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The Story of the Lost Child

(L'amica geniale #4)

Elena Ferrante,

Ann Goldstein (Translator)

4.40 · Rating details · 85,841 ratings · 6,384 reviews

Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults; life’s great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship has remained the gravitational center of their lives.

Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up— ...more

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Paperback, 473 pages

Published September 1st 2015 by Europa Editions (first published October 29th 2014)

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Aug 06, 2015 Diane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: italy, audiobooks, modern-fiction

This novel nearly broke me.

The Story of the Lost Child is beautifully heartbreaking. It is the culmination of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, and it wraps up the story of two friends, Elena and Lila. I spent my summer with these two women. I read the first book, My Brilliant Friend, just to see what all the Ferrante Fever fuss was about, and I didn't expect to read any more of the series. But I ended up intrigued and wanting more, and I gobbled up Books 2 and 3 as quickly as I could.

In this ...more

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Jan 21, 2016 Maxwell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: translated, owned

After re-reading this series, I can confirm it's one of my all-time favorites. Ferrante is a writer I admire so much, and like I said in my original reviews, one that I know confidently I can, and will, read again and again throughout my life.

---
Original Review:
I'm done. I'm actually done. The journey is over, and what a wonderful journey it was. Maybe soon I will be able to write a better review, but for now I can only say that this series is truly unlike anything I've read. It's a modern maste ...more

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Aug 09, 2015 Julie Christine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: italy-theme-setting, read-2015, best-of-2015

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

~The Doors, "The End"

Nothing about

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

~The Doors, "The End"

Nothing about the way the Neapolitan Novels has captured and held me spellbound makes sense. Pages of expository text barely broken by a paragraph indent; characters relentlessly bashing their heads against poverty and violence, returning again and again to the places and people that have caused them the greatest misery; periods of hope and redemption brought to bitter ends by poor choices and slashing domestic acrimony. And yet. And yet. I know that by reading Elena Ferrante's bildungsroman, I have partaken in one of the greatest literary journeys, feasts, dreams, accomplishments of the 21st century. It isn't so much that the Neapolitan Novels, built on the simple premise of a female friendship from childhood to old age, breaks new ground. It's that Ferrante returns us to the best of what we can be as readers: thoughtful, patient, introspective, willing to dig deep into layers of meaning, to see beyond the cold surface of quotidian events to the simmering magma of emotion beneath. In eras past, Eliot, Mann, Tolstoy, Woolf, Hardy demanded the same and the rewards of Ferrante are as great.

This final installment brings Elena Greco full circle, back to the neighborhood she fled as a young woman—first to the towers of academe, then to literary acclaim, spending her young adulthood and her early years as a wife and mother in the orderly, civilized north of Italy. But as her friend Lila had done years before, Elena throws propriety and security to the winds and follows her passion back to Naples, the scene of so much crime in the streets, so many crimes of the heart. That passion is the fickle Nino, the man-boy to whom both women sacrifice their burgeoning self-determination. I'm just full of lyrics today—as I think of Nino, of young Lila's and not-so-young Elena's obsession with his empty soul, I hear Paul Simon lamenting: "I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest, hmmmm".

We know from the very beginning—hundreds of pages ago, when we embarked on this political and personal Odyssey—that Lila has disappeared as an elderly woman, at the twisted and burnt end of her rope. But where has she gone? The legacy she leaves behind is that molten lava roiling beneath the surface, and in The Story of the Lost Child, the hard, black earth is rent open, letting the impossible heat burst forth. Elena seems more curious than concerned by Lila's disappearance. Her friend's presence hovers, thick and insistent, over every aspect of her life; Lost Child illustrates how and why this friendship has endured despite the psychological damage each woman inflicts on the other.

The title, The Story of the Lost Child, can be taken for its literal meaning, as the plot bursts with tension and tragedy. But the entire collection speaks to children lost in this Neapolitan ghetto, the children we met pages and heartbreaks ago. We witnessed their twisted paths to adulthood over the course of four novels, until at last we npw stand with them at a reckoning place. The great loss is the reader's, knowing we must bid our final goodbyes to the Grecos, Cerullos, Carraccis, Pelusos, Sarratores and so many others, with so much left unsaid and unknown.

And undone. Oh, how our hearts are utterly undone. ...more

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Oct 29, 2016 Violet wells rated it it was amazing

Shelves: italy, 21st-century, faves

I’ve never read a series before. Finally I understand why people sleep outside bookstores the day before the next instalment is due to be published. Were there to be a book five I might well zipper myself inside a bag outside Feltrinelli the night before release. Except there will be no next instalment here. I’m done. Lila has left my life and I will never know anything more about her. I feel horribly bereft.

Book Four has less of a feel of fictional memoir about it; it reads more like a novel. I’ve never read a series before. Finally I understand why people sleep outside bookstores the day before the next instalment is due to be published. Were there to be a book five I might well zipper myself inside a bag outside Feltrinelli the night before release. Except there will be no next instalment here. I’m done. Lila has left my life and I will never know anything more about her. I feel horribly bereft.

Book Four has less of a feel of fictional memoir about it; it reads more like a novel. It contains some clever post-modernist tricks, most notably the book within a book theme. Elena Greco finally writes about Lila, except it isn’t these books (these books play no part whatsoever in her story); it’s a seventy page novella called Friendship. Meanwhile she has the suspicion that Lila is writing secretly about Naples. In spirit, these have always been Lila’s books. Now Elena lets slip the possibility that maybe they really are Lila’s books. Vanity is probably the central theme of this book but authorship is also a prevailing theme. Ferrante asks many probing questions about the nature of authorship. And we end up asking, who is the author of the Neapolitan series?

