jessdouglas 's review for:

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

5.0

emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I think I will be thinking about this book every hour for at least the next month or so. what a completely engrossing series. Ferrante’s character development is so tangible and human and often heartbreaking.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a narrative with such a high-view lens on lifetimes and the things we do to try to make the world more inhabitable and better for the next generation of ourselves. 

the explorations of female friendship, sisterhood, motherhood, generational trauma, grief, and poverty were so profound, and there were no simple answers. 

my need to know everything is challenged by this ending (and how like Lenù I feel), but that’s life, baby. 

“In what disorder we lived, how many fragments of ourselves were scattered, as if to live were to explode into splinters.” 

“Every intense relationship between human beings is full of traps, and if you want it to endure you have to learn to avoid them. I did so then, and finally it seemed that I had only come up against yet another proof of how splendid and shadowy our friendship was, how long and complicated Lila’s suffering had been, how it still endured and would endure forever.” 

“To write, you have to want something to survive you.”