The Neapolitan Novels
Is it pretentious that I chose the Italian covers for these novels? Maybe. Anyway, it’s time to talk about the Neapolitan Novels, by Elena Ferrante. Many of us read the first book in the series, My Brilliant Friend, for Engie’s Cool Bloggers Book Club in February. Some of us adored it, some tolerated it, some wished they had taken that time to deep clean their bathtub. I’m in the adored it category, so I went on and read the other three books in the series, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child. I also listened to them on audiobook, and re-watched the available seasons on HBO (final book/season out later this year!) For this post, I originally thought I would do detailed summaries of the books for anyone who wanted to read about what happened after the first book, but I started on it, and wow, that was a lot of work. Instead, I’ll give a quick summary, and link to longer ones in case anyone is interested. Spoilers, obviously. Maybe we can have a conversation, especially Engie, Jacquie, maybe Jenny’s husband will even chime in! And of course anyone else who is interested – maybe you only read MBF and are unlikely to read the rest, but would like to learn how they turned out?
This is the first book in the series (which the author says she thinks of as one book, not four), and is the one we read for book club. As a reminder, Lenu and Lila live in a rough neighborhood in Naples a few years after WWII. They are BFF with a complicated power dynamic. They meet in elementary school and bond because they are both very bright students. Each throws the other girl’s cherished doll into the basement of their apartment building, which are then lost. They buy a copy of Little Women and read it to death, and decide they want to become authors. Lenu gets to go to middle school, Lila does not. Lenu goes away for the summer to a nearby island as a teen and drools over Nino, a boy who used to live in their very poor neighborhood, and is molested by Nino’s father. Meanwhile, Lila is learning about her father’s shoe making business, and designs some beautiful ones with her brother. She is pursued by the creepy Marcello Solara, the son of the local Camorra leader. To escape his interest, she marries Stefano Carracci (she is barely 16). Stefano invites Marcello and his even creepier brother Michele to the wedding, and Marcello shows up wearing the pair of handmade shoes that Lila designed and Stefano bought, thus ruining their marriage on day one.
Lila and Stefano go on a horrible honeymoon, where she rejects him, and he beats and rapes her. When they come home from their honeymoon, the neighborhood sees her bruises and their respect for Stefano increases. Lila is too wild and must be controlled. Lenu, meanwhile, gets busy with local boy Antonio in weird outdoor locations (they do not do the deed, just heavy petting. I can’t believe I just wrote ‘heavy petting’.) Lila gets pregnant and loses the baby, so the doctor suggests she go to the sea to rest and recover. She, her mother, her brother’s wife, and Lenu go back to the island that Lenu visited the prior summer. Lenu hopes to see Nino there, and she does. Lila and Nino fall in love and have an affair, Lenu is miserable. Lenu has sex for her first time with Nino’s ultra creepy father on the beach. Back in Naples, Lenu goes to high school, and finds out about a college that gives scholarships. She breaks up with Antonio. She goes to visit Lila in her shoe shop, and discovers that Lila and Nino have continued their affair. Lila is pregnant. Lila leaves Stefano and lives with Nino for a few weeks, and they make each other miserable. Lila goes back to Stefano, she is pregnant with (maybe) Nino’s baby, but Stefano is thrilled. Lenu goes to collage and is successful, though very insecure of her background, her poverty, and her intelligence. She has a relationship with a wealthy student, Franco, who teaches her to dress and act less like poor neighborhood trash. After they break up, she gets together with another student, Pietro, who is the son of a professor. She writes about her relationship with Nino’s father in a notebook, and gives it to Pietro. He gives it to his mother, who is a publisher, who declares it excellent and encourages Lenu. Lila has her baby, and eventually leaves Stefano and moves in with another young man from the neighborhood, Enzo. She and Enzo are not a couple, though he is in love with her. She gets a job at a meat factory. Lenu’s book is published, and Nino shows up at a reading at a book store.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Lila tells Lenu about the horrible conditions and sexual harassment she suffers at the meat factory. Lila goes to a meeting of the communist party, where she talks about the conditions, which starts trouble for her. Lenu writes an article about it, which is published in a local leftist newspaper. Lenu and Pietro get married. She does not want to have children right away, but gets pregnant on their honeymoon. Lenu is frustrated and alienated as a housewife, and struggles to write a second book. She has a second child. She writes a book about her childhood in Naples with Lila, but is discouraged by her MIL and abandons it. Lila and Enzo have taught themselves computer programming, and are now working with the ever creepy Michele Solara. Lenu’s little sister is living with Lila’s rejected suitor, Marcello Solara. Lenu meets up with Nino again, and he insinuates himself into a friendship with Pietro, and eventually Lenu and Nino begin an affair. Lenu leaves her husband with Nino.