Elena becomes rather more disagreeable in this book. She becomes vain and a bit petty. Especially in contrast to Lila, who seems to live without any recourse to vanity, which is why perhaps she’s such a compelling and deeply fascinating character. The only other author I can recall who attempted to create a character free of vanity was Dostoevsky with The Idiot and, brilliant as that was, I'd have to say Ferrante did a better job than he did. It began to bother me how disagreeable I was finding Elena and her vanity. I wasn’t at all sure this was what Ferrante intended. Then I realised that what Ferrante intended was probably exactly the confusion I was feeling. This isn’t one of those run of the mill novels where every character is morally and emotionally consistent and so has a clearly designated and manipulative charge and endgame. It’s a novel that constantly springs surprises, that constantly makes you stop and question lazy emotional and moral assumptions you realise you harbour. One thing Ferrante does so well is get at the anatomy of every strong emotion. Emotions aren’t single and straightforward. Every emotion carries the charge of its opposite. Emotion in fact is often us arguing with ourselves. She shows how hate can be simultaneously present with love, jealousy with aspiration, admiration with resentment, conviction with doubt. I don't think any writer has done arguing better than Ferrante. You could say the books are one protracted argument – everyone is constantly arguing, romantically, domestically, politically, socially - and you come to realise that this what life is, a long protracted messy argument. Lila is almost like some magical touchstone creature. Even when she appears to be wrong she turns out to be right. I don’t think she’s wrong once in the entire novel and yet she’s far from some simplistic Obi Wan Kenobi; she’s hugely complex, volatile, divisive, contradictory, spontaneous, calculated, adorable, obnoxious. She bristles with lived life on every page. In contrast, the more of Elena’s vanity we see the more we doubt that Elena Greco could have written these novels. You begin to feel only Lila could have.

For me Lila is up there with Anna Karenina, Molly Bloom and Mrs Ramsey as one of the great female characters of literature. No question in my mind Ferrante will be on the classics shelf in two hundred years.
...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Warwick rated it really liked it

Shelves: italy, fiction, naples

The tunnel on the edge of the neighbourhood, beyond which Lila couldn't pass.

When I arrived in Naples I had just read the Claudio Gatti article which claimed to expose Elena Ferrante's real identity. I remembered being amazed, when it had come out back in 2016, by the fury it had provoked. People were outraged! Not just readers but literary editors too had lined up to condemn the piece – putting across, in the process, a lot of wrong-headed ideas about ‘the death of the author’ which should real ...more

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Aug 25, 2017 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, italian-21st-c, novels, favorites, series

[UPDATED - SEE BELOW]
I can't believe it's over! I mean really, after finishing Ferrante's riveting tetralogy, I feel a sense of loss. The fourth volume was fast-paced and full of reveals (no spoilers!). It was hard to read at several points, but always entertaining and thought provoking. If you have not read it yet, please do so this year. Definitely a journey to Naples that you do not want to miss.

One thing that struck me with this series is the similarities and differences with another classic [UPDATED - SEE BELOW]
I can't believe it's over! I mean really, after finishing Ferrante's riveting tetralogy, I feel a sense of loss. The fourth volume was fast-paced and full of reveals (no spoilers!). It was hard to read at several points, but always entertaining and thought provoking. If you have not read it yet, please do so this year. Definitely a journey to Naples that you do not want to miss.

One thing that struck me with this series is the similarities and differences with another classic story which crosses four decades in as many books: the Rabbit Tetralogy by John Updike. I have reviewed all four Rabbit books here in GR, but if you are not familiar with them, Updike follows Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom from the 50s to the 80s with one book per decade. The Ferrante series is similar even if the boundaries are not drawn as clearly between books as in Updike and covers roughly the same period as the Neapolitan series. Similarly, the character of Rabbit is deeply developed like that of Lena and Lila. Where Rabbit is quintessentially American in his own unique and depraved way, Lena and Lila are quintessentially Neapolitan. I think that rural Pennsylvania and metropolitan Naples are quite different geographically, but both serve as a evolving canvas backdrops upon which the central dramas play out. I just think that if you read the Updike books, you'd probably enjoy the Ferrante ones and vice versa in terms of a look a slice of life from the middle to the end of the 20th century seen on two different continents and from the perspective of the two sexes.

[SPOILER SECTION - STOP HERE OR BEWARE!]
I really enjoyed the allegory of the doll which brought the story full circle from the beginning of the relationship between Lena and Lila and was a beautiful reminder of that first wonderful book. Further, the disappearance of Tina (for which I enjoyed the ambiguity, almost dreamlike, in not knowing definitively her fate) was also a beautiful allegory for the lost innocence (and sanity to a degree?) of Lila and the loss of intimacy between here and Lena.

In all four books, it was wonderful to feel Naples like a character in the book (much like Paris in L'Education Sentimental). There are moments when you feel like you are overhearing Lena and Lila in a café or crossing them in a park. The city evolves around them in colors, smells, and great differences in wealth and power.

