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ashmb's review against another edition
3.0
I think I am so used to 'high action' fantasy books, that the thought of a book where nothing much happens except the everyday occurance of life, is still foreign to me.
The book was written in a way that was easy to digest. From the perspective of a girl navigtating the world from child to teenager and learning and unlearning all the things her family has taught her both proactively and simply by being human.
She has such a good grasp of people and seemed to notice and piece together seemingly small things in a very mature and experienced way. Sometimes that felt at odds with the fact this was meant to be a story of a 13-15 year old, told from the memories of that person now grown-up.
I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more than the beginning. The way the bracelet weaved itself through the story to show the lies adults tell others and themselves was interesting.
The book was written in a way that was easy to digest. From the perspective of a girl navigtating the world from child to teenager and learning and unlearning all the things her family has taught her both proactively and simply by being human.
She has such a good grasp of people and seemed to notice and piece together seemingly small things in a very mature and experienced way. Sometimes that felt at odds with the fact this was meant to be a story of a 13-15 year old, told from the memories of that person now grown-up.
I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more than the beginning. The way the bracelet weaved itself through the story to show the lies adults tell others and themselves was interesting.
erine's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't like this book. I did not enjoy living in the mind of a fifteen year old, wallowing in the mire of adolescence, self-doubt, destructive decisions, awkward experimentation, and strange pressures from all sides. And then the idea that the end of adolescence is .
That being said, however, there were parts within the whole that I really liked. Giovanna gets swept up with this idea of ugliness -- but it's not just a physical ugliness that bothers her, it's the idea that her soul and entire being are ugly. This concept carries throughout the book, popping up in her interactions with her estranged Aunt Vittoria and elsewhere. Behavior is as ugly as physical appearance.
Relationships are also heavily explored -- between parent and child, between siblings, between widow and mistress, between friends. How these webs of relationships catch other people unawares and have far-reaching impact. And (relating back to the whole idea of what makes someone ugly) the way that different people perceive a single person and how that affects their relationship. Vittoria is a polarizing figure, and opinions on her differ greatly in the beginning, but as the story continues, a single narrative begins to coalesce around her. Compare that to Giovanna and how different people (including herself) see her throughout the book. How she sees herself always in relation to how others see her.
So yeah, I did not like this book. And yet somehow I still enjoyed it. Both of those things are true because somehow Ferrante captures a fifteen-year-old girl's mind well enough to make this story relatable and revealing, and yet not a place I ever really wanted to go back to.
Spoiler
as simple as losing one's virginity is just... well... it's as irritating as the idea that as a woman your happy ending was getting marriedThat being said, however, there were parts within the whole that I really liked. Giovanna gets swept up with this idea of ugliness -- but it's not just a physical ugliness that bothers her, it's the idea that her soul and entire being are ugly. This concept carries throughout the book, popping up in her interactions with her estranged Aunt Vittoria and elsewhere. Behavior is as ugly as physical appearance.
Relationships are also heavily explored -- between parent and child, between siblings, between widow and mistress, between friends. How these webs of relationships catch other people unawares and have far-reaching impact. And (relating back to the whole idea of what makes someone ugly) the way that different people perceive a single person and how that affects their relationship. Vittoria is a polarizing figure, and opinions on her differ greatly in the beginning, but as the story continues, a single narrative begins to coalesce around her. Compare that to Giovanna and how different people (including herself) see her throughout the book. How she sees herself always in relation to how others see her.
So yeah, I did not like this book. And yet somehow I still enjoyed it. Both of those things are true because somehow Ferrante captures a fifteen-year-old girl's mind well enough to make this story relatable and revealing, and yet not a place I ever really wanted to go back to.
lesafiesa's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
mpham's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
friya's review against another edition
5.0
"Everything -- the spaces of Naples, the blue light of a frigid February, those words -- remained fixed. But I slipped away, and am still slipping away, within these lines that are intended to give me a story, while in fact I am nothing, nothing of my own, nothing that has really begun or really been brought to completion: only a tangled knot, and nobody, not even the one who at this moment is writing, knows if it contains the right thread for a story or is merely a snarled confusion of suffering, without redemption."
emannuelk's review against another edition
4.0
Depois do sucesso da tetralogia napolitana, Elena Ferrante volta a publicar um livro que conta o começo, meio e fim de sua história. E que, ao mesmo tempo, tem muitas diferenças e muitas semelhanças da série que foi sucesso mundial. As semelhanças ficam o cenário, que é Nápoles, e com os principais temas que mobiliza, as questões de gênero e classe, com um foco especial para a representação cultural desta última. A narrativa se passa nos anos 90, portanto, com foco em uma geração mais jovem do que a da tetralogia (fiquei pensando se a autora se sentiria confortável escrevendo sobre a Nápoles de hoje, onde a questão racial teria que se juntar aos seus temas mais costumeiros) e tem até uma leve referencia ao grunge da época. Já a maior diferença é que, embora as relações entre mulheres sejam a base do livro, não é um livro sobre amizade e as complicações das relações que mudam e permanecem ao longo da vida, a trama é uma um tanto mais conhecida na história da literatura, a da perda da inocência, embora a perspectiva de Ferrante se afaste da maioria das versões clássicas que vemos dessa história. A protagonista adolescente facilita um pouco o impacto das reviravoltas dramáticas. É mais compreensível que certos acontecimentos desencadeiem sentimentos profundos (como o que dá o pontapé inicial à narrativa) em alguém dessa idade, com suas inseguranças, descobertas e mudanças. De modo geral, me parece tanto uma boa introdução para a obra da italiana (para quem não quer ter que se jogar em quatro livros longos), mas também algo que vai agradar quem já acompanhava sua trajetória.
my_inner_filomena's review against another edition
3.0
Pořád znova mě udivuje - s každou další knížkou - jak je možné, že mě tolik! dostala Geniální přítelkyně, celá čtyřdílná epochální sága, a všechno ostatní, co jsem od Ferrante četla, mě mnohem spíš rozčilovalo, roztrpčovalo, většinu času nudilo, nezajímalo. V téhle poslední jsem si našla pár částí, pár odstavců, pár vět, které mi snad za to stály, a ano, jsem ráda, že jsem to dočetla, ke konci už mě to i zajímalo, ale přece jen... Jsem opět zklamaná, přestože to nehodnotím vyloženě špatně. Ale možná konečně vůči dalším jejím knihám ztratím to bezhlavé nadšení, co se mě dosud překvapivě drželo.
winter94's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
suft's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0