While this was my least favorite of the four novels, it was still a satisfying ending to the quartet. It was inevitably going to be a little more chalWhile this was my least favorite of the four novels, it was still a satisfying ending to the quartet. It was inevitably going to be a little more challenging because Ferrante covers as many years of Elena and Lila's lives in this one book as she did in the first three combined. Part of it is also the rhythm and shape of life, as the trajectory becomes set, the surprises and shocks are muffled with time.
But Ferrante has given us an amazing book and an amazing feat with these four novels. This friendship, which is never simple or easy and which at times seems inevitably done or inevitably healed is never pinned down to be just one thing.
Reading these books has me both jealous and terrified of their lower-class Italian life, the insults and praises, the honesty and straightforwardness. I think most people find there must be autobiography here because there are so many characters whose lives go in so many directions that it's hard to imagine them not being real people from a real neighborhood.
Elena's life is virtually nothing like mine, but I feel like we are the same person when I read these books. And I was utterly caught up in Elena's ambivalence towards motherhood. Apparently I yearn to hear this from other women because it is so rarely spoken, it was deeply fulfilling here. Even though Ferrante takes no pains to make Elena likeable or nice.
There's something about watching a woman make mistakes, the way Ferrante commits fully to Elena's mindset through each stage of her life. As a reader you want to tell her, "No, no, this thing with Nino will end badly," but you also know how it feels to be her, to love Nino, to take it all.
I listened to the audiobooks of all four novels and enjoyed the reader a lot, even though I initially was unsure she was the right fit. I can now recognize her voice of Lila immediately. Her straightforward tone fits the narration well. But I really must have hard copies of all four books and give them a place of honor on my shelves....more
The hype is real. It lives up to every word and more.
I listened to the audiobook over the course of several weeks (I had the files on my computer and The hype is real. It lives up to every word and more.
I listened to the audiobook over the course of several weeks (I had the files on my computer and my speaker access was spotty) and often would rewind to get myself restarted and realized that I could start over from the beginning over and over because these words are so sharp and so important that you don't get tired of hearing them.
It also deserves to be bought as a paper copy to underline extensively. Just do both....more
I can tell how much I really like a book based on how many times it comes up in conversation in the months after I read it. This is the book I am tellI can tell how much I really like a book based on how many times it comes up in conversation in the months after I read it. This is the book I am telling everyone about right now. My pitch is usually, "The first half is contemporary YA... except replace white kids in the suburbs with brown kids in the projects." That alone would be enough to get me in this book.
But then there's the slowly rising undercurrent as protagonist Aaron and his new friend Thomas start getting really close and you wonder, "Wait, is Thomas..." And then everything starts going in a very unexpected direction.
Silvera's one-two gut punch of a book gets big love from me because of his willingness to take risks and go way outside the box for Contemporary YA. There's Magical realism here, for sure, but there's also no emotional cautiousness. This book goes balls out when it comes to honesty and truth and a main character who has to break down a fury of feelings. I loved that the plot would zig when I expected it to zag, but mostly I loved Aaron dearly.
This is one of those books that when I finished it I thought, "Yeah, that's a really solid 4-star debut" but as I keep talking about it over and over, as it stays in my head, I realize that it's more than that. ...more
I heard raves about this book for months before I finally got to it. And despite having heard so much about it, I knew pretty much nothing except the I heard raves about this book for months before I finally got to it. And despite having heard so much about it, I knew pretty much nothing except the setup. No one told me what came next. Which, admittedly, is how I prefer it. But it's worth noting at this point that this is a book that would be the most heartwrenching of the year were it not for the fact that A Little Life was also a 2015 release. If you're one of those people who can't read novels where bad things happen to children (and I know there are many of you out there) you should give this one a hard pass.
The sad and difficult things that happen in this book are even harder given how sweet the first third or so is. After that it gets seriously Shakespearean. I had such a pit of dread in my stomach that I found myself occasionally tuning out because I wasn't sure I was ready for another bad thing to happen and I was sure one would.