There is a Proustian feel to Ferrante's writing, although as one of my friends pointed out, the male characters (Enzo, Piero, Nino, etc) here are not as three-dimensional as the female characters (whereas in La Recherche, Odille, Gilberte, and Albertine are all much more profound). But still there is a nice on-ne-sais-quoi in her phrasing, her descriptions, and her unique female sensibility that lends a limpidity and beauty to her prose that is just so pleasurable to read. ...more

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Nov 06, 2014 Francesca Marciano rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There is a terrible sense of loss once you reach the last line of the last volume of Ferrante's saga, her writing is so addictive, it has kept me company for over a year now and waiting for the next installment of the story has been a delightful suspense.I feel abandoned to my own device now that the curtain fell on this wonderful story. The last volume "La bambina Perduta" has just been published in Italy,so I've devoured it in three days and it's not a disappointment. It has a somehow slow sta ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Manny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: french, transcendent-experiences, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, strongly-recommended

[From Celle qui fuit et celle qui reste]

Whenever you read a book that the author seriously cared about, you realise after a while that in fact it's two books: there's the book that got written, the one you're holding in your hands, and there's the other book, the one the author wanted to write but couldn't, due to the problems inherent in being a mortal human being. Sometimes the distance between the two books is close enough that you can believe they're the same. (I don't know how one would [From Celle qui fuit et celle qui reste]

Whenever you read a book that the author seriously cared about, you realise after a while that in fact it's two books: there's the book that got written, the one you're holding in your hands, and there's the other book, the one the author wanted to write but couldn't, due to the problems inherent in being a mortal human being. Sometimes the distance between the two books is close enough that you can believe they're the same. (I don't know how one would improve Candide or Alice in Wonderland; maybe Voltaire and Carroll did). But in other cases, it's clear that the two books are different. The authors of the New Testament would have liked to set down a clear and complete account of the life of Jesus Christ and the events it inspired, but, since the four Gospels contradict each other on numerous points, they must have fallen short of their ambition. For similar but slightly more complicated reasons, it seems that Plato's Dialogues also fail to report accurately the teachings of Socrates. Moving on to more recent cases, Wittgenstein famously apologised for not being able to write a better book than the Philosophical Investigations, which nonetheless is often cited as the twentieth century's most influential work of philosophy; and, a personal favorite, Jan Kjærstad's Jonas Wergeland trilogy gives you numerous clues about the nature of the true, ideal version of the book, and how it differs from the imperfect copy you have received.

I think Elena Ferrante's L'amica geniale also belongs to this distinguished club. On the surface, the novel is straightforward. It appears to be a minutely detailed, ultra-realistic account of the narrator's life, starting with her childhood in a poor quarter of Naples and showing how she becomes a famous author who, in particular, has written this book. The unifying theme, which gives the novel its title, is her friendship with Lila, a woman she has known since they were both small children. If you read it in this way, it's easy to see why it's often been compared to Knausgård's Min kamp, another long and ostensibly autobiographical ultra-realistic novel. I did indeed start reading both Knausgård and Ferrante from this obvious point of view, and I'm not trying to convince you that there's anything wrong with that. Perhaps both novels are just what they appear to be on the surface. But, at least from my perspective, they diverged more and more as they progressed. What Knausgård wants to do, it seemed to me, is to show you how suspect the whole notion is of being a novelist. You take your life and the lives of the people around you, and you turn them into a story which you sell for money. There's a certain amount of this in Ferrante too, and some of the moral disgust that Knausgård so effectively inspires. But I don't think that's the core of the book.

Knausgård is, or at least pretends to be, an egotist, and his book is all about ego, and in interviews he sticks to the line that everything in it is true. But Ferrante has gone to great lengths to stay anonymous, and no one knows who she is. She drops hints in her novel, which contains numerous novels-within-the-novel, that at least some of it is true. Evidently the narrator, who's also called Elena and who also claims to have written the book, could to a certain extent be her. But it's also clear that Elena Greco can't be the same person as Elena Ferrante. And at the same time, she drops contradictory hints that the book may not really have been written by either Elena. Maybe it was written by Lila. But finally she denies this too.

The thing that makes the book so unusual is that it manages to keep the ambiguity between truth and fiction all the way through. We don't know if Elena really exists; all we know is that someone who calls herself Elena exists, that she wrote L'amica geniale, and that, in some unspecified way, it is inspired by real events. But more and more, one feels that the identity of the author is irrelevant. The important character isn't the vain, superficial, and not overly bright Elena. It's her friend Lila, who comes across as a truly admirable person; a person one could compare with Socrates, whom Plato says was, of all the men of his time he had known, "the wisest and justest and best". Lila is sometimes described in similar terms, by people who are surprised to hear themselves say it. Elena is ultimately disappointed with her novel, because she knows she has failed. She has lost Lila, and despite all her work she hasn't been able to tell us what she was really like.

Did Lila exist, in some sense? I assume we will never find out. But at least we have this account of her life, distorted and imperfect and incomplete as it is. It's a completely stunning achievement. ...more

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Jul 19, 2015 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Book Four....The Final Conclusion to the Neapolitan novels:

And so this story begins.....-[page 1]:
"From October 1976 until 1979, when I returned to Naples to live, I avoided resuming a steady relationship with Lila. But it wasn't easy. She almost immediately tried to reenter my life by force, and I ignored her, tolerated her, endured her. Even if she acted as if there were nothing she wanted more than to be close to me at a difficult moment, I couldn't forget the contempt with which she had trea ...more

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Apr 24, 2017 PorshaJo rated it really liked it

Shelves: challengereads-2017, challengereads, audio

What can I say about this book that has yet to be said. This is the fourth and final book in The Neapolitan Novels. It is the culmination of the lifetime of two dominate, strong women. It is the story of one lost child and the impact it has on so many lives. But it's also so much more. It is the final story of many of the characters that lived in this town and came in and out of Lila and Elena lives.

