A review by artemistics
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

so wholly miserable to read about these two girls, these two women, who can never truly set aside conflict and hurt each other because of the cycles and confinements they're stuck inside, both due to gender and class. always turning to compete with the other, always eager to best the other in any way they can, because there can't be enough for the two of them. always trying to be the best, because if they can't be the best with what little their lives offer them, that means they must be like everyone else in their neighborhood, like their mothers and grandmothers before them, and that is unbearable. after the bittersweet years of their childhood and early adolescence in my brilliant friend, elena ferrante just about ripped out my heart with this one, exposing the deepest ugly of both elena and lina and how they can harm one another. the ischia section i devoured manically, at first glad for this little bubble of happiness that reminded me of the summer elena and antonio had spent together in the last book, then remaining glued to the pages gradually watching things spiral downwards to the undoable, perhaps even unsalvagable, with the sick and yet familiar feeling attached to the realization that elena and lina are each other's truest friend, and yet have grown to be able to most acutely hurt the other because of the society they live in, in times where they don't understand the options they may have; it reminded me a lot of my grandma's tales of growing up around the same years elena and lina did, the way she accepted things at a young age that she still believes and repeats uncritically today to me in 2025. elena's emotional journey, sinking into jealousy, pettiness and misery at the state of her life and personhood, and lina's obvious pain, detachment and need to hurt others around her were both so relatable to read that i had to put down the book for almost a week until the million feelings it brought out inside me could simmer down.

even in the chaos of elena and lina's relationship, it hurts to see both of them, with their strengths and flaws, understanding their reasons and mistakes, and wanting to root for them to figure themselves out, even if you know they will not. can't wait to see if they can make things worse in the next one.