My Brilliant Friend- Elena Ferrante

Author: Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein) 

Title: My Brilliant Friend | Genre: Literary Fiction 

Publication Date: September 25 2012 (originally October 19 2011) 

Number of Pages: 331 | Series: Neapolitan Novels (#1) 

Geographical Setting: Naples, Italy | Time Period: 1950s

Plot Summary: 

Elena is the smartest child in her class, that is until Lila begins to outpace her. Thus begins a lifelong rivalry- and friendship. While their surrounding neighborhood sinks into further violence and disrepair, Elena and Lina are the only two who may escape the ever-tightening spiral. However, issues of class, family, and opportunity begin to shape and tear at their respective futures. The first of four novels, this dazzlingly written dual character study traces their friendship from early childhood through adolescence.

Characteristics for Literary Fiction:

Language/Style- Friend could technically be considered a “story-within-a-story device,” as it begins with an adult Lila missing and an adult Elena going through their shared friendship from childhood as a narrative frame (Saricks 75). Lyrical, poetic, and elegantly written, Ferrante repeatedly finds ways to convey complex, muddy relationship dynamics clearly (74).

Characterization- This book is extremely character-driven, with “richly realized, specific, and ‘of themselves’” characters (76). In fact, the characters are more important than the storyline itself, as they are the story (74). The primary focus is on Elena and Linu, but even secondary characters have complex motivations that resist stereotype or one-dimensionality. This characterization is done through “carefully crafter dialogue and strongly described behaviors, beliefs, actions, and reactions” to create “rich interior worlds” (76). The strongest point for this book’s characterization is the shifting dynamic between Elena and Linu. Both are simultaneously “likeable characters with whom readers identify” and what may be considered unlikeable characters, depending on the point of the book (76). At first, they are in direct opposition (with Elena as the relatable character and Linu as the unlikeable yet fascinating character), but each character shifts between the two states throughout the novel. Their relationship is central to the story (76).

Storyline- Ferrante “[reaches] into the past” to “offer observant, even provocative, commentary” on 1950s Naples, examining class, female friendship and rivalry, gender expectations, education, and the strains of provincial life (77). While this book has three sequels, its ending is “left open or ambiguous” (although the cliffhanger is seen through at the beginning of book 2) (74).

Frame/Setting- The novel centers around rivalry with themes of sexual politics, both of which Saricks listed as common topics in literary fiction (78). Similarly, her descriptions of 1950s Naples creates a “detailed background” to frame the main characters’ growth (78). Additionally, while this was not planned, Saricks even lists this series as an example in this section (“…authors transport readers across the globe, as occurs in…Elena Ferrante’s simmering Neapolitan series”) (78).

Read-alikes:

Nonfiction-

Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay- Benjamin Taylor

In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Cultural History of Naples- Jordan Lancaster

Latin: Story of a World Language- Jurgen Leonhardt 

The Aeneid- Virgil

Fiction-

The Florios of Sicily- Stefania Auci

Swimming to Elba- Silvia Avallone

Sula- Toni Morrison

Something Like Breathing- Angela Readman

Summer Sisters- Judy Blume

Similar Authors: Catherine Dunne, Rachel Cusk, Jami Attenberg