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. On one hand, I'm happy to hear more of the story of thes What can I say about this book that has yet to be said. This is the fourth and final book in The Neapolitan Novels. It is the culmination of the lifetime of two dominate, strong women. It is the story of one lost child and the impact it has on so many lives. But it's also so much more. It is the final story of many of the characters that lived in this town and came in and out of Lila and Elena lives.

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. On one hand, I'm happy to hear more of the story of these two women and all the wonderful characters in the neighborhood. But then, I'm sad as this is the final installment and I will no longer be able to hear more of them. Their life stories have been told. I will say, of all the books, this is my least favorite. Elena was so self-indulgent and selfish. She seems to thrive almost on the tension of her friendship with Lila. She seems obsessed about what Lila is doing and that she is better than Lila. Lila on the other hand, at times, I found her very mean. But is she stronger than Elena even though she has never left the neighborhood? I think through the love-hate relationship these two have, it pushes them to strive to find their better selves. And I would have thought by the fourth book I would remember who everyone is...but nope. There were times I still had to look someone up and figure out who they were. I also felt towards the end of the book, it seemed to move through 'life' rather quickly. All of sudden you got glimpses of things...Elena children/grandchildren, Lila's disappearance. I wanted more, I wanted the full details of the story.

This is a wonderful series of books that I would tell anyone to read. But be aware, there is murder, adultery, crime, death, drug abuse, violence within. After all these books, I still can't put my finger on why these books are so captivating. Perhaps it's the hope that this IS a true story, that it's based on real people. I listened to this entire series via audio narration and the narrator, Hillary Huber, is wonderful and gives life to these two amazing characters. ...more

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Feb 16, 2018 Candi rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-i-own, historical-fiction, european-literature

3.5 stars

"I’ve been writing for too long, and I’m tired; it’s more and more difficult to keep the thread of the story taut within the chaos of the years, of events large and small, of moods. So either I tend to pass over my own affairs to recapture Lila and all the complications she brings with her or, worse, I let myself be carried away by the events of my life, only because it’s easier to write them."

Gosh, relationships - particularly those of the ‘girlfriends’ variety - are quite complex, are 3.5 stars

"I’ve been writing for too long, and I’m tired; it’s more and more difficult to keep the thread of the story taut within the chaos of the years, of events large and small, of moods. So either I tend to pass over my own affairs to recapture Lila and all the complications she brings with her or, worse, I let myself be carried away by the events of my life, only because it’s easier to write them."

Gosh, relationships - particularly those of the ‘girlfriends’ variety - are quite complex, aren’t they? Never before have I ever read about a friendship in such microscopic and candid detail as that of Elena and Lila. Never before have I been forced to examine my own friendships with such excruciating rigor. I’m honestly worn out! Yet, this series will stay with me forever. Having started Book 1, My Brilliant Friend, over a year ago, I have finally made my way through to this last in the series. I know, you’re probably thinking it took me a rather long time to get through a relatively short series; after all, there are only four books total. Personally, there’s no way I could have devoured these books one after the other, although many did just that.

I’ve reviewed the first three Neapolitan books, so I’m going to keep this relatively brief. Truly, the entire series feels like one long, epic novel, simply divided into four parts. Each builds on the previous installment in a linear fashion, therefore making it necessary to read them in order. I get the feeling that the entire collection is autobiographical in nature, although this last book has me really questioning exactly whose story is this – is it Elena’s, as I originally assumed, or is this truly Lila’s story? It is written from Elena’s first person point of view. Her character is that of an author; she has the fame from her books, has travelled and is formally educated. Lila on the other hand never left Naples, never finished high school. She remained in the violent neighborhood of her childhood, yet acquiring her own large degree of influence and success. In one sense, I have a difficult time separating Lila from the city of Naples itself, maybe even from the volatile mass of Mount Vesuvius, towering over all, sometimes explosive, other times merely smoldering, but always present. In any case, Lila is a fascinating character. "However much she had always dominated all of us and had imposed and was still imposing a way of being, on pain of her resentment and her fury, she perceived herself as a liquid and all her efforts were, in the end, directed only at containing herself. When, in spite of her defensive manipulations of persons and things, the liquid prevailed, Lila lost Lila, chaos seemed the only truth, and she – so active, so courageous – erased herself and, terrified, became nothing."

This novel is not only about the strength of a friendship, despite its changeability, but also an intelligent and thought-provoking discourse about motherhood, marriage, feminism, and the craft of writing. How is a woman’s identity shaped by education, culture, and her relationships with her children, her parents, her spouses, her lovers and her friends? It’s a tribute to Naples as only Lila can voice so passionately: "… what a splendid and important city: here all languages are spoken, here everything was built and everything torn down, here the people don’t trust talk and are very talkative, here is Vesuvius which reminds you every day that the greatest undertaking of powerful men, the most splendid work, can be reduced to nothing in a few seconds by the fire, and the earthquake, and the ash, and the sea."

Having closed the last page in The Story of the Lost Child, I have to make a small confession: I am relieved. I was overwhelmed by the time I reached the two-thirds point in this novel. It’s truly a mental exercise of Olympian proportions to examine in such detail the inner workings of a friendship to such length. You couldn’t pay me to do that with my own relationships – I may in the end have nothing left! Yet, I am quite pleased to have read these – Ferrante’s skill is indisputable.

"Unlike stories, real life, when it has passed, inclines toward obscurity, not clarity."
...more

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Jul 15, 2015 Kelly rated it really liked it

Shelves: cultural-meetings, owned, shes-quite-an-original-my-dear, its-the-quiet-ones, 21st-century, coming-soon-to-a-blog-near-you, examined-lives, identity-crisis, fiction, grande-dames

This review originally appeared on my blog, ShouldaCouldaWoulda Books.

