3.91 AVERAGE

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

Ez nem nekem való könyv volt. Ugyanis bár eleinte érdeklődéssel olvastam, a közepe felé, ahol Olga kezd teljesen szétesni és megjárja a poklok poklát (szó szerint) egyre inkább irtóztam tőle és attól amit csinál. Biztos túl racionális gondolkozású vagyok, nem a nagy érzelmi viharjaimról híres, sőt a labilitás is messzire van tőlem ezért aztán nem tudtam együtt érezni azzal, ahogy elveszti lába alól a talajt egyre mélyebbre süllyed magába, a depressziójába. Ráadásul a folytonos utalások az Anna Kareninára, meglehetősen feszültté tettek. A vége mondjuk megnyugvást hozott nekem is és Olgának is, mindenesetre tanulságos kötet volt.

http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/2009/09/23/elena_ferrante_amikor_elhagytak/
dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

This book reads like a daily diary of a broken women who was betrayed and lied to by her cheating husband and she was left to try to pick up the pieces while raising 2 kids and a dog. 
This story was everything I love in a contemporary book but from time to time it would lose me and my attention would be elsewhere. But nonetheless I still enjoyed this book in its entirety. I would be checking out other books from this author. 
emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Poor Olga! Ferrante illuminated thoughtfully both how we allow ourselves to fall into certain roles constructed around those key people we spend our lives with and how our mind can fail us when we’re most in need of stability and direction.

Olga’s journey from initial abandonment by her husband, through to her mental collapse and back again may feel dramatic but I think it’s pretty spot on with how we can feel when presented with a situation we didn’t choose. How in our heads we can get and how long the process of moving on can take.

Even when Olga is aware of the path she is on, there is little she can do to avoid it. Perhaps in a way, Olga gives us pause to be a little bit easier on ourselves when life deals us a bad hand. To remember that we will come out of this but in the meantime it’s ok to not be ok.

Also what a dick is Mario? I think the last few chapters highlighted that in a funny way. Him getting over seeing the kids after having them for a few weekends and reasoning that they should spend more time with Olga as she’s their mother after all. Sadly I think this serves to highlight how selfish people can be and probably calls us to take more responsibility for how much of ourselves we are willing to compromise in these situations.

Olga clearly defined herself by her family, and by her husband. Once abandoned by her husband, how does she now piece together the parts of her identity? There is something to be said for not losing yourself in a relationship but there’s also as much to be said for keeping your barriers up and never getting to explore the joy of true intimacy.

I think what you could take from this story is that it’s important not to make yourself smaller to make the one you love bigger. But also that throwing yourself fully in to a relationship shouldn’t be avoided because even if it doesn’t work out, life will go on.

While this book clearly gave me a lot to think about I’m giving it 3 stars because it wasn’t a very enjoyable read. Half the time you wanted to be like one of Olga’s friends and stop talking to her until she comes to her senses. While Ferrante did a great job of portraying an accurate representation of the emotional turmoil caused by such events, it was heavy.






















challenging dark emotional 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

Weirdly I bought this book on a whim, wanting to become more familiar with Ferrante’s works, and the next day I was broken up with
challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

Consuming, captivating .. you feel like you’re drowning with Olga.. remind yourself to come up for air.

Amazing