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Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels

A reading experience through post war Naples

By chembarathiPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
2
Elena Ferrante's  Neapolitan Novels
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

"Only in bad novels people always think the right thing, every effect has its cause, there are the likeable ones and the unlikeable, the good and the bad, everything in the end consoles you."

There is nothing that consoles you in these novels. It is the story of the struggle for survival amidst the violence and chaos of Naples. All the characters are as fallible as any human being. You will not even find a single character that you can blindly adore. Maybe that is what sets apart these novels from the rest. It is as close to reality as it can get. The characters are many-layered, with more greys in them than absolute black and white.

I started Neapolitan novels a few years ago. At that time, I read only the first one in the series, My Brilliant Friend, and didn't pick up the next one even though the ending was beyond intriguing. I came across the review of these novels again in my good reads recently and decided to pick up the next book in the series. I have to admit that my memory is not sharp enough to remember everything from a book that I read years ago. But every book comes with the character list and their relationships with each other. So a quick recap through those pages made me up to speed to continue with the second book. Although, in the end, I went back and read the first book again to connect the dots.

These novels revolve around the lives of Lila and Lenu. My Brilliant Friend, the first book in the series, covers their childhood and adolescence. At that time, I thought the novels are overhyped because of Ferrante's anonymity. It is only when I continued with the second book that I understood what a master storyteller Ferrante is. She built up the story and characters slowly. I understood that only when I went back and read the first book again. Every incident in the first book influences the later lives of the characters.

The other thing I noticed is the class struggle. Lina gained money and power with marriage. Lenu pursued education and ended up in circles where she struggled to fit in. Her constant struggle in trying to escape from the surroundings she grew up in, was extremely relatable. I know from first-hand experience that, how much ever knowledge we gain through our persistent efforts, the struggle not to pay attention to the hideous voice of "imposter" that always shouts "You don't belong in here", will always remain. Talent and perseverance may help to reap the benefits at a later stage in life, but it isn't enough to bridge the inequality. People like Pietro(Lenu's husband) and his family will always have the jump start in their lives because of their class and access to knowledge.

"It was inequality that made school laborious for some (me, for example), and almost a game for others (Pietro, for example); on the other hand, inequality or not, one had to study, and do well, in fact very well — I was proud of my journey, of the intelligence I had demonstrated, and I refused to believe that my labour had been in vain, if in certain ways obtuse.... . ..I said to him : You act as if all your students were the same, but it's not like that, it's a form of sadism to insist on the same results from kids who haven't had the same opportunities."

Life is difficult for a woman even if you belong to the right class and have more than enough money. So what if you have neither of those? Marrying someone from a higher class can elevate your status, but the institution of marriage remains deeply patriarchal and serves only men. Marriages that were doomed to fail from the beginning, men that come and go as and when they need to quench their physical and intellectual desires, and the children that were left behind with the mothers — none of the women in these stories had it easy. It was even a relief to see that somehow Lenu managed to escape such shackles in the end despite the early setbacks.

"The waste of intelligence. A community that finds it natural to suffocate with the care of home and children so many women’s intellectual energies is its own enemy and doesn’t realize it.”

It is also the story of how relationships evolve. There is always that push and pull between Lina and Lenu. Their lives are inseparable. Men entered and left their lives, but even amidst hatred, self-pity and jealousy, their relationship continued. Lila's character is detestable sometimes. But the trouble is that, even when I want to hate her, there are parts of her that deserved empathy. The last book, The Story of a Lost Child, was difficult in that regard. Her desire to vanish, to slip off completely, was painful to read. After a lifetime of struggle, sometimes all we want as women are to erase ourselves from the scenes.

"I want to untie my name, slip it off me, throw it away, forget it."

It feels like I have been living in Naples for a long time. I feel heavy, my thoughts are muddled and the ending does not offer any solace. If you are up for such an emotional ride, please pick up these novels and maybe read them in one go.

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

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About the Creator

chembarathi

In search of the stories I cannot hold in my heart.

https://linktr.ee/chembarathi

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