I’ve been writing for too long, and I’m tired; it’s more and more difficult to keep the thread of the story taut within the chaos of the years, of events large and small, of moods…What to do then? Admit yet again that she is right? Accept that to be adult is to disappear, is to learn to hide to the point of vanishing?

It’s been a few weeks, but I’m finally able to deal with this. This is the last novel in Elena Ferrante’s celeb ...more

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Sep 06, 2015 Malia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, favorites, women-s-fiction, best-of-2015

Brilliant, though I'm feeling a bit bereft now. Better review to follow, but for now I'll just say that this has been a year of great reads for me, highlighted boldly by Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Read them, trust me.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com ...more

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Sep 12, 2015 Justin Evans rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

This is a two part review of the Neapolitan Novels as a whole: one about how good they are, the other about the series' very deep flaws. The other review, about how good they are can be found here.

I am, I realize, pissing into the wind here, but someone has to do it. Ferrante deserves much of the praise, but, like any serious author, she also deserves criticism, because these are some deeply, deeply flawed novels.

In Story of the Lost Child, Elena publishes an MS that she'd written some years be ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 William2 rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21-ce, fiction, translation, italy

No meager summary I might give here can conjure the astonishing ferocity of these books—unabated over four volumes. If you read closely there are some aphorisms buried here. One that struck me particularly hard: “A woman without love for her origins is lost.” But there are other home truths as well: “Love and sex are unreasonable and brutal.” and “It was a good rule not to expect the ideal but to enjoy what is possible.” and “How many words remain unsayable even between a couple in love?” Most m No meager summary I might give here can conjure the astonishing ferocity of these books—unabated over four volumes. If you read closely there are some aphorisms buried here. One that struck me particularly hard: “A woman without love for her origins is lost.” But there are other home truths as well: “Love and sex are unreasonable and brutal.” and “It was a good rule not to expect the ideal but to enjoy what is possible.” and “How many words remain unsayable even between a couple in love?” Most moving here for me have been the stories of Alfonso, a gay man; of Lenù’s mother, Immacolata; and Lennucia's difficulty with her first love, Nino.

We remember the terrible violence and sourness of Mrs. Greco, along with her hideous limp, from the first three novels in the series. In this fourth, she becomes gravely ill and in that illness all her previous pretensions to dominance over her first child, Lenù, our narrator, fall away. She begins to talk frankly to her daughter for the first time. Lenù, it turns out, is her favorite child, perhaps because she was born first. The others children, her mother admits to not wanting and never even loving. The reader is astonished that Ferrante can peel back the persona of this brutal, violent mother, and let us see what she has long been obsessed with. And this is the beautiful part. She and Lenù now draw close, for the first time in the lives of either. It's a stunning change in both the direction and velocity of the story and a tremendously exciting piece of writing.

Alfonso is also in danger, but in another way. As a gay man Alphonso has seduced the Cammorist, Michele Solara, one of the two Solara brothers. Alfonso has done this by passing in drag for Lila. Lila has rejected Michele who's gone quite made over her. So Lila has cruelly sets Alfonso up with Michele. If Michele can’t have Lila, he can at least have this remarkable lookalike who evens fits into Lila's dresses. The cruelty is multidimensional. It’s cruel on Lila’s part to use Alfonso in a way that tortures Michele and has his brother, Marcello, in a near murderous rage. Alfonso’s stuck, loving Michele, even fucking him, for all the wrong reasons. He’s putting himself at terrible risk, but then that’s part of the thrill.

Then there’s Nino. One of the tetralogy’s most persistent themes is first love. First love is, often though not always, about learning that you can’t have who you want, or that there are sudden surprising limitations on who you thought the wonderful love object was. I've just finished Andre Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name which deals with this theme in a manner both brilliant and eviscerating. Nino Sarratore is loved by Lennucia from early grade school days. When she becomes a feted author, Nino—after having an affair with Lina years before that was absolutely gut wrenching for Lenù—miraculously shows up. She leaves her husband for him. At the same time he won’t leave his wife for her because she’s got money, being the daughter of an industrialist. So after much agony Lenù resolves to share Nino. Add to that the fact that Nino’s father, whom he hates, has instilled in his son a model of the philanderer that not even Nino realizes he fervently emulates to a fair-thee-well. Women, Lenù finally realizes, after having his child, are Nino’s giddy enablers. They swoon over him. Always have. The realization equals heartbreak for our heroine but also much personal growth. Funny, how we all have to make our own mistakes when it comes to love.

The aspect most striking in this fourth volume—although Ferrante's done it throughout the series— is her ability to animate the cognitive split in her characters, their dualism or knack for self contradiction. That’s what makes them so alive! They are each living minds assessing the daily the clashing inputs, which often cloud their wants and compromise their actions. This novel like the others is angst-ridden. There’s a tremendous agitation. In that sense it’s consistent with the other three volumes. The book at times almost trembled from my grip, not from boredom, but because of the intensity of the drama. I could hardly bear to read what’s coming next. I have to think more about this. For my reaction points to something unique in this fourth and final volume. Ciao. ...more

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Oct 04, 2015 Margitte rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, family-sagas, 2015-read, drama, fiction, italy

After reading all four books in the series, I am still unsure whether this is a fictional memoir, or a story based on the truth. It probably is a little of both. There is a showcase full of people involved: the Grecos, Cerullos, Carraccis, Pelusos, Sarratores , and the path of tragedy and heartbreak is as difficult as it can get for all of them, no matter how well veneered their lives seemed to be.

