My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

it took a while for me to grow into this book. had to force myself to finish the first few parts before gradually immerse myself into the characters, and read the story a Elena Greco sees them.

I think I could relate to some part of the story, who wouldn’t, right? its those tumultuous growing up years with so many conflicts and emotions going within us. Of friendships and love, of envy and pride, of family and the neighbourhood, being of poor or rich, the struggle to choose between one and the other, the struggle of studying and the need to excel. and we always have a friend, somehow, like Lila.

its a nostalgic storytelling of all the things mentioned above and the fact that it starts with an incident in the present before going back to the past, at first, I could not understand how all the characters mentioned in the book would bring us to the present. But it has to take some patience and appreciation that all these people meant something to the growing girls, Elena and Lila.

I am not a fan of the writing style but I am glad that there is one storyteller here. I could read from one perspective, but it would perhaps be nice to hear from Lila’s point of view too because she is the object of admiration and awe, not just to Elena, but to every boys and girls in the neighbourhood.

Towards the end of this book one, I realise I want to continue reading to the next three books and hope I could find the answers to what the first chapter of My Brilliant Friend is hinting and bringing us back to the present. And I would love to find out what happened to the marriage of Lila and Stefano, and whether Elena’s love to Nino is not one sided.

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