Month: March 2026

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My Brilliant Friend: (

I do not really like this book. I mean, it is a very good book, but I am not particularly drawn to it. I like how the two girls struggle against the darkness with each other’s support, and also like how Ferrante portrays them in such a way, but at the same time, their complex relationship also confuses me, their jealousies are secretly placed on each other(or maybe it is just overinterpret), and also I really don’t like Lila’s father Fernando!!! Anyways, this book is one of the longest book I read recently lol.

(I like the opening of the disappearing of Lila, and this also links to the past whcih helps us to involve in her past smoothly)

On the surface, Lenu’s jealousy is more external, such as her constant comparison with Lila’s intelligence, charisma, and social influence, But actually Lila also envies Lenu in a more internal and less explicitly expressed way, for example, she envies Lenu’s access to education, and could escape the neighbourhood (which seems to me like this!!).

So I was very confused at the beginning, I thought it is just Lenu’s self internal-struggle or overthinking and keeps measuring herself to Lila, and wants to be like her so much. And these underlying competition seems that finally comes to an end when one of them left and the other got married.

“I answered that I had school, a privilege she had lost forever. That is my wealth, I tried to convince myself. And in fact that year all the teachers began to praise me again. (pp.259)” In this sentence, I think it can be interpreted in many ways, but I think it is just a self-comfort, and she attempts to define her own value by claiming that “school” is her “wealth,” which is something Lila has “lost forever.” However, “I tried to convince myself”also shows that it is not fully secured, but rather a form of compensation shaped by comparison with Lila.(it makes me think she just tries to find a realm that she won’t lose?????)

“Love and interest. Grocery plus shoes. Old houses plus new houses. Was I like them? Was I still? (pp.327)” I kind of like this sentence, she was worried about she may have become part of the very system she once sought to escape, and this makes me think that the past is always influencing her even though she seems to have escaped from darkness(?).

So personally I do not really like it because it feels so real to me, and I feel a little bit tired when I read it. Anyways, this is how our lives are like, and it makes me think: throughout our lives, we are constantly trying to escape the forces that seek to confine us: external pressures, others’ expectations, and the limitations we impose on ourselves, in order to become who we truly are.

(And btw, I really don’t like Lila’s father in any way!!!!!)

 

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Money To Burn

Money to Burn: Romance??

In their secluded world as two partners, there is no space for other people to step in. Rather than saying it is enclosed, it’s more like exclusive.

In the text, Kid and Dorda constantly together and they do not have much close relationship with others (their relationship becomes a kind of shared isolation). Both of them are outsiders in society,  separated from the rest of people. Maybe because of this, they highly dependent to each other, and bonded them tightly.

Their intimacy always exists in a violent circumstance. They are criminals, and they robbered a bank. From their identity, we can already see that they are exclusive to the rest of society, their marginalize-ness has already eliminated the possiblity of their integration into society. They do not have a real place to stay in this outside world, so they became the only one who they can depend on to each other. In the text, it says: “the only man who had ever loved him, and who’d treated him as a person, better than a brother. (pp. 189)”, which suggests that in Dorda’s mind, Kid is the only one who treats him like a person, and how he distincts him to the other people, implying their isolated relationship.

However, their mental health is weaken and weaken day by day due to their immorality, and their relligious beliefs has also driven them to madness. In the text, there are many depictions and descriptions that portrays their religious obsession, and when it ties to other elements in the text, it gives us a sense of chaos.

For example, in the description, “he was sure it must be true, the Kid looked so like the figure of Christ silhouetted by the station lights. (pp.200)”, by comparing Kid to Christ, which often represents sacrifice, suffering and savior in a holy image, it does not only gives us a sense that Dorda’s mental health has reached a very unstable state, but also reveals that in his mind, Nene is no longer merely a person to rely on, but a more sacred existence.

The ending transforms their bond into a form of tragic intimacy, where their bond survives not through escape or redemption, but through shared destruction. Their shared fate (They flee together, are surrounded together, and ultimately walk toward destruction together) shows that their loyalty to each other becomes more important than money, survival, or any hope of escape. By burning the money, they reject the social order that defines value through wealth, they reject the social ultimate value and meaning, which also implies that their distinction to the society.

 

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The Lover

The Lover: memory

It is also a story that begins with a memory, as the narrator recalls her past from her old age.