But with all that said, it's an astounding book. Beautiful, visceral, and deeply emotional. A book I won't forget any time soon. It's also a good choice for audio, I tend to lean that way when I'm reading a book set in another country so I can get the lilt of the language and the reader here is excellent....more
I think the second Neapolitan novel might still be my favorite, but it's a close race. Each novel has taken a piece of life: childhood and early adoleI think the second Neapolitan novel might still be my favorite, but it's a close race. Each novel has taken a piece of life: childhood and early adolescence; young adulthood; and now in this third novel family, marriage, parenthood, career, politics, and all the complications that come with adult life.
This is the first of the books that wears its feminism directly and concretely, as Elena begins to explore what it means to be a woman after her own marriage leaves her feeling like less of a person. I continue to relate to Elena in many ways, even though our lives are very different. The way she fades away as a wife and mother rang very true to me.
Her explorations of love are almost childish, they belong in the second book really, but it shows just how much of her life Elena missed through her ambition and ideas of what life should be. This Elena is also smarter, more savvy, more sure of herself even as she is crippled with doubt.
Lila fades a bit in this novel as the two friends grow farther apart. And yet their friendship is as complex and tumultuous and competitive as ever. Lila relies on Elena's success for her own fulfillment but also resents her for it. Elena is only starting to see that as an adult and I'm curious to see what happens to both of them.
I am now tortured knowing I must wait for the final novel. And also tortured knowing the series will end....more
I didn't even try to review Ferrante's first novel in this series, My Brilliant Friend. But I feel like I can't keep copping out. Especially when thesI didn't even try to review Ferrante's first novel in this series, My Brilliant Friend. But I feel like I can't keep copping out. Especially when these books have given me so much to enjoy and care about.
I wonder if everyone has the reaction I do to these novels, or if they hit me so hard because of how much of Elena I understand. We are not identical, I don't come from poverty, I lack her brilliance, and I tend to have more confidence than she does. But I knew I was smart from an early age, I have female friendships that have been both loving and fiercely competitive, and I have bungled my fair share of romantic interests.
This second book I enjoyed even more than the first. The emotions are deeper and the stakes are higher. The plot moves amazingly quickly for a book that takes place in a few short years. And as someone who really loves plot-heavy books, I found that I never knew exactly what would happen next but always felt somehow like the plot twists made sense.
When I read this book I always assume it is mostly autobiographical simply because I cannot fathom one person coming up with such vast and complex stories and characters in their head.
In these books I care fiercely about Elena and Lila. Of course Elena has my main loyalty, as the narrator of the story. But Elena's narration allows a window into Lila's life. Elena occasionally tells us how Lila was feeling (based on Lila's own writings) but mostly Lila's experience is left untranslated. But it's not hard as a reader to see what Lila must feel about her life, especially as we get to know her so well. As outsiders we see what Elena can't: that Lila envies Elena far more than Elena envies Lila. And that Lila has much more of a reason to. Elena can't see this, she has her own struggles, and while she is winning the war all she sees are the battles she has lost (and most of these battles she has lost to Lila).
I think the magic that gets me to connect to these books is just how clearly Ferrante allows her characters' feelings to change. This is life, your whole mood turning on a dime, your whole outlook shifting in an instant. Elena's brief periods of confidence are mostly outweighed by her feelings of self-doubt. Over the course of the book we see her lose her juvenile sense of romance and her expectations of love change sharply. This is never stated outright, but we see her choices and it's very clear.
Lila's journey in the first book was mostly upwards, but in this book that's certainly not the case. Lila's trajectory constantly changes and we get to see her through many lenses. And there are all the other characters of the neighborhood.