Lenu and Pietro get a divorce, but Nino refuses to divorce his wife (did I forget to mention that Nino is married?) Lila and Enzo finally become a couple. Lila and Lenu both discover they are pregnant, and they have daughters a couple of weeks apart. The Solara brothers are now selling heroin. Lenu publishes another book (her third) and she and Lila work together on an article exposing the Solaras for the horrible crime family they are. One day when Lila and Lenu’s daughters are a few years old, Lila’s daughter Tina disappears. She is never found, and Lila and Enzo’s relationship falls apart under the strain. Lila makes Lenu promise to never write about her missing daughter. Lenu promises, but years later she publishes a book about their friendship that includes that story, and Lila never talks to her again. Lenu finds a hand delivered package at her home, the dolls that Lila and Lenu threw in the basement all those years before.
OK, now we’re all caught up. I love love loved these books, and am so glad that Engie had it for her book club. I loved the complicated friendship of Lila and Lenu, the glimpse into post war Naples, the power and political battles in Italy, the changing roles of women and men.
Questions to ponder:
Lila had the dolls the entire time, 50+ years, and never told Lenu. What kind of power play is that? Why would she never tell her?
The books are written from Lenu’s point of view, and at first I felt a lot of sympathy for her (though I always loved Lila best). As time went on, though, I felt like Lenu really wanted to control Lila. Wanted to be more successful than her, wanted Lila’s success to be because of something Lenu did.
While Lila and Lenu’s friendship waxed and waned and waxed again, I truly felt that they always loved each other, perhaps more than anyone else in their lives. Did you also feel this? Do you think they were soul mates? Do you believe in Soul Mates?
Lila suffered from what she called ‘dissolving margins’, when outlines of people and things dissolved and fell into each other. At first it seems like it could be some kind of migraine, but perhaps it is that she is having a physical reaction to what she perceives as a shifting reality. The first time it happens is on the roof on New Year’s Eve, when she sees her brother Rhino changing from the supportive brother she has always loved, to becoming more like the Solaras and Carraccis.
Lenu was not the most attentive mother. She was much more focused on her career than her children, and they resented her for it. Of course this is sexist, but did it make you think less of her?
What about Nino? Early on I kept thinking that he would be a great fit for Lenu, they were both academic, had similar interests, and so on. I was disappointed when he fell for Lila instead. Later, as we learned more about him, I felt like he was a shit just like his asshole father, and I wished they had never reconnected with him.
Did you enjoy the political backdrop of the stories? I completely left out Pasquale and the Professor’s daughter, and most of the drama of the meat factory. What about shithead Bruno?
Speaking of secondary characters, do you have thoughts about Alfonso, Stefano and Pinuccia’s younger brother, who married Nino’s sister Marisa and had a dalliance with Michele? And Gigliola, Michele’s wife (did they marry? I can’t remember).
The first book is titled “My Brilliant Friend”. Lenu is enraptured by Lila’s brilliant mind, as are Nino, Stefeno, and Michele. Lila calls Lenu her Brilliant Friend, and puts a lot of pressure on Lenu to maintain her grades, learn the Latin and the Greek and write the books. Do the things Lila wants to do but cannot.
The last book is titled “The Story of the Lost Child”. Most obviously, we have Lila’s daughter, Tina, who goes missing and is never found. But also, both Lenu and Lila lost their childhoods to the rough neighborhood. Lenu due to the molestation, Lila due to having to leave school early, and her marriage at 16.
My daughter and I have been watching the HBO series since it came out a few years ago, it is excellent, and is why I was excited to read the books. Have you seen it? The actor who plays Michele Solara has the most amazing face. I don’t mean he’s gorgeous, I just mean that his face tells you EVERYTHING. I googled ‘Michele Solara’s face’ and found this. I’m very much looking forward to the final season this fall, though I suspect Michele will be played by a different actor, as they will be in their 30s or 40s at the beginning of the season, and around 60 by the end.
We never find out where Lila has gone, only that she has finally managed to leave Naples and the neighborhood. I’m not sure there is any way for us to KNOW where she went. What is your fantasy? In mine, she’s writing a book of her own, and we’ll get to read it some day.
What else? Any other thoughts these books bring up in your mind?
20 Comments
Margaret
There are so many relationships that I got lost, but I’m sure in the books they make sense (at the time anyway!) I’ve enjoyed many of the family/friendship sagas that I’ve read. No one could carry grudges like my Italian relatives.
J
Margaret, I confess that I got confused too. I’ve watched the series a few times, and they finally all make sense to me now, but it took some time. The list of characters at the beginning of each book was very helpful!
Jacquie
Thank you, J, for writing these reviews! I do not write reviews, which means I often forget specifics of the books I love, but your excellent summaries have helped jog my memory – thank you!
