The Story of a New Name: My Brilliant Friend Book 2: Youth: 02 (Neapolitan Quartet, 2)

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If nothing could save us, not money, not a male body, and not even studying, we might as well destroy everything immediately." I love the first novel in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series My Brilliant Friend (you can read my review of it here), so I was very excited to read the second novel in the series – The Story Of A New Name. We can’t stop talking about Elena Ferrante” we said to each other throughout 2016—on social media, in the classroom, in pressing the Neapolitan novels upon friends and relatives. This collection of essays on Ferrante emerges from a conference panel at the Modern Language Association convention in Philadelphia in January, 2017, convened by the Prose Fiction Division. The pseudonymous Italian writer, who chooses not to reveal herself beyond her writing, had come to new popularity in the US in the past few years, and we found we had a lot to say about feminism, rage, women’s friendships, genre clashes, and bad sex, amongst other topics. We still can’t stop talking about Ferrante, and we trust that when you read these lively, provocative essays, you too will join the chorus.

It's tempting to say " women's friendship" because Ferrante follows Elena's and Lila's search for freedom in a culture so male-dominated that 50 years later, Silvio Berlusconi could hold "bunga bunga" sex parties and still keep getting elected prime minister. Never one to fear dark or spiky emotions, Ferrante captures their shifting friendship in all its jagged complicity and competition, its furious jealousies and lasting affections. The novel's narrative pleasure is dizzying. Every action naturally folds into the next; the continuity is superb. The clarity is extraordinary, it never relents. I found myself slowing down to take in the richness as I would when reading a poem. That's the paradox Ferrante incites in readers: between wanting to gallop through the stunning tale, to just gobble it up like cake, and slowing down to take in the beauty of its structure and language. The drama of the two women was so real and well-written that I feel as if know them. I did like the first book, but I thought this second book was a much stronger story. And now I am so engrossed in their lives that I instantly started reading book three after finishing book two. Highly recommended. Man mano, questo libro è diventato una droga in senso letterale: non ne potevo fare a meno, non potevo lasciarlo – ho perfino messo da parte il Dampyr del mese, che di solito brucia nelle mani finché non lo leggo, e invece questa volta è passato in secondo ordine.

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stars Update: Bumping this one up to a 5 stars because after a few months of thinking about it, it's definitely my favorite in the series. I keep finding myself thinking of certain scenes and elements of this installment, and I love it. A novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: “Everyone should read anything with Ferrante’s name on it” ( The Boston Globe). Così poco attuale il “messaggio” di questa Ferrante, così fuori dal mondo e da come vanno davvero le cose, così rinfrescante…

So it’s tough out there for a novelist, which is why we built this generator: to try and give you some inspiration. Any of the titles that you score through it are yours to use. We’d be even more delighted if you dropped us the success story at [email protected]! If you find that you need even more of a spark beyond our generator, the Internet’s got you covered. Here are some of our other favorite generators on the web: I’m always surprised when someone points out as a flaw the fact that my stories contain no possibility of transcendence.” 1 Elena Ferrante is a very great novelist . . . In a world often held prisoner to minimalism, her writing is extremely powerful, earthy, and audacious.” The Neapolitan Novels" tell the story of Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, who meet at age 8 in early 1950s Naples. They bond over their love of books and their yearning for a life larger than what's offered by their poor, working-class neighborhood that cruelly grinds down everyone, especially women. Where Elena is a bright, accommodating girl eager for approval — she's a classic A-student — her brilliant friend Lila is more gifted, sexier and utterly implacable — she does what she wants. In a decision that alters their lives, Elena's parents pay to let her continue beyond grade school, but Lila's father refuses. Loved it just as much the 2nd time reading it. I adore these characters and would read 100 books about them.The bus ride starts from a Naples train station one stop removed from the main train station; the dead end last stop with rows of worn graffitied regional trains parked side by side almost in the dark. The seats in these regional trains are metal and miniature like cable car seats making them hood on the outside but dainty and refined on the inside. Once you leave Naples, the Naples-Torregaveta bus ride is almost entirely along the coast, like the Almalfi Coast route but less winding and less steep. This bus ride requires almost no attention from the bus driver, who frequently had his eyes off the road. I said to myself every day: I am what I am and I have to accept myself; I was born like this, in this city, with this dialect, without money; I will give what I can give, I will take what I can take, I will endure what has to be endured." Elena Ferrante is an absolute marvel. This was utterly ravishing. How does she do it? Structurally her novels could hardly be more conservative, her subject matter – the fraught friendship of two women – has been done to death. And yet you’re constantly left with the feeling that no one has ever done what she does before. Or at least no one has done it with such searing insight and freshness. Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you’ll have some idea of how explosive these works are.”— The Australian I am incredibly impressed by Ferrante's ability to develop characters that are real, more real than almost any other characters I have read before. They have ambition, are flawed, fight and love and inspire.