My Brilliant Friend

 My Brilliant Friend

By Elena Ferrante

Been having a bit of a hard time finding books that engross me the way I need them to this time of year, so I

turned to the New York Times and its list of the "100 Greatest Novels of the 21st Century So Far" for help. This book topped the list, and its praised all sorts of other places, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's essentially a coming-of-age story set in Naples, Italy, a decade or so after the end of World War II. There are two main characters, Linu and Lila, whose lives and identities become intertwined. The friendship has a strange start with Lila throwing Linu's beloved doll down what is essentially a sewer drain and Linu reciprocating. Both girls are distraught and forge a bond in their feelings and in their shared adventurous attempt to rescue the toys. 

The girls become inseparable, but, over time, their lives start to diverge as both seek different pathways to a life outside of their small, stultifying, and sometimes violent neighborhood within Naples. Linu is the first to physically leave, securing a spot at a high school near the downtown after earning high marks in middle school. Her first trip outside the neighborhood is eye-opening -- there is a whole world out there, even in the same city she lives in! This option isn't open to Lila, though, yet for a time she attempts to keep up with her friend's learning. School had always come quickly to her, and she used books from the local library to study Latin and Greek, even going so far as tutoring Linu to help her earn high marks. After a while, though, her intellectual powers find another outlet -- shoes. Her father works to repair shoes, and she designs several pairs. She and her brother work tirelessly for a time to make them a reality, only to have their father reject the effort outright. 

And so, Lila finds herself with basically only one option for a better life: men. Or boys, really. She has an energy and beauty that attracts the neighborhood elite, and becomes betrothed at just 16 to a local grocer who is perhaps the richest man in town. The book ends as her wedding-day luncheon winds down. To all outside observers, it seems as though she has made it. She has found a financial security, even wealth, that most in the neighborhood can only dream of. It has Linu questioning herself. What is the point, she thinks, of all her studying? Where will it lead except to a life as a wife in her neighborhood -- albeit one where she can speak perfect Italian? 

Which brings up one of the central questions of the book: Who, really, is the "brilliant" friend? Whose choices and cunning are the "right" ones, the ones that will lead to a better life as a woman in this male-, and class-centered society? It's a question that is left unanswered as the book ends abruptly. There are two more that follow. I'm not yet sure if I'll seek out the answer.