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What we are left with, though, is so vivid and authentic that no carefully polished novel could compete with it. Ferrante’s prose is bare the language takes a back seat and is nothing more than a tool to the narrative that is pushed forward by its own urgency. Neither do they have time for stylistic flourishes. These books defiantly ignore all creative writing advice and cheerfully tell and not show, abandon all sensible plot structure and introduce as many characters as they feel like, not really caring whether that whole cast is in any way necessary. Additionally, Knausgaard has happily joined the marketing circus, which is why I find Ferrante’s presumed exhibitionism a lot more palatable. The autobiographical component is official in case of Knausgaard and alleged in Ferrante’s. Personally, I find this whole mystery of little interest as I share her view that all that the author wants to say she should say in the book and there is no need for the entire marketing circus.įerrante’s Naples novels have been compared to Knausgaard’s magnum opus because both authors can be characterised by their hyperreal scrutiny which seemingly can only be achieved in autobiographical novels. No review of Ferrante’s book is complete without a mention of how no one knows who Ferrante is or even if she exists as an individual woman at all. So despite the terrible cover, and a rather idiotic blurb I knew it would be a fine book. Before you start wondering what sort of wonderful place I worked at, let me clarify it was a literary agency, so such things were totally commonplace. In fact, everyone in the office received a copy – that’s how much our boss wanted us to read it. I received this book as a Christmas present from my boss over a year ago. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come. “A large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” writes James Wood in The New Yorkerįerrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. “Spectacular,” says Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air. “An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends,” writes Entertainment Weekly. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. An English-language stage adaptation that encompasses the entire quartet is currently on in London.Soon to be an HBO series, book one in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)īeginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Mercifully, the show will be filmed in Italian, not English. No casting announcements have yet been made, but the series begins shooting in Naples this summer, which seems like a perfect opportunity to send some relatively unknown Neapolitan actresses to stardom. Costanzo will also direct all eight episodes. Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo will write the episodes alongside the now not-so-enigmatic Ferrante herself. “An exploration of the complicated intensity of female friendship, these ambitious stories will no doubt resonate with the HBO audience,” said HBO’s programming chief Casey Bloys, in a statement. HBO’s press release only addresses the adaptation of My Brilliant Friend, but since the original plan has always been to adapt the entire quartet, there is the potential for HBO to later pick up adaptations of the novel’s three sequels, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child.
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