This book still rings in my head. I have already started the third. This may not be a planned or terribly coherent review, but this book has my brain in a puddle and this is the best I can manage....more
I don't know that I have the ability to review this book beyond saying it is perfect.I don't know that I have the ability to review this book beyond saying it is perfect....more
Lots of people leave their religion as they grow up. It can be a simple step or a very traumatic and difficult one. But hardly anyone faces the challeLots of people leave their religion as they grow up. It can be a simple step or a very traumatic and difficult one. But hardly anyone faces the challenges that Jacob faces in Eden West. Jacob has been brought up among a small religious group (the kind we'd easily classify as a cult) where they live off the land and don't interact with the outside world. It is not an easy life, but it is full of faith. And while the group certainly has its outdated practices, they aren't nearly as horrifying as some you may hear about. As cults go, they're pretty mild.
Jacob's story is mostly about his internal struggle as he starts to find his life not shaping out the way he thought it would, the way he expected it to go if he was a person of faith. Which challenges his faith and commitment. As someone who went through a long and difficult crisis of faith, there was so much I could relate to in Jacob. He's an extraordinarily written character, someone whose belief is real and significant but still vulnerable.
As someone who lived a life of belief, I'm not sure how those who have never been sincerely religious will respond to the book. I hope it would be eye-opening, that they would see Jacob as real and three-dimensional and not dismiss him because of his beliefs. They'd certainly be denying themselves a beautiful experience of following his story if they did....more
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk came out in 2012 but I didn’t read it then for most of the reasons you expect. A war novel, even one set during a footBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk came out in 2012 but I didn’t read it then for most of the reasons you expect. A war novel, even one set during a football game, was a hard thing to get excited about. Over the last few years it’s gotten easier, but it still took three years of seeing people love it and say wonderful things about it before I finally took the plunge. I’m not sure if I would’ve liked it less when it came out, if it all still would’ve felt too tender and difficult back then, but it felt like I read it at just the right time, when those days seem not just years away but eons. Like reading about a completely different time and place.
I loved this book with the kind of love you save for only a few precious books. I listened to the audio version and doing that can create an intimate experience. That book was with me while I walked alone through airports and loaded the dishwasher and sat on the train. It kept me company and made me feel less alone and it started to feel like it and I developed a real relationship that I was hard pressed to leave. After I hit about halfway I wanted to listen to it all the time. I wanted it to go on forever.
It’s a real feat of a novel, the kind of feat I appreciate most. Its language manages to be both simple and startling, full of the kind of observations and sly comments that are so perfect you can’t believe you haven’t heard them before. (Referring to the bottles lined up above a bar as a “skyline,” for example, struck me as absolutely and utterly correct.) Then there are characters who feel like real people, and the fluidity with which Fountain moves between Billy’s internal thoughtfulness and the brash exterior of the Bravos is a thing of real beauty.
And of course there is Billy himself. A character who is a small town Texas boy (at only 19, boy feels like the right word) and the kind of person who is called an old soul and a philosopher by others. This is completely true. He is a study in contrasts. Both a grunt and a singular presence. A thoroughly masculine bundle of desires but a soft and romantic heart. Loyal to his fellow soldiers and terrified of the possibility of his death and its effect on his family. He is a fitting central symbol for this novel, a mostly innocent personality who observes and takes it all in and doesn’t have any strong political allegiances, who cares more about the people he loves than the country or the war.
His experiences as the celebrated hero whose fame has spread around the country is less about him and more about the people he comes into contact with. He is used everywhere, a symbol rather than a person, everything that is right about the war and everything that is wrong with it, depending on your point of view. The right seems to get more of the brunt of this than the left, which is probably inevitable when a book is set at Texas Stadium. But the biggest punches in Fountain’s book are less about politics and more about class. One thing the Bravos share is that they are in many ways at the bottom of the food chain, and even the most well off among them is now as powerless as the poorest, and used by the rich and powerful to make a point or to feel good about themselves.
