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frazzle 's review for:
The Story of a New Name
by Elena Ferrante
I honestly wasn't very excited for this. 471 pages seemed very long. I'd forgotten the complex set of characters and families that this story revolves around. I remembered the first novel as less good than I reviewed it.
But it was in fact another stunner from Ferrante. Gripping narrative and style. It had the same kind of compulsive interpersonal intrigue that Sally Rooney's novels have, but somehow seemed more richly textured than hers.
The relationship between Lila and Elena really does drive this book. It's complex and intriguing and has banal details that give it the ring of truth. The frustrations of both sides of the relationship I think are very sympathetically portrayed.
If I were to criticise I'd say that outside Lila and Elena, the secondary characters are a little flat. Their contribution to the novel seems to be little more than what is needed to further the Lila-Elena drama; their emotional range limited to violent rage bordering on hysteria (most of the young women), to apathy (Enzo) or bland contentment (most of the older women).
However, so engrossing is the Lila-Elena dynamic that we don't miss the secondary characters overly. In fact I wonder whether their blandness is a deliberate strategy to cast the protagonists' relationship into even greater relief. The overwhelming web of characters (thank goodness she has a character list) adds to this effect.
Ferrante is a master of creating opacities in characters, which become intriguing for the reader. I will be continuing the quartet before too long.
But it was in fact another stunner from Ferrante. Gripping narrative and style. It had the same kind of compulsive interpersonal intrigue that Sally Rooney's novels have, but somehow seemed more richly textured than hers.
The relationship between Lila and Elena really does drive this book. It's complex and intriguing and has banal details that give it the ring of truth. The frustrations of both sides of the relationship I think are very sympathetically portrayed.
If I were to criticise I'd say that outside Lila and Elena, the secondary characters are a little flat. Their contribution to the novel seems to be little more than what is needed to further the Lila-Elena drama; their emotional range limited to violent rage bordering on hysteria (most of the young women), to apathy (Enzo) or bland contentment (most of the older women).
However, so engrossing is the Lila-Elena dynamic that we don't miss the secondary characters overly. In fact I wonder whether their blandness is a deliberate strategy to cast the protagonists' relationship into even greater relief. The overwhelming web of characters (thank goodness she has a character list) adds to this effect.
Ferrante is a master of creating opacities in characters, which become intriguing for the reader. I will be continuing the quartet before too long.