Reviews - The Days of Abandonment

2.86k reviews for:

The Days of Abandonment

Elena Ferrante

3.91 AVERAGE

sophie_liest's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

thiefofmemory's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

mianicole's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

radfordmanor's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

chrocaine's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rnr2117's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

fictionalsarah's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Content Warnings

scarfreads's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective tense fast-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

i was floored by this book. i think this is a masterpiece of rage, betrayal, grief, and longing. the intense experiences are completely within the narrator's mind (and very few events actually happen), so reading this honestly felt like the literary analogue of an anxiety attack. the way the writing style is shaped by olga's feelings is amazing: the long, almost lyrical sentences she employs when trying to hold it together are at war with the disjointed, fragmentary, falling-apart prose when she is lost to her abandonment.
one moment in particular stood out to me as both an image and an idea.

on the day in august when olga can't get out of her apartment, she tries to turn the key for so long that she eventually resorts to other methods. "i grabbed it solidly between my teeth and tried to make it turn....but i produced no effect, except the impression that, because the rotating movement of my teeth on the key wasn't working, it was finding an outlet in my face, tearing it like a can opener, and my teeth were moving, being unhinged from the foundation of my face, taking with them the nasal septum, an eyebrow, an eye, and revealing the viscid interior of head and throat."

this moment, set alongside the trauma of her marriage ending and the rediscovery of herself as an entity outside her husband, feels almost unbearably raw.
anyway...! what an astonishing book. i will be reading more of her soon.

crostata's review against another edition

5.0

reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

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