Retro Review: My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels #1)
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
5 stars. Visiting art museums as a child, I always preferred narrative art over portraits and landscapes. I liked putting together the visual clues, drawing inferences from the content, and using my imagination to fill in the rest. Like a typical child, I was attracted to the excitement, the illustrations, the battle scenes, the hidden elements that truly tell a story. Very occasionally, though, I'd come across a portrait that mesmerized, or a landscape that took my breath away. I remember viewing Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl at age 10, and being totally and completely captivated. She's so pretty, so magnetic, and I saw layers and layers of personality in her face. Just as Whistler's portrait held surprising depth for me at age 10, this book is, perhaps, one of the most unexpected page turners I've ever encountered.
A lot happens in My Brilliant Friend. Many things occur. And yet it doesn't feel action-packed. I'm aware that some readers give up halfway through this book, frustrated with the lack of forward movement. Sometimes it dragged for me, too. But as I really consider this story and its complexities, I realize that it is, in fact, a narrative portrait - not thrilling at first glance, but layered and personal, allowing the reader a very intimate and very in-depth look at a somewhat unreliable narrator's portrayal of her childhood, her family, her surroundings, her development, her education, and her closest friendship.
Most importantly, her friendship. The most precious and terrifying relationship in her life. This is a novel truly about Elena's friendship with Lila. She's painfully aware of the impact this friendship has had on her life, on her formative years, and how this friendship has shaped her attitude and her priorities and her idea of success, and she spends a lot of energy attempting to capture the details. From anyone else's pen, this might be repetitive, cliche, or boring, but coming from Ferrante and her incredible translator, the story is engaging, wonderful, and from my perspective, easy to relate to.
Yes - to be a woman is to compete with other women. At least, in my experience. The "frenemy" concept is real. The constant comparison is real. The jealousy, the manipulation, the drive to be better, the validation that comes from the approval of your friend. The roller coaster of feeling superior only to be dashed by her inevitable success. The race to be first - first at anything. All real. I don't know about other women, or other men, but all of this was commonplace in my childhood and adolescence. And while I suppose I've matured, and those around me have grown up as well, thinking about it - remembering - brings up the same intense emotions as it did back then. The same anger and fear and the need to be better.
My Brilliant Friend is beautiful. It's a work of art. It moved me and made my heart beat faster. It's full of fascinating details about Naples and poverty and politics and religion and tradition. And I can't finish without addressing the fact that this book includes as much about masculinity as it does femininity. Elena's observations are honest and strong.