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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This book is a simmering pot of finely controlled rage, threatening to bubble over with the turn of every page. Each line sears, each chapter singes. This is a story about the smoking wreckage of a destroyed marriage, and how one woman goes about melding the fragmented shards of her life back together.
3.5 stars. This book felt claustrophobic and with anxiety penetrating every word.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
"Cosa ti è successo quella notte?"
"Ho avuto una reazione eccessiva che ha sfondato la superficie delle cose."
"E poi?"
"Sono caduta."
"E dove sei finita?"
"Da nessuna parte. Non c'era profonditá, non c'era precipizio. Non c'era niente."
Quando l'ultima pagina di un libro riesce a descrivere con precisione chirurgica il tuo stato d'animo puoi avere solo una conferma: la Ferrante colpisce e affonda.
"Ho avuto una reazione eccessiva che ha sfondato la superficie delle cose."
"E poi?"
"Sono caduta."
"E dove sei finita?"
"Da nessuna parte. Non c'era profonditá, non c'era precipizio. Non c'era niente."
Quando l'ultima pagina di un libro riesce a descrivere con precisione chirurgica il tuo stato d'animo puoi avere solo una conferma: la Ferrante colpisce e affonda.
My favorite part was when she hit Mario. And that’s on empowerment
Tutti i personaggi femminili della Ferrante che ho conosciuto fin ad ora mi stanno sempre un po’ antipatici all’inizio. Penso che sono delle cretine, troppo sentimentali ed emotive, che io non mi comporterei mai così. La scrittura è sempre fluida e senza che me ne accorga sono improvvisamente a metà libro, dentro la storia, assetata di capire di più, di sapere cosa accadrà. Quando giro l’ultima pagina capisco che non odio nessuno di loro, che non giudico nessuno, che non sono delle cretine. Quello che l’autrice ha il coraggio di fare è di scrivere ciò che pensiamo, ma non osiamo confessare a nessuno, neanche a noi stesse. È un messaggio di verità.
i truly would rather die than have a child. ferrante is a brilliant writer and i felt the despair and abandonment Olga feels throughout. this almost feels like a marriage thriller esp the climax
“What a mistake, above all, it had been to believe that I couldn’t live without him, when for a long time I had not been at all certain that I was alive with him.”
the days of abandonment tells an honest portrayal of womanhood; of what happened to women when they were raised to a certain standard of good. wives were seen as pitiful when they were not with their husbands. wives were the wrong ones when the husbands left them.
abandonment is such a strong word choice but also perfectly represents what olga, the main character, went through. her husband did not simply leave her but he also abandoned everything she had given to him. he abandoned her to do her duty as a parent alone; to be the head of the household and put control over everything running inside it when she was never given the share to take control before. the normal custom had always raised her to lower her voice, watched the language she used, and controlled the duty she could do as a woman, wife, and mother. when her husband left, she was suddenly exposed to the absence of that “normal” way of living.
elena is brutally honest in describing those days of abandonment. i urged myself to speed up my reading because i couldn’t stand watching olga repeatedly fall into the darkness. reading this book is not very easy. too many times i hoped i was there and could smack the shit out of her; “listen, do not crawl back to him. you can do better than this. come on, olga, think. do not fall into that black pit again.” but of course, olga did not listen.
it didn’t help at all when everyone else in this book acted like shit. the children were shit and the husband? extremely, the friends were the perfect portrayal of ignorance. there was no single sane person who could “represent” me; whom i could trust to do the smack for me.
it would be a lie to say i enjoyed reading this book, but i do agree that it deserves more attention for its rawness and frankness. it is not a new story that women to get abandoned by their husbands for another younger woman, but the way elena approaches this matter is certainly new and provoking (which is kind of amazing since the book was first released in 2002 but more than a decade later it still feels it is).
I bought this book for a class in Fall 2019 that I ended up dropping, and it has been in my "to-read" pile since. After catching up on a few other books I had been putting off as well, when I finally got to "The Days of Abandonment", I was in awe at its beauty. Elena Ferrante not only poignantly captures the events that follow Olga's husband leaving her, but writes with such rawness that leaves her readers no choice but to actively engage with the story and live through her narrator as if it were happening to them. It will take ALL of me to resist the urge of reading it again, to fully absorb every word of it, rather than start the next book at the top of the pile. I am ashamed that it took me this long to fall in love with Elena Ferrante, but I look forward to reading all of her other novels.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes