This week’s reading of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend honestly left me quite confused and a little bit frustrated. Funnily enough, my brilliant friend actually lent me the physical copy of this book when I told her I was reading it for this class so I find that kind of ironic. She loved it, whereas I feel quite indifferent. Where to begin on this novel. I think that overall, this was one of my favourite writing styles. I found that ideas and sentences flowed really nicely and I would like to give a greatly appreciated shoutout to Ferrante for including a character list because I don’t think I would have been able to keep up with the abundance of names otherwise.
Regarding the actual story, I am honestly kind of dissatisfied. Everything felt like it was always moving in one big circle. First, Elena would achieve something and then Lila would be jealous causing her to achieve something more which would then cause Elena to be jealous and so on. Honestly, for me, this constant repetition of always wanting what you can’t have and being constantly almost hostile to one another got really repetitive. I would have liked to have seen a deeper connection between the girls. Here’s my explanation of this. For me, Elena and Lila are simply friends of a circumstance of proximity and nothing more. This constant tension of envy between the two for me, isn’t friendship. It’s merely a reliance to achieve a form of self-satisfaction and that yearning for pity yet also superiority. Yet I think that this concept could have been more effective if there was this sense of raw vulnerability with each other that you would see because of their differentiating circumstances regarding education and work. The idea that at the end of the day, they still come together with the truth, not this constant need to paint their own lives in a way they think would satisfy or one up the other. This for me was frustrating.
I would say one of my favourite parts of this book was that really short moment when Rino becomes especially violent and Lila gains this certain interest regarding the preservation of her younger childhood with Rino. I think it showed a certain vulnerability in her by recognizing that things always don’t have to progress in a forward motion, rather sometimes it’s ok to find comfort in the past. Part of me also thinks this comfort could be represented in naming her son Rino. This part lasted only like a page but I wish there were more moments similar to this in the story. I also found it hilarious that Elena practically planned Lila and Stefano’s wedding which again was like less than a page but was quite comical. Overall Ferrante’s book was very interesting, but I do think that I can talk more about my frustrations about this novel than I can my enjoyment. Perhaps my recognition of friendship today is so different that I simply cannot see these two as true friends which is why I struggled engaging with this novel.
Here is my discussion question for this week: There are a lot of different narratives that change throughout this story about people, education, and wealth. How do you think that compared to this book, the narrative of friendship has changed over time?
“She loved it, whereas I feel quite indifferent.“ I didn’t expect the reaction when reading to be indifference! But it is true that at many times we can feel frustrated following the story. Something I would take into account is that Elena, being the narrator, already tells us the events in a biased way. Perhaps you would have to read the entire series to see how this curious friendship ends… in which they seem to be united by vulnerability, as you say.