I cared less about the politics and the struggles and the war, though, and more about Billy. My heart ached for him. Listening to the book means it happens in a stretched out version of real time. (The book takes place over the course of maybe 6 hours, and the audio is longer than that.) Every moment is heightened, every feeling is either magnified or muted. The mundane matters almost as much as the big final questions. Will the Bravos get their movie deal? Will Billy go back to the war? Will Billy find love with a Cowboys cheerleader? Yes, these things matter immensely, but so do the smallest moments where Billy and his squad share a secret drink, or joke about ridiculously priced Cowboys gear, or leer over Beyonce. It all matters, every moment, and that is how this book feels for every single moment you read it. ...more
So many people adored Life After Life that it's a bit embarrassing to admit that while I enjoyed it highly, I didn't feel like I quite got it the way So many people adored Life After Life that it's a bit embarrassing to admit that while I enjoyed it highly, I didn't feel like I quite got it the way many others did. If you were in the same boat, the good news is that Atkinson tells you at the end of the book exactly what she's spent the last few hundred pages doing in A God in Ruins so there's no chance you'll miss it. This is one of those things that can be very jarring to a reader (see: Atonement) but I admit I have a bit of a weakness for this type of bait and switch.
The story of Teddy (the younger brother of Ursula from Life After Life) and his progeny is rich with the mundane of life, parenthood, marriage and all that. But also full of the kind of surreal experiences that come from serving in WWII. The disparity between these times is striking and it's clear that Teddy doesn't know exactly how to cope with it and has no idea how to share what it all meant to him to anyone else in his life. The narrative often flits back and forth from one time to another. The most striking character is Teddy's daughter, Viola, prickly and vulnerable and never able to tell herself the truth.
Atkinson remains the kind of literary writer that I like best, a wonderful and talented wielder of language who still puts her story first....more
There is just nothing like a Richard Price novel. There's nothing like the worn out characters, the rhythm of real dialogue, the point when reading itThere is just nothing like a Richard Price novel. There's nothing like the worn out characters, the rhythm of real dialogue, the point when reading it where you know that this isn't going to end well for anyone. His books are so artfully done that if he wasn't labeled as a genre author he'd be celebrated as a genius.
The Whites is not a departure at all, rather it's one of his best. Not quite as grand in scale as LUSH LIFE, but as good a depiction of a cop's day-to-day life as Price has ever done, this novel is meticulously constructed even though you don't see that until it's nearly done. At first, Billy Graves may seem like the kind of cop you've seen dozens of times before. And in a lot of ways he is. He's not exactly resigned, but he's certainly going through the motions. He loves his kids but also forgets about them a lot. He tends to be a loner even though he has a tight knit group of mostly-former cops from his glory days. What makes Billy so fascinating is not his job but his marriage to Carmen, a trauma nurse whose moods and mental health are unpredictable and inexplicable.
On the other side of the story is Milton Ramos, also a cop, haunted by tragedy. Billy and Milton are tied together in many ways, they are two sides of the same coin, but they're united by the central theme of the novel: the whites. Whites, as in white whales, those perps that got away and never received justice for their crimes. Billy's White is a man who committed a triple murder. Milton's White is best left for you to discover for yourself. Milton's life is vastly different from Billy's, and their spectrum of experiences helps the novel feel more full.
I listened to the audiobook, which had an absolutely amazing narrator, and I hit the beginning of the last chapter right as I had to turn it off at the end of my commute. It was painful.
If you've heard any of Price's interviews, you probably already know that Harry Brandt was an idea he had to write a different kind of novel under a pseudonym (a la Benjamin Black) and it didn't work out. (Harry Brandt is still there due to contractual obligations.) As a reader, this is about as Richard Price a novel as you can get. Full of detail, dialogue that sounds like you heard it on the street yesterday, people whose lives can never quite seem to get where they want to go. It's bleak but not depressing. It's a thrill ride, but not one that leaves you breathless. I wish he wrote a book a year because there's really nothing like a Richard Price novel....more
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