Lila and Elena completed their journey in this final book in the series. The first book started out After reading all four books in the series, I am still unsure whether this is a fictional memoir, or a story based on the truth. It probably is a little of both. There is a showcase full of people involved: the Grecos, Cerullos, Carraccis, Pelusos, Sarratores , and the path of tragedy and heartbreak is as difficult as it can get for all of them, no matter how well veneered their lives seemed to be.

Lila and Elena completed their journey in this final book in the series. The first book started out with Lila disappearing. Elena wrote down their story to explain Lila's disappearance, on the one hand, but on the other hand also figure out where she could have gone.

In this book they both return to their childhood neighborhood through circumstances, and remain the two friends in a love-hate relationship. At one point the one loves the other's guts, and in the blink of an eye it changes to hate (annoyance) In the end nobody knows who came out the strongest. That's the mystery in this saga. The ending,when a package is delivered, explained it all. What a powerful ending for a book!

Two strong young girls defied the rules of their neighborhood: the chauvinism, cruelty, violence and poverty. They went against the grain. This element in the book is the mainstay, the foundation, of everything that happened to them.

Both of them became successful women in their own rights. Both were married in the Catholic church but lived, and had children, with other men, outside of marriage in longterm relationships. There was no conformity as far as these two young ladies were concerned. They had the houses and the kids, but refused the enslavement, symbolized by the wedding ring.

“Aunt Lina has a husband just as you do, and that husband is Rino’s father, his name is Stefano Carracci. Then she has Enzo, Enzo Scanno, who sleeps with her. And the exact same thing happens with you: you have Papa, whose name is Airota, but you sleep with Nino, whose name is Sarratore.” I smiled to reassure her. “How did you ever learn all those surnames?” “Aunt Lina talked to us about it, she said that they’re stupid. Rino came out of her stomach, he lives with her, but he’s called Carracci like his father. We came out of your stomach, we live much more with you than with Papa, but we’re called Airota.”

Elena became a successful writer and Lila took on, and won, the IT world. True to her curious intelligence, she conquered every challenge she ever set for herself. The one thing Lila never did though, was write a book, in competition with Elena. Yet, her story was the one being told in the end ...

So much detail, so much love and pathos. Even the bad guys knew how to protect their hearts against the cruelty of poverty. Nothing about their lives were beautiful. It was all about survival of the fittest. Yet, the undercurrent that glued them all together was love, friendship and loyalty. They were not only loyal to each other, they were also loyal to their city Naples, even though it was the place they wanted to escape from with all their might.

Elena summarizes the story herself very well:

"Today, as I write, I’m embarrassed at the way fortune continued to favor me. The book immediately aroused interest. Some were thrilled by the pleasure of reading it. Some praised the skill with which the protagonist was developed. Some talked about a brutal realism, some extolled my baroque imagination, some admired a female narrative that was gentle and embracing. In other words there were many positive judgments, but often in sharp contrast to one another, as if the reviewers hadn’t read the book that was in the bookstores but, rather, each had evoked a fantasy book fabricated from his own biases. On one thing, after the article in Panorama, they all agreed: the novel was absolutely different from the usual kind of writing about Naples."

It was difficult to come back into the story after waiting so many months for the forth book to surface. There were too many characters to be remembered and too many events that shaped the story. However, the story slowly filtered back into the memory.

Reading this last book was like looking at the monitor in ICU. For several days it fluctuated enormously as the daily events in their lives ran up and down between good and bad, between happy and tragic, while the pendulum of time was bringing changes to all of them. Some made the transition effortlessly, and others simply refused to embrace it without excruciating pain.. However, change did come, for all of them.

In the end, when everything is said and done, the beeper on the monitor flat-lined for Elena and Lila's story. It was inevitable. Closing the book was a sad experience. It felt like losing my family all over again.

...more

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Mar 28, 2016 Helene Jeppesen rated it liked it

This fourth and final book in The Neapolitan Novels was good, but not as good as the other three novels. In this book, the narrator Elena becomes a lot more reflective, and the story is more about her children and their struggles than it is about Elena's and Lila's friendship. I liked how this implies that Elena is growing up and starting to care more about the people around her, but at the same time this book just didn't click as well with me as the other ones.
Another reason why I think this i ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Doug Bradshaw rated it it was amazing

I want to thank Elena Ferrante aka Lenu, for writing such an excellent and complete story of the lives of herself and her soulmate-crazy and brilliant best friend, Lila. The four books are chronological and start when the two girls are about 8 years old and continue into their sixties. I don't want to tell the story here but here are some of my observations about reading such a poignant, emotionally honest and complete story:

1. Life is hard and then you die. There is nothing easy about relations I want to thank Elena Ferrante aka Lenu, for writing such an excellent and complete story of the lives of herself and her soulmate-crazy and brilliant best friend, Lila. The four books are chronological and start when the two girls are about 8 years old and continue into their sixties. I don't want to tell the story here but here are some of my observations about reading such a poignant, emotionally honest and complete story:

1. Life is hard and then you die. There is nothing easy about relationships, marriages, having and raising families, living on tight budgets, deciding what career path to take, dealing with family members on drugs, raising kids who are young and becoming sexual, and in this particular environment in Naples, Italy in the 50's, friends and families with a lot of influence who are basically mobsters. Elena takes us through all of these type of issues along with her high strung, highly opinionated and beautiful friend, Lila, who is the opposite of Lenu, never a compromiser, always aggressive and pushy, highly opinionated and willing to put her life at stake to stand up for herself and Lenu. Some of the situations are hilarious and amazing, others are depressing and life threatening.

