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Elena Ferrante

3.76 AVERAGE

challenging dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

great psychological tension - not very often do I dislike a character to such an extent.

Ferrante makes me inexplicably, furiously curious about all of her characters, even the ones I don't like.

"A woman’s body does a thousand different things, toils, runs, studies, fantasizes, invents, wearies, and meanwhile the breasts enlarge, the lips of the sex swell, the flesh throbs with a round life that is yours, your life, and yet pushes elsewhere, draws away from you although it inhabits your belly, joyful and weighty, felt as a greedy impulse and yet repellent, like an insect’s poison injected into a vein."

The pseudonymous Italian novelist Elena Ferrante's unique writing style possesses every other element that intrigues her readers. It's smooth, provocative, dark, and unsettling at times. "The Lost Daughter" was no exception to that.

Our protagonist, Leda, a forty-seven-year old divorcee, has quite a busy schedule. With a full-time professor job, she is also the mother of two children, Biannca and Marta. Her daughters have decided to stay for a while in Canada with their father. So, she finally has got some "me" time. Relishing the sudden taste of liberty, she decided to head towards the Ionian coast this summer.

Amidst soaking in the sun, reading books, and writing notes Leda, notices a young woman, Nina, and her child.
"One day I looked up from my book and, for the first time, saw the young woman and the little girl....."

Intrigued by the mother-daughter duo, she starts recalling her time with her daughters and also with her mother. She didn't have a great equation with her mother. And her thoughts on motherhood are quite unusual but gutsy. Hard to relate at times yet difficult to ignore.

“Mama, what are you doing, why haven’t you called? Won’t you at least let us know if you’re alive or dead?”
Deeply moved, I murmured:
“I’m dead, but I’m fine.”


The book left me with a mixed feeling. Ferrante's finely tuned and intense language intrigues me, but at the same time, I can hardly relate with Leda. Still I agree with some of her points. I believe many women at some point in their life felt this way ( may not be as extreme as Leda ) . But they are hardly as expressive as Leda. They're scared to express coz' society will judge them. A man may leave his children behind for career, but when a woman wear the same shoe. She is nothing but 'selfish and heartless.'

It has been recently transformed into a Netfilx adaption movie. It has done complete justice to the novel. Colman, as usual, brilliant!

ising65's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 55%

I can’t stand the main character- and I didn’t want to spend any more time with her 
tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional informative reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark fast-paced
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes