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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence
This is my first Elena Ferrante read and I have to say that I will be picking up more of their work. This book is honestly in my opinion a really simple book (just like Kim Ji Young, Born 1982) that explores the complexities of life, especially that of a woman.
I have always said that an author who is unafraid of writing the word, cock, cunt, cum, pussy in the same paragraph can write just about anything. Elena Ferrante just like Haruki Murakami takes verisimilitude to another level and it is just absolutely fantastic.
In this book we follow Olga whose husband abandoned her and their two children to start a life with another family. This takes a toll on Olga, she begins to feel undesirable, feels empty and trapped within her role as a mother. She loses her sense of self and is crushed by the betrayal of the system of marriage and companionship. This then reflects in her relationship with her children, animals, neighbours and most importantly herself.
She begins to feel dissociated from her body and life. This worsen when her cunt of a husband comes back claiming rights and paying child support (which just annoys me, why call it child support when the children are his responsibility much as they are hers. The whole thing just irks me.) If there was an Olympics for bad husbands, this man will be winning gold.
I am going to be reading a lot more of Elena Ferrante work because the writing is simply exquisite and the translator did a great job.
I have always said that an author who is unafraid of writing the word, cock, cunt, cum, pussy in the same paragraph can write just about anything. Elena Ferrante just like Haruki Murakami takes verisimilitude to another level and it is just absolutely fantastic.
In this book we follow Olga whose husband abandoned her and their two children to start a life with another family. This takes a toll on Olga, she begins to feel undesirable, feels empty and trapped within her role as a mother. She loses her sense of self and is crushed by the betrayal of the system of marriage and companionship. This then reflects in her relationship with her children, animals, neighbours and most importantly herself.
She begins to feel dissociated from her body and life. This worsen when her cunt of a husband comes back claiming rights and paying child support (which just annoys me, why call it child support when the children are his responsibility much as they are hers. The whole thing just irks me.) If there was an Olympics for bad husbands, this man will be winning gold.
I am going to be reading a lot more of Elena Ferrante work because the writing is simply exquisite and the translator did a great job.
I am obsessed with Miss Elena Ferrante, long live the disaster woman.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Highly recommended
“But five days later he telephoned me in embarrassment, justified himself, said that there had come upon a sudden absence of sense. The phrase made an impression on me, and I had turned it over and over in my head.”
Why did I wait so long to read Elena Ferrante? She became a love at first read author for me. There’s just something about her writing that can make me go feral.
The Days of Abandonment deals with the fallout of a seemingly happy marriage and Olga’s mental breakdown after her husband left her for a younger woman. An adultery novel is not my cup of tea but this book had all my attention. Ferrante’s prose was maddening (in the best way). The way she conveyed emotions through words was so effective. She forced me to live inside Olga’s head and feel her desperation, her madness, her descent to an “absence of sense.”
“I didn’t know how to find answers to the question marks, every possible answer seemed absurd. I was lost in the where am I, in the what am I doing. I was mute beside the why. This I had become in the course of a night. Maybe I didn’t know when, after protesting, after resisting for months, I had seen myself broken. A broken clock that, because its metal heart continued to beat, was now breaking the time of everything else.”
But this isn’t just about the story of a woman gone mad. It’s also about a woman trying to find herself after her identity, or what she thought was her identity as dictated by society, was questioned.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-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
smärtsamt, klaustrofobiskt och desperat om vad känslan av ensamhet kan göra med en. men ingen har väl missat att ferrante är en skicklig skribent vid det här laget.
Un plongeon étouffant, asphyxiant d'angoisse. Bouleversant récit du témoin de sa propre noyade dans la folie.
"je ne pouvais m'empêcher de penser à ce qui de sa nature couvait inévitablement chez mes enfants. Mario exploserait soudainement depuis l'intérieur de leurs os, maintenant, au cours des jours, des années a venir, de manière toujours plus visible. Combien de lui-même aurais-je été contrainte d'aimer pour toujours sans même m'en rendre compte, du seul fait que je les aimais? Quel écumeux et complexe mélange est un couple. Bien que la relation s'effiloche et puis cesse, elle continue à agir par des voies secrètes, elle ne meurt pas, elle ne veut pas mourrir."
"je ne pouvais m'empêcher de penser à ce qui de sa nature couvait inévitablement chez mes enfants. Mario exploserait soudainement depuis l'intérieur de leurs os, maintenant, au cours des jours, des années a venir, de manière toujours plus visible. Combien de lui-même aurais-je été contrainte d'aimer pour toujours sans même m'en rendre compte, du seul fait que je les aimais? Quel écumeux et complexe mélange est un couple. Bien que la relation s'effiloche et puis cesse, elle continue à agir par des voies secrètes, elle ne meurt pas, elle ne veut pas mourrir."
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty gut wrenching in the middle as a brutal depiction of a women loosing herself after her husband leaves for a much younger women