2. I think the author has been willing to admit many personal thoughts and reactions to various ultra personal situations that are eye openers as to how relationships actually work. The submissive girl can so easily yield to the thoughts and opinions of the dominate girl, that her whole life is changed not necessarily for the better. The one with low self esteem or less confidence can become overly ready to do almost anything for love or approval. It's so true and yet so painful to watch. And yet the friendship endures and each is successful in working their way through a world, especially in this era, so dominated by the desires and customs of parents and the men that they end up having relationships with.

3. There is interesting history of the politics of Italy of the era, facists, communists, the fight for labor unions and equality, the opinions of the liberal professors in the universities of the era, the disdain each group has for the other and the two girls, each in totally different settings, becoming part of this whole politically morphing time. Some of each of their friends become very involved in the mess, which includes murder, friends dragged off into the chaos in real danger.

4. There is a lot of realistic and sometimes difficult to handle marriage and relationship situations, adultery, abandonment, way too much forgiveness of one particular womanizing fellow who affects the life of each of the girls who are becoming women. However, it is written in a way that almost makes some of their stupid and immature decisions totally understandable, while each of them try to help the other get through horrible and sometimes almost funny and pathetic situations occur. There is one sexual description of what one of the girls walks in on that nailed me, so real and yet a ridiculous eye opener, almost as if I had to see it to understand what a dope this guy really was. This was another example of how Elena was able to make us walk in her shoes. I'm guessing she had to be chuckling as she finished writing this particular scene, maybe too much for some readers.

5. And then there is the never ending worry and difficult time raising the 5 kids that the two of them had, both stepping in to help the other from time to time. Not wanting to tell the story, there is an event involving one of the kids that almost devastates one of the mothers.

In the end, we have watched in great detail the full lives of two ordinary and yet both extraordinary women, and I will miss them both, always hoping that maybe, a fifth book will show up. ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Bianca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, audiobook, favorites, italian-author, female-author, first-person-narrator, italian

I am saying a very sad farewell to the Neapolitan Novels. To say that Lenu and Lila's story gripped me it would an understatement. I was consumed by these books. I have never read anything like this before. It's hard to put into words what I felt when listening to these books. The thing is these novels are not perfect. But all the good, scratch that, all the great things far outweigh their imperfections, uncannily, making the novels feel more authentic, more impactful.

These books will have a sp ...more

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Mar 31, 2020 Em Lost In Books rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-19, 2020, 3-star, translations

3.5*

not the spectacular end that I wanted for this story, story became redundant and stale.

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Jul 02, 2015 Teresa rated it really liked it

Those who haven't enjoyed the first three books of this series will like this one even less; but that's irrelevant, isn't it: if they haven't made it this far, they're not likely to read this last installment. Upon starting it, I immediately thought of my brilliant friend Karen's review of Dept. of Speculation, which contrasted that slim novel with "blowsy baroque behemoths" and their "telling and telling and telling, spewing out words and more words and yet more words" -- yep that's the Neapoli ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Robin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, translation, 2016, booker-prize-nominated, italian

So ends the final part of the Neapolitan series in which I have been immersed, one after the other. I feel I have lived alongside Lena and Lenu, have experienced their many trials and tribulations, have gazed up at Mt Vesuvius and heard the clatter of the neighbourhood. And now it is over! I wonder if I will ever read another epic story of friendship and rivalry that will compare.

I enjoyed it just for the story's sake - as in, what will happen NEXT? But I also enjoyed its self-reflective and cer ...more

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Dec 20, 2018 Edward rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, literary-fiction

This was truly an exceptional series of novels. It’s not until the conclusion that you can really appreciate what has been put to paper. Much more than a simple story of two parallel lives, the Neapolitan novels present a depiction of life not in isolation, but as something deeply intertwined, with each interaction becoming at once cause and effect within a complex web, the pieces reacting almost chemically to produce repeating structures across generations. The interesting thing about this stor This was truly an exceptional series of novels. It’s not until the conclusion that you can really appreciate what has been put to paper. Much more than a simple story of two parallel lives, the Neapolitan novels present a depiction of life not in isolation, but as something deeply intertwined, with each interaction becoming at once cause and effect within a complex web, the pieces reacting almost chemically to produce repeating structures across generations. The interesting thing about this story is that it seems without beginning and without end; it merely operates within two chosen points on a continuum. As with life, these stories do not follow neat narrative arcs, and do not resolve even with death, which retains one's memory in life's connective tissue.

As in life, here no one is blameless. Everyone at times acts in ways that are naive, petty or self-interested. As in life, much remains mysterious and elusive. Throughout the novels certain characters remain opaque to each other, and even the hard-fought wisdom of experience cannot shine a light on all things. In these novels uniquely there is a further meta-mystery, that of the boundaries between fact and fiction, in the identity of the author and her place in the world she has described.

There are these universals, and there is also the specific – the story of Naples, of these wonderful characters, of the tension between this closed community and the opening up of the world in the second half of the last century. These many stories are are intertwined by Ferrante with unparalleled narrative skill. Though there are certainly some lesser moments one could point to, the consistency of this series is remarkable, especially for a work of 1700 pages - one which manages to be entirely compelling from start to finish.

