30 Books in 30 Beach Days Day 29: "Neapolitan Novels"

I've saved this, my favorite read of the year, for the penultimate day in this 30 books series. If you are a book-lover, it's assured that you've heard of The Neapolitan Novels by the mysterious, pseudonymous Elena Ferrante. These are four books that tell of the sixty-plus-year friendship between two lower-middle class girls from a mafia-ridden neighborhood in Naples: Elena, the narrator, and her best friend: the brilliant Lila.

I'll admit that the first book, My Brilliant Friend, took a little while to get into, and I was initially disappointed after reading all kinds of hype about the quiet brilliance of these novels. But as the series rolled along -- and particularly by the third book, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay -- I became absolutely hooked.

I'm currently in the middle of the fourth and final novel, The Story of the Lost Child, and a micro-review won't do this series justice; a full review is forthcoming. But suffice it to say for now that if you haven't read these books, you need to get yourself to a bookstore or a library and get started.

Ferrante has done something that few authors can for this reader: she has made me want to read about characters I don't particularly like. That's perhaps my own biggest flaw as a reader: that I need to like characters to, in turn, like their stories. Lila, the novel's most alluring character (who is equally stunning to narrator Elena), is breathtaking in both her cruelty and her intelligence. Elena is frustratingly passive. Both bend the rules of their own morality for the sake of convenience. And yet both of these characters demonstrate a loyalty to one another -- a loyalty that transcends their affiliations to their families, their spouses, their city -- that makes the reader turn page after page.

Ferrante's account of female friendship is real and vivid, and it's refreshingly clear that the most important relationship in each woman's life is that female friendship -- more important than any relationship with any man, and there are plenty who pepper the series. Moreover, it's inspiring (and, again, realistic) that their friendship is rooted in intelligence, in brilliance, not in beauty or romance or wealth. Though they meet many intelligent men, it's always clear that these two are the smartest in any room. And that, for a reader, is not just inspiring -- it's fun.

Rating: 5/5

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