Elena Ferrante "My Brilliant Friend"

“My Brilliant Friend” is the first of Elena Ferrante’s novels of life in Naples. I hesitate to write about it because I expect all you avid readers will have already read the book, and probably the sequels. I have come very late to Elena Ferrante, in some vague way resenting the idea that I would be starting a series. But I am hooked, as I am sure you will be if you start with the first one. Yes, it is a bit confusing sometimes with a very large cast of characters. The three Cerulos, the Greco family, Don Achille, the Solaro family, with Silvio and Marcello…and on and on and on…

The book does begin with a detailed dramatis personae, just to help you out, with descriptions of who characters are and their families and jobs, but you cannot expect to read that through and retain it all. Apart from that criticism, however, the book is a great read, and I am waiting with bated breath for the DC library to send the second book—I am now third in line. That is the disadvantage of downloading books to the I-pad from the DC Library—the waiting lists are very long. I must try to put a hold on the actual book.

Just a few other things have occurred to me about the five books I have been reading. The viewpoint of ‘Mothering Sunday” is that of a woman—but the book is written by a man, Graham Swift. There is speculation that the unknown author “Elena Ferrante,” might also be a man, although the narrator voice is that of a woman. And the final book, “Sweet Caress” by William Boyd also employs a first person female narrator. “A brave failure” would sum up the NYTimes’ review: “A brilliant success”—The Guardian’s. Any views from women on this aspect of novels?

And I just want to add a small footnote to the Jonathan Coe book that has long-lasting repercussions for the characters in “Number 11”—a text  message gets the word “nicest” wrong, and it comes out as “incest.” I thought that was a very neat twist.