My Brilliant Friend – Cannonball Read 17

“Her quickness of mind was like a hiss, a dart, a lethal bite.” (CBR11 Bingo)

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein (Translator)

September 21, 2019 by faintingviolet 1 Comment

Friends, I really tried with this one. This story should work for me. Check out this Goodreads summary: “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 […]

How the Other Half Lives

June 13, 2018 by Ale 2 Comments

I revisited this book for class, and while the language and visceral imagery remained the same this time as it did on my first read, I was struck this time by just how much the theme of education ran through this story. For a general recapping of the story, here’s the amazon blurb: “Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the […]

Re-reading Elena Ferrante Part 1

December 16, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I will write up one review for the whole series. It’s not really a winter break kind of set of books because it takes place in southern Italy, but I was able to get the audiobooks from Overdrive and felt like I had it in me to reread this series. This is narrated by the same reader who narrated Elena Ferrante’s nonfiction collection Frantumaglia which means fragments (kind of) and that collection is just a brilliant set of interviews (questions sent; answers sent back) and a […]

An impressive depiction of a complex friendship spanning decades

September 21, 2017 by Malin Leave a Comment

I’m going to begin by including a brief summary of each of the individual books in the series, before reviewing all books as a whole, as I don’t think it’s possible for me to talk about my reading experience and impression of these books individually. My Brilliant Friend We are introduced to the two protagonists of the series, in our narrator Elena Greco (also sometimes called Lenuccia or Lenu) and her best friend Raffaela (called Lena by most people, but Lila by Elena). As with […]

Fact or Fiction?

January 26, 2016 by Ale 2 Comments

I do like that my MFA forces me to read books I wouldn’t normally pick up. While it’s not always a sure-fire way to a favorite read, “My Brilliant Friend” makes my top 10 for ‘required reading.’ A note of caution, this is a long book and is followed up by four subsequent sequels that will totally suck you in, so unless you’re willing to devote a copious slot of time to this story, beware! I was only mildly enjoying the read and thought […]

This Brilliant Novel

May 22, 2015 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Have you ever had a friend who seemed effortlessly brilliant, talented and successful in every endeavor, an attention magnet who intimidates just about everyone? I had a friend like this a number of years ago, and perhaps that’s why I loved this book so much and look forward to the next two volumes. Set in a small town outside Naples in the 1950s, My Brilliant Friend is narrated by Elena Greco, friend to the fearless Lila Cerullo. The story begins in current time, with Lila’s […]

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