If only I spoke Italian and could read it in the original! I'm told (by someone who did) the use of dialect makes an untranslatable difference in tone and I believe it, but then I'd have to give it 6 stars.The series (there are 4 books, but as of today, only 3 have been translated into English) is about relationships, especially the one between Elena and Lila, but the meeting of the two in the sausage plant in which Lenucia realizes she wanted to show off her victory in their competition only to discover that Lila doesn't believe that there is any journey to take, but that it all unfolds in each individual encounter, itself a realization that trumps all Lena's achievements. I've read now all three books of the Neapolitan novels translated in English. This second one has affected me the most. But all three of them would stay with me for a long time.I think I've never read the book with the main theme of female friendship. Normally the friendship will be a subplot to support the love life of main heroine and her need to talk to someone about it. Here everything is different. The friendship is shown as consuming, passionate and intelligent life-long relationship. It is much more difficult to express, but it is much more deep and sincere.It is written from the point of view of the one of two girls and later women. She tries to be very honest with herself about what she feels. And you can feel how difficult it is sometimes. But even the main event in this part which has deeply shaken and fundamentally changed them both, which anyone else would consider as a betrayal, she does not see at all that way. So much more complex is the connection between the two of them.There are times when this friendship brings enormous pain, inability to distinguish yourself from each other, crushing lack of meaning in the absence of each other. "I felt that without her nothing truly important happens to me yet I felt the need to go away". When the ways of the two girls diverge due to the reasons beyond their control, they still think of each other all the time when they are doing something important to them. They are eager to impress each other with their achievements without realising that inadvertently they end up hurting each other: "I recognised in her fulfilment the reverse of my emptiness". But it is this Gift of friendship which, in spite of all the pain, helps them to be themselves and to thrive to be better… This relationship brings them both enormous joy and self-fulfilment. Their conversations, things they share and do together mean for them more than anything else: "there were no comparison with exchanges I had with Lila, how they ignited my brain, and in the course of which we tore the words from each other’s mouth, creating an excitement that seemed like a storm of electrical charges.” And that is how real happiness feels, momentous and short..The story of this series of novels develop over the backdrop of a poor Neapolitan neighbourhood. It is much more than just this one relationship notwithstanding how absorbing it is. It is about surrounding violence, cruelty and possessiveness of men, and also it is about thriving for something different, for the way out from this reality. It is not bleak at all, it is emotional, passionate and profound narrative…Reading this is like looking into abyss - it is at the equal measures scary, mysterious and joyful… and if you want to come out at some stage you feel that you really do not know where the safe ground now stands.
What do You think about Storia Del Nuovo Cognome (2012)?
I'm hooked. The writing is sensitive and so lovely. The characters are amazingly complex.
—Vitaflower
Nobel prize for literature for Ferrante if the world is fair.
—khryzljohn
An enjoyable series. Interesting story line and characters.
—Tk101
