My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Author: Elena Ferrante

Title: My Brilliant Friend 

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2011

Pages: 331

Genre: Historical Fiction 

 

     We were twelve years old, but we walked along the hot streets of the neighborhood, amid the dust and flies that the occasional old trucks stirred up as they passed, like two old ladies taking the measure of lives of disappointment, clinging tightly to each other. No one understood us, only we two—I thought—understood one another. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other.

     My Brilliant Friend was a book that I had never until I happened to be watching the new Richard E Grant travel show write around the world. To me merging a tv show about travel, books, and food would seem like a no-brainer, but here we are the first time I've seen such a thing. Anyway, in the first episode, he traveled in part to Naples. A place I was lucky enough to have spent a little bit of time and one that most defiantly left a lasting impression on me. Sadly however it is a place I have never really reach for in the world of literary fiction. And yet a book that aprently has taken the world by storm somehow slipped straight past me. I suppose it is in a genre that I don't dip into all that often so that might explain it. Still if it had not been for this tv show that would have remained so. I think that it came at just the right time as I was looking to take a step away from my usual haunts. 

     For me, Ferrante has created this perfect little world that encapsulates a small part of Naples at a very specific point in history. Now I am really not old enough to have been around when this book is set, but she has not only described this place but its people so well that you feel like you were a part of it. There is this strange warm feeling of being home as you turn the pages. It's almost like you can hear the children playing just outside your door or catch parts of muffled conversations through paper-thin walls. I suppose it is a feeling of familiarity that brings it close to your heart. 

     It's kind of hard to explain but I suppose that's what the best authors do to us, they have this magical ability to make the foreign and alien to us seem to like it has always been a part of our lives. They craft whole worlds so brilliantly that we can see them dance before our eyes like some albeit shadow play. Their rich depths and sun-kissed peaks are just at the ends of our fingers. It is easy to see having spent some time with this book why it has become such a beloved book the world over. 

      We see these streets and homes through the eyes of Elena, a girl struggling to come to terms with her place in post-war Italy. She is not exempt from the struggle of any girl growing up from adolescence to her late teens. I'm sure that there will be a great many parts of this story that will ring true with its readers. There is always something so universal about this period in our lives that be it in the nineteen fifties or last week we can recognize with a small smile and a relief that those years have now passed.  

     There is at times a brutal honesty to Ferrante's writing as she describes this young girl's ups and downs. She wants us to experience this life and neighborhood as if it was our own. And you have to admire that, she had an idea of what she wanted to do, and to me at least it seems like she did not compromise in that end. But obviously, Elena's story would not be complete without her ride or die Lila. And whilst their friendship has its problems it would be hard to see one without the other. Two lives intertwined and laid bare for us to witness. 

     For me whilst there is a great deal of hardship to be found around every corner of this place. These people, these friends, and families do their best to bring vibrant color and joy to their small world. It at times feel like the rest of Italy has little to no bearing on what each of them goes through. It is both magical and brutal and thought out your time with these two it is hard to tear yourself away. She has created something that stands up on its own two feet and demands you pay it attention. It is not often that I would say this but to me, it feels like this is one of those rare books to contain a soul of its very own. What she has created is a living breathing thing and what more could you want from any author. 

     For me, this book finds its footing in its author's warm honest about the lives of these two women. Whilst she wants us to see the joy they have not only in their friendship but also in their world, she still wants us to know that they cannot escape the low points in life. She strives to give her characters fully fleshed out souls. We can laugh and learn along with them and also learn a bit about the Naples of the past and its people. With all these elements swirling in the cooking pot it for me at least becomes impossible not to fall in love with this world and its inhabitants, so with another three books out at large in the world I know it won't be long before I'm reaching for her works again.