It reminds me of the narrative in The Shrouded Woman, and both of them are like recollections of the past, where the story unfolds through memories rather than through a linear plot (Also, at the beginning, they both emphasize the change in their appearance!). But I think the narrator in The Lover is more like an aging woman stands in the present, repeatedly looking back at her past, interrupting it, revising it, and reconstructing it.

(I like the line: “…I think you’re more beautiful now than then.
Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your
face as it is now. Ravaged.”(pp.3)!!!)

In the text, it is not like a story that is well organized in chronological order; rather, she recalls different moments of her past through fragments of memory, constantly jumping back and forth in time. In the line, “The story of my life doesn’t exist. Does not exist. There’s never any center to it. No path, no line” (p. 20), it suggests that life is not like a novel that has a clear central line that everything follows. Instead, it is composed of scattered memories and experiences that do not necessarily form a continuous narrative. Through this fragmented structure, the narrator reconstructs her past not as a fixed story, but as a series of memories that emerge at different moments, so this story is not simply telling a story, but rather repeatedly retelling and revising things that have not been told before (It is not like saving and loading a fixed memory, but more like reconstructing the past each time it is narrated).

Later on, she talks about the photograph, which does not exist. I think just because of its absence, it precisely gives the image its significance. And this implies that the meaning of the moment was not visible at the time it happened, but was constructed afterward through reflection and memory. As a result, the image becomes more than a simple record of the past: it is a reconstructed memory that gains meaning over time.

Hence, I think it does not make us think this book is not simply retelling a past that has been stored somewhere like a fixed record, but is constantly returning to the past to rethink, reinterpret, and rename what happened(?). This implies that the memory is like the untaken photograph, because the moment was never fixed as a concrete record, it remains alive in memory that can be revisited and revised again and again.

(btw, I DONT LIKE THE LOVE IN THIS BOOK AT ALL!!! It is insane… I thought this was going to be a warm and romantic love story, but it turned out to be completely different from what I expected. )

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The Hour of The Star

The Hour of The Star: Love

I feel this book is very unique: it is quite different from other books I have read.

From the very beginning, it is clearly written that the narrative itself is part of the subject. While the narrator, Rodrigo, introduces himself and even explains that the story will contain several characters, including himself as an important presence.

And according to the text, he portrays that in Macabéa’s life, there is almost no dramatic plot. She is poor in wealth, health, and education. She barely desires anything, yet she continues to believe that she is happy, or at least that her life is acceptable, until the end, when she briefly senses that something in her life is missing. However, this awareness is not a full awakening, but only a fragile and momentary realization triggered by what she is told.

Also, the love in the novel is very unusual — it seems as if it never truly exists, yet at the same time it is present everywhere.

  1. Macabéa appears to love Olímpico, but her love remains mostly on the surface. This kind of love is neither equal nor deeply understood by each other. Rather, it feels more like a desire for companionship and a longing to have her existence acknowledged. Her understanding of love is pure and naive; it is light, almost weightless .
  2. On the other hand, Olimpico’s love is not that healthy either. He is very ambitious, and throughout the novel, he is concerned with social mobility and self advancement. He constantly speaks about improving his status and seeks opportunities that might elevate his position.
    And when he eventually leaves her, he does not provide much emotional conflict or remorse. Instead, he rationally chooses a woman whom he believes will better contribute to his social aspirations:( as for him, he values that the relationships function as instruments rather than bonds of mutual understanding.
    “And you’re all dirt. You don’t have the face or the body to be a movie star.”(pp.45)
    (And I don’t like him at all!!! How could he say this to her???!!)
  3. Love in the novel is closely connected to power. In this unequal relationship, Macabéa is passive: she never asks for anything and does not require loyalty, which makes me think it represents that she is also marginalized in the society. What is most cruel is that she is told she might have happiness, which makes her feel she deserves love, but she is crushed to death immediately afterward. This seems to suggest that the possibility of being loved exists only in words and can never truly happen in reality.
  4. Lastly, what is more complex is the love from the narrator. Rodrigo claims that he cares about her and feels responsible for telling her story. His “love” for her seems to take the form of sympathy, duty, and even pity. However, this love is not free from power. While he insists that he is giving her a voice, he also controls how her story is told and how she is presented to the reader. In this sense, his affection contains authority, because he ultimately decides how she will be seen and understood.

 

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