From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

My Brilliant Friend (My Brilliant Friend, #1)

Elena Ferrante,

Ann Goldstein (Translator)

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What Members Thought

Jan 06, 2016 Renata rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, book-club, grownup

I'm glad I read this with my awesome lady bookclub so we could get together and all be like "...oh good we ALL thought this was kind of overrated, whew".

IDK, it was fine? I do like the importance of the girl friendship at the center, and the obsessive/competitive/consuming nature of that I thought was well done. And there was a sort of satisfying, Little House on the Prairie-ish satisfaction to just the kind of detailed monotony of household doings and routines?

Also one intrepid member of our ...more

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Jun 25, 2016 Rae rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016, other-fiction

Book #1 in a series that revolves around two women whose lives have been entwined since their childhood. Set in Naples, Italy. Translation.

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Jan 17, 2016 A. V. rated it it was amazing

An expertly written novel. Ferrante weaves a complex friendship of two girls growing up in 1950s Naples with the broader political and economic realities of the neighborhood. Interpersonal relationships, ambition, desire and opportunity bubble up to influence the trajectories of each life. I'd recommend it to anyone. Excited to read the next three books in the series. ...more

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