurities and anxieties. We grew up together, knowing each other’s ins and outs and united by our interests. 

My Brilliant Friend holds the nostalgia of having a best friend. 

an engrossing epic of female friendships. really great in utilizing the socioeconomic backgrounds of the characters. though it’s a really slow burn until things pick up, or maybe because i’m not too interested in bildungsroman as a genre. 

personal copy, bought from greenlight bookstore

Patricia K

an engrossing epic of female friendships. really great in utilizing the socioeconomic backgrounds of the characters. though it’s a really slow burn until things pick up, or maybe because i’m not too interested in bildungsroman as a genre. 

personal copy, bought from greenlight bookstore

This book is incredibly well-written and intelligent. I was not immediately engaged, and I actually think a second read would be great as learning all the characters on first go took a while. I started to become invested around page 150 and beyond, when the political landscape became more explicit and I had a better grasp on all the characters and their relations to one another. 

My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels, Book One Sidekick

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