* * * * *

NB: I notice that this is my 300th review on Goodreads, and so I thought I’d write something in acknowledgment of that milestone. What started as a few little notes to myself has grown unexpectedly into something much larger. According to the library export function, I’ve written just under 75,000 words in my reviews so far – that’s a decent sized novel, and a number of which I am both proud and slightly horrified. But though I shrink at the thought of how much time I’ve spent here, and though I am still unsure for whom I really write these reviews, and for what purpose, I am very grateful for the way that this site has motivated me to keep reading and writing so much over the past few years. That has undeniably been a benefit. And I am also thankful to everyone who has taken the time to read my reviews, and for my friends for continually pointing me in the direction of more and more wonderful books. There are so many to read, and not enough time. ...more

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Apr 27, 2016 Ms. Smartarse rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Ms. Smartarse by: Manny

Shelves: friendship, part_of_a_series, slice-of-life, mid-xx-century, rave, translated_into_english

They said there would be sadness and pain. Yet I doubted.
They said this would be the best of 'em all. Yet I stalled.
They said I would be crying. Yet I was unconvinced.

All in all, I was doing great in my quest to overcome even the tiniest bit of susceptibility to peer pressure. But then Manny had to go all logical on me, so I gave in... in less than 5 minutes.

I don't need this

Sssso about The Story of the Lost Child...

Lenu gives up her comfy but unhappy life, for a difficult and miserable one. While she does occas ...more

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Jul 26, 2016 Perry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: stela-eða-láni, books-most-loved, mina-favoritböcker

The Neapolitan Novels, #1-4: Literary Experience Unlike Any Before in Connection or Syncopation of my Mind to the Female Author's

Ms. Ferrante has intrigued me in my reading experiences as has no other female author and just about any male writer. I imagine Charlotte Bronte would have written such brilliant, introspective, perceptive and at times sexually provocative prose if the style had been around way back then. For some reason, I've just not connected on such a personal, human level with Woo The Neapolitan Novels, #1-4: Literary Experience Unlike Any Before in Connection or Syncopation of my Mind to the Female Author's

Ms. Ferrante has intrigued me in my reading experiences as has no other female author and just about any male writer. I imagine Charlotte Bronte would have written such brilliant, introspective, perceptive and at times sexually provocative prose if the style had been around way back then. For some reason, I've just not connected on such a personal, human level with Woolf or superb female authors out there, past and present.

Ms. Ferrante struck me so personally (though not necessarily so profoundly) that I can't help but thinking again of a sentence I read in the reviews of this book that I wished I'd first written to describe the Neapolitan novels :

"The depth of perception Ms. Ferrante shows about her characters' conflicts and psychological states is astonishing.... Her novels ring so true and are written with such empathy that they sound confessional." Wall Street J.

I'll also add these 2 blurbs as really fitting from my point of view:

'If you haven't read Elena Ferrante, it's like not having read Flaubert in 1856...Incontrovertibly brilliant." National Post.

‘The older you get, the harder it is to recapture the intoxicating sense of discovery that comes when you first read George Eliot, Nabokov, Tolstoy or Colette. But this year it came again when I read Elena Ferrante’s remarkable Neapolitan novels." New Statesman.

I was dazzled and allured by the female intelligence and wit of Ms. Ferrante's writing, which never surrendered to the"sappers of suspended disbelief": the syrupy, overly sentimental, melodramatic, overdramatic, verbose, obscure, esoteric, arcane, pleonastic or the plain hogwash.

I think this was a fitting conclusion to the 4-part novel. Though I'm mystified by the human psyche: here, (view spoiler)

Her prose is so refreshingly honest and real and compelling. I felt at times as if Ms. Ferrante was my friend telling me her story and I kept wanting her to talk and talk. More more... go on,.... uh huh, and?... what about....

...more

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Jun 12, 2015 Karen rated it really liked it

So... The end of the story of Lila and Elena... this last book had a lot of happenings..we have been with these woman since young girls growing up in Naples. Sad to see it end.

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Nov 18, 2015 Anne rated it it was ok

Between the Neapolitan Novels and Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, this is turning out to be the year of books in which nobody gets to be happy for longer than about twelve pages.

I'm pretty sure I was supposed to love these books. I was told I was going to love these books. And maybe it's fitting that I didn't just have a lukewarm reaction to these books--I HATED them. And part of the reason I hated them was because Ferrante's writing makes you need to keep reading. People said to me, well, wh ...more

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Oct 17, 2019 Phrynne rated it really liked it

So I finally finished this fascinating quartet of books which tell the story of the lives of two friends. I am going to miss Lila and Elena for quite a while.

The Story of the Lost Child covers a lot of ground, progressing from the births of Lila's second child and Elena's third, through affairs, separations and new partners, successes and failures right up to old age. This book, more than the previous three, made me think about the real meaning of friendship. Elena and Lila certainly have a very ...more

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Dec 30, 2016 Diane Barnes rated it it was amazing

I started "My Brilliant Friend", the first of the Neopolitan novels, as they have come to be known, almost 2 years ago, in February of 2015. It was a year before I read the 2nd one, "The Story of a New Name". These books are intense and emotional and dense, so, for me, it is better to let a few months pass in between one book and the next. "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay" was read this past summer, and I wanted to get this last one read before the year was out. What a way to end the year!

The ...more

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Jun 15, 2015 Paul Fulcher rated it really liked it

Shelves: btba-2016-shortlist, 2015, btba-2016-longlist, mbi-long-list-2016

"I publish to be read. It’s the only thing that interests me about publication. So I employ all the strategies I know to capture the reader’s attention, stimulate curiosity, make the page as dense as possible and as easy as possible to turn. But once I have the reader’s attention I feel it is my right to pull it in whichever direction I choose. I don’t think the reader should be indulged as a consumer, because he isn’t one. Literature that indulges the tastes of the reader is a degraded literatu ...more

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About Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante

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Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works. ...more