My Brilliant Friend (My Brilliant Friend, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 13, 2017 Sera rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, own, literary-fiction

Solid story about two girls growing up in Naples, Italy who become close friends. Ferrante's writing made me feel as if I was part of the world in which these girls grew up with all of its grittiness, violence and dreams of making a better life for oneself.

I really enjoyed following the journey of these characters, and I will be definitely continuing with the series.

I highly recommend this book. ...more

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May 05, 2016 Julie Griffin rated it it was amazing

I have not loved a book this much in very long time. I was predisposed to love it, because while I have traveled in northern Italy and Rome, I have never been to Naples and it is top on my list of places I would love to see. So I was very ready to slip into life in Naples in the 1950s and walk the streets, taste the food, smell the sea. This book took me there. Lenu is the oldest of a family living in a poor working class neighborhood in Naples; her father is a porter at a hotel, her mother a ho ...more

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May 19, 2022 Ann marked it as dnf

Chapter 1 - framing device: oh, my friend has disappeared, I wonder why, we're in our 60s now, but you know what, I'm not really too surprised because she was like that when were were like, ten.
Chapter 2 - here we are as ten-year-olds ...
oh god, I don't think I will last through this origin story of a cult leader.

After multiple times where I caught myself checking how much is left, feeling the dread of reading the remaining 51 chapters, despite being around halfway through, I feel immense reli ...more

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Mar 11, 2016 Andy Plonka rated it liked it

Shelves: src

More than I ever wanted to know about several families and their relationships, the connection to Italy and its problems reflected in these same families was the strongest element of this novel . Not exactly a page turner for me as it appears to have been for many readers.

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