As I have confessed previously I am stubborn about reading books that come highly recommended.  It seems like my interest exponentially decreases by the amount of praise a book gets. Yes, I acknowledge I have a problem!

So when I began reading Ferrante’s series starting with My Brilliant Friend and really enjoyed it, I should have just started reading the next book right away. But  I didn’t, much to my chagrin, because when I finally did begin reading A Story of a New Name it was quite amazing!  So far Ferrante scores high on two out of the three in the series and I am now looking forward to reading the third book, hopefully without wasting so much time before I begin!

In My Brilliant Friend Ferrante introduces us to two young girls: Lila, a bold, precocious child with an active and daring mind and Elena, who is smart and aware of her limitations. their friendship began with a dare, and quickly became intense and competitive. Soon the girls who are identified by a teacher as having potential are given extra books to read and and are encouraged to think beyond what their small neighborhood in the working poor part of Naples could imagine for them. As their friendship deepens, Lila encourages Elena to stick up for herself in spite of her family’s unwillingness to support her dreams. Lila’s family has their own struggles as the shoe business they own begins to fail. When Lila helps design some new shoes that become popular, the family business becomes a target of acquisition. Although Lila fights to maintain their independence her brother and father who ultimately have more power than she could ever have, make the decision to go into an arrangement with a wealthy but shady business family. This changes something deep within Lila and she withdraws and loses interest in her studies. These two girls who were so close and had shared so much now seem seem unmoored by the loss of their friendship.

In the second book of the trilogy, Elena continues to pursue her studies, but Lila abandons education and instead marries and enters her husband’s family business. Although on the surface Elena and Lila remain friends their differing paths soon create a distance between them. Elena feels abandoned and betrayed by her friend, who even though she had been insistent that they both study and get out of the limited way of  life they saw in their neighborhood, was instead choosing the very path she had scorned.  This choice raises complicated feelings for Elena, who at least initially sees that Lila’s choice gives her status, money and a certain amount of freedom, that Elena as an unmarried woman does not have. This difference in status and the mixed messages given by Lila’s choices complicates their relationship even further to the point where Elena and Lila begin to live parallel lives that only intersect on rare occasions.

Although Elena has trouble focusing on her studies without the competition and incentive that studying with Lila gave her but eventually she digs in and gains back the approval of the teachers who had seen such promise in her. She becomes infatuated with a young revolutionary intellectual who she begins to engage in conversation just to be able to listen to him passionately expound on his newest thoughts and ideas. This infatuation soon complicates her relationship with another young man who seems to think Elena is promised to him even though she feels nothing friendship towards him and Elena must choose between the two.

Through neighborhood gossip Elena learns that all is not going well for Lila. Hearing from Lila’s sister in law that Lila is being “taught” how to act in her new role as a wife, and that she has been having difficulty “learning” and had returned from her honeymoon with a bruised face, Elena realizes that Lila’s life is not what she had imagined it to be. But when Elena finally visits Lila, she is held at arms length, and although they begin to see each other more often they do not renew the deep relationship they once had.

Things might have gone on this way forever, especially after Elena moves to Pisa to attend college on scholarship, but the summer after her first year in college something happens to change the trajectory of their friendship.  Lila becomes ill and the doctor insists that she must go to the beach for the summer in order to heal.  Lila’s husband asks Elena to go with Lila and keep her company and she agrees. That summer is pivotal in Elena and Lila’s lives. It is a summer of discovering love, betrayal and the bounds of friendship and forgiveness.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this Book to: Marian, Sharon and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.