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My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)

Elena Ferrante

Start date: July 1, 2019

Finish date: July 30, 2019

Discussion: Monthly Bonus Reads

Why we're reading this: July Bonus Read- International Day of Friendship

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
[close] July Bonus Read- International Day of Friendship

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

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What Members Thought

Oct 11, 2015 Jeanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-women, read-around-the-world

My Brilliant Friend is the first in a quartet of books that read like and may be memoirs. Lila, the one Lena, the narrator, identifies as brilliant, pokes and prods Lena to transcend her anxieties and fears, the boundaries she’s set for herself—although she chooses to instead become a rich grocer’s wife without greater aspirations. Lena, the initially weaker writer and thinker, continues in school and dazzles her teachers.

Although Lena writes My Brilliant Friend as an adult, she writes with the ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 07, 2017 Aura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: coming-of-age, all-time-favorites, italy, best-friends

It is hard to know what to say about this book. I close my eyes and think, yes, it is definitely a book to remember. There is something unique and exciting about Ferrante's writing prose. I felt very much like I was inside a Italian film full of passionate emotions and vivid descriptions. There is friend love, jealousy, revenge, hatred. Elena and Lila are best friend who grow up in a violent neighborhood in Naples. These two girls share a love for learning and books but life takes them in differ ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2024 Lisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Four stars might be generous. i stalled out half way through about a month ago but pushed through since it was my pick for this month’s book club and so i read the second half in a couple hours last night. Lots of words, beautifully written words but it was just too much. All the names of the people who I had to keep referencing in the front of the book, who were busy doing not a lot. The story just kind of rambled and i felt it didn’t really wrap up very much..I know it’s a “part one” but it se ...more

2 likes · Like · see review