Just before coming to your blog this morning, I read this review “My Brilliant Friend: Why is it the greatest book of the 21st century?” It’s an interesting article and offers insight to why the books set in Italy are so popular worldwide. https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/07/30/my-brilliant-friend-why-is-it-the-greatest-book-of-the-21st-century
I originally DNFed the first book several years ago and always meant to get back to it. I was excited when Engie selected this book as one of her online book club books and was glad when it was chosen. For me this series just got better and better, and I started to watch the series at the same time as I read the books. The casting was excellent, from the young girls to the more mature teens/young women.
Lila and Lenu’s friendship is at times supportive and antagonistic. I think what continues to connect them is their history, where they grew up, their shared experiences that only they know and understand because of the neighbourhood they grew up in. There is a lot of competition between them, but also at times great support. Lila continually pushes Lenu to excel at school, Lenu goes to Lila when she is very ill. One of the comments in the article I mentioned above, is that the book presents friendship in a way that no other author has done. I believe they loved each other very much, but that doesn’t mean tensions wouldn’t arise from time to time.
I loved the parts when Lenu went to the island for the summer. She seemed to really blossom and come into her own at those times. Sometimes a friendship can hold you back, and I think Lenu, who is more reserved, often felt overshadowed by Lila. Lila was bold, but that doesn’t always mean strong. I think we start to see Lenu’s strength come through in the books as she breaks away from her neighbourhood.
Lenu’s mother was horrible to her, unsupportive, but I felt that was due to her unhappiness with her own life. I felt that was a realistic picture of a parent/child relationship. Unhappy people don’t usually want to see the best for others. As for Lila’s family, there was so much violence. I think that’s why she was such a fighter – not just physically, but verbally. She was a girl from a lower working-class family in a patriarchal society. Had she been born into a different family and had the opportunity to go to university, who knows what path her life would have taken.
Nino was not one of my favourite characters and I tired of him and Lenu’s need to constantly go back to him. I think Stefano tried to be a good husband to Lila, but he was a product of his environment. How do you say no to mobster’s who run the neighborhood and you need their money to keep your business afloat? One of the most shocking scenes in all the books, is when Marcelo shows up at Stefano and Lila’s wedding IN THOSE SHOES!!! It was horrible, but one of the best moments in the entire series for me.
I enjoyed how the women changed according to the political, economic and social times. The horrible conditions in the meat factory Lila worked at, Lenu asserting her feminist rights, Lila and Enzo working with “this new thing called a computer.”
Speaking of Enzo, he became one of my favourite characters. I loved him in the book and in the show. He changed so much from the obnoxious, antagonistic boy to this steady, supportive love for Lila.
I’m not sure where Lila is/went, but I suspect she will reappear in Lenu’s life at some point and they will pick up where they left off, as old friends do.
Agan, thank you so much for doing this review, J! I am very excited for the 4th season. I read that the characters will be cast by new, older actors and I hope they are as suited as the previous Lilas and Lenus have been.
J
You make a good point about Stefano trying to be a good husband to Lila. In the first book, when he is courting her, she asks him if he is really any different than the other men. His reply was so telling. “The intention is there.”
I grew to love Enzo too. He’s loving, he’s supportive, he’s smart. What he wants is to make Lila happy. Is that enough for a person? Probably not, especially since she can’t really BE happy, but it’s who he is. I was so happy when they got together, and so sad when they broke up. And of course Tina. Sigh.
Lenu’s mom…she was indeed mean, but I remember her absolute joy when Lila buys Lenu new books, and when Lenu’s father decided that Lenu couldn’t go to school anymore, her mom did an about face and insisted that she would. I think she was also a product of her circumstances, and didn’t see the value of education for anyone, especially not a girl. But when push came to shove, she was there. And when she took 2 or 3 trains to get to Piza to care for Lenu when she was sick? Heartrending. And what about her limp? Lenu is so afraid that she will become her mother, has so much distain for her. When she has sciattica and has a limp of her own, I wondered if it was psychosomatic or real.
I also thought a lot about how Lila’s life would have been different if she could have gone to college. Also about how Lenu never really thought she was smart on her own, she always felt it was Lila’s genius that she was somehow co-opting.
Thanks for the link to the article, too, that was interesting! I’d been thinking about reviewing these books for months now, but never got around to it. Your comment and the NYT list encouraged me to finally just do it. Thank you!
Also, YES, I am looking forward to the final season of the show on HBO. My husband calls it our ‘Italian Show’ since it’s in Italian.
Jenny
I’ll bet a lot of people are happy you wrote this! I liked My Brilliant Friend, and read the beginning of the second book (because I had to see what the honeymoon was like- yikes) but didn’t really have the desire to keep reading the last three books. But I did want to find out what happens, especially since my husband read them all- and LOVED them- and kept exclaiming in alarm and amazement over the plots as he was reading. So now I know (my husband will be mad, because he keeps nagging me to read the books.) I can see why Ferrante considered these as one book- there’s no real ending except in the last one. The first three just flow into one another.
