Wow. I think we can all agree that My Brilliant Friend had quite the brilliant end. If someone wrote a 100-hundred-page thesis on the significance of Marcello wearing the shoes laboured over by Lila that Stefano bought, I would read it front to back. In a way, I feel like I already did by reading this book, ha.
What can I say, I’m pleased. Sometimes it’s really the simple things in life. Some of the books in this course had quite intriguing premises (a deadly heist, a seller of pasts, a woman speaking from death etc.). This book is just about two girls in Italy in the 1950s, living life. Lucky me, I’m a sucker for female friendship stories. Yes, tell me about why you hate someone’s cousin’s father’s ex, and their entire family lore. Yes, tell me about every single character’s break-up, every petty grudge. Yes, tell me about every single grade you got in school. I’m not even being sarcastic. That details truly kept me going.
It was a lot of Marcello this, Nino that, but that was fine, that’s the reality of adolescence. As Elena/Lenu repeatedly tells us, Lila is the main obsession. So much so that when helping Lila get ready for her wedding, she has “the hostile thought that [she] was washing her, from her hair to the soles of her feet, early in the morning, just so that Stefano could sully her in the course of the night,” and the only remedy for this pain “was to find a corner secluded enough so that Antonio could do to me, at the same time, the exact same thing” (313). If that isn’t peak adolescence, I don’t know what is (minus the getting married part).
The last third really had me feeling for both girls. I imagine the next book section will be titled something like “adulthood,” but the girls are just barely sixteen. For Lila to basically be responsible for the fate of the family and their business, and for Lenu to get three hours of sleep to study just to feel “more strongly than ever the meaninglessness of school”… (276). (Insert sad face emoji)
My only qualms were certain characters, but that’s a sign of good writing, I guess. Donato Sarratore can die, and honestly, I don’t think the Solaras brothers are worth any attempted (but then abandoned?) redemption arcs. And you know what, he’s not his father, but I’ll say it, Nino is a jerk.
Anyways. Longest book I’ve read in a bit.
2 replies on “My Brilliant Friend (Yeah, She’s Pretty Great)”
yesss!! I like how you mentioned the ending. I know there is a TV series that has a few seasons created based on this book, and I thought maybe we are just reading the first part of it, like after “adolescence” we should get another chapter of “adulthood”. But it turns out that that is the ending!
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