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A review by astridhealy
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
5.0
As always, parting with one of Ferrante’s novels feels like digging a hole in one’s heart to reveal an emptiness. I felt so many things in these four intense days : anger, jealousy, shock at the crude physical and mental violence, hope that almost always was deceived, admiration, annoyance, intense sadness.
I felt like an intruder in real people’s lives and it was amazing.
This third book is different from the first two, as it contains less of Lila’s presence, which i thought at first would bother me : i thought it would therefore lack the strange, raw magic she brings to the novel. But it developed another story, that of Elena, more profoundly, and we got to know her in the most incredible intimacy i have ever come across.
I don’t know how long i’ll need to recover from this one before reading the last. I want to put off leaving this passionate series.
I felt like an intruder in real people’s lives and it was amazing.
This third book is different from the first two, as it contains less of Lila’s presence, which i thought at first would bother me : i thought it would therefore lack the strange, raw magic she brings to the novel. But it developed another story, that of Elena, more profoundly, and we got to know her in the most incredible intimacy i have ever come across.
I don’t know how long i’ll need to recover from this one before reading the last. I want to put off leaving this passionate series.