Thanks for filling me in : )
J
I’m glad you enjoyed my summary Jenny, and that your husband loved the books. He’s welcome to chime in if he wants to discuss them, or not if he doesn’t. 🙂
NGS
Count me in as someone in the camp who thinks these books are wonderful. I couldn’t believe how controversial the first one was for CBBC. I mean, who doesn’t love this book?! (Answer: Lots of cool bloggers, I guess.)
I know it’s a typo, but you writing Rhino instead of Rino had me on the floor. It’s such a great nickname! So appropriate.
I think what I really love about these books is that Ferrante dealt with women as complicated people. I LOVED that Lenu was a crappy mother because she WOULD be crappy – she’s so involved in her own feelings and thoughts and she didn’t WANT to be a mother. I loved that Lila and Lenu both engage in extramarital affairs because of course they would. They weren’t happy in their marriages. She’s writing REAL characters with real reactions and they sometimes make dumb mistakes and never learn (I was screaming about how horrible Nico was by the end), but aren’t we all sort of like that?
I also think the titles are brilliant (no reference intended, but I’m not taking it back). Who is the brilliant friend? Who is the lost child? There are obvious answers, of course, but both titles could be references more than one character. This is no obvious Pride and Prejudice bs. Everything about the writing is clever.
I feel seen by these books and that’s what makes them so special to me. I mean, I have no similar life experiences, but the emotions and stress and feelings are so perfectly executed. SO GOOD.
Okay, hear me out on my interpretation of the ending. Hear me out. Lenu has proven that she’s an unreliable narrator time and time again. I think she knows exactly where Lila is and she and Lila are going to live together and spend the rest of their lives together having a complicated relationship. They’re writing books to compete against each other in who writes the best one. Yeah. That’s what I think.
J
YES TO ALL OF THIS. If Lenu had suddenly become less self absorbed and been a good mother, it would be so against who we know her to be, right?
Nico – what a dick. He pissed me off SO MANY TIMES. What does he say, over and over? I am not my father. I will not be my father. Who does he turn out to be? His fucking father.
Your ending is perfect and I am going to take it as my own. The only thing I want from this story is for them to be grumpy old women living together. Lenu says she knows she will never see Lila again, but Lenu says a lot of shit.
Also, my Rhino typo – leaving it in, because you’re right, it’s perfect. I could see Rino as a rhino…
Have you watched the show on HBO? If you don’t have HBO, wait until the new season comes out, and then get it and binge it in a month. Each season is 8 episodes, so it’s totally doable. They get surprisingly little wrong.
Jacquie
I agree with you Engie, that Ferrante has written real, complicated, loveable, characters and situations.
I like your ending of the book! I feel certain that Lenu and Lila will always find a way back to each other.
J
I like it too. The thought of them never seeing each other again, even after Lenu’s betrayal in writing about Tina, made me too sad.
Elisabeth
I found MBF such a slog…BUT I also immediately went to read synopses of all the other books because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
J
I remembered that you had done that, and I love that while the books were a slog for you, you were still invested enough to want to know what was going to happen!
Jacquie
Yes, I do remember her mum coming to help her when she was ill, but I think I remember her coldness more and her resentment towards the teacher who came to the house to encourage (pressure??) the family to support Lenu’s education. The relationship between mother and daughter is very realistic, so I didn’t see it as a bad part of the book or felt it should have been different.
J
Yeah, the relationships in this story are all very complicated, right? I agree with you, that’s part of what makes the story so good.
Ally Bean
I’ve never read these books, only recently became aware of them, truth be told. From your reviews they sound absorbing and thought-provoking in a good way. Thanks for reminding me about them.
J
Well now you don’t need to read them if you don’t want to, since I gave away the entire plot!
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Arggh…. I cant even find interest in reading through these summeries. I just hate these books. I did read MBF summery. Nothing much happened after I stopped I guess. But the second summery I was already bored. I am so glad I stopped those books.
But I am more glad they bring you so much joy. It so interesting that the same book can have such different responses. I love that about books. Books are magic.
J
I’m laughing that you couldn’t even muster the interest to read the summaries! LOL. Yes, books are indeed magic.
Anne
Thank you for confirming my decision NOT to continue with the series. Whew. I got to your summary of book #2, and read that he raped her on the honeymoon and thought, not. for. me. I’m glad you enjoyed them, though, and it just shows there are books for every person. 🙂
J
I guess it helped me that I saw the series before I read the books (all but the last one, that season comes out in September!) so I knew how utterly violent it is, in so many ways.