Book Review: The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante transl. by Karin Krieger

It took me less than a month to embark on a new Ferrante bookish adventure, although not necessarily tracing the next steps of the Neapolitan Trilogy. This time, I wanted to continue with a book that was recommended by many of my bookish acquaintances: The Lying Life of Adults, in the German translation from Italian by Karin Krieger. 

The title says it all: adults do live with lies, deceiving themselves and all those they love. But they also deceive children and acknowledging this reality is part of growing up. Growing up...a painful toxic process where the adults´ poison is poured into the innocence. And like this...´childhood is gone´.

In the book, an early teenage girl discovers the existence of a hidden to her aunt with whom she assumely looks like - physically and spiritually. Once this aunt is brought back into her family life, it is the beginning of the end, both of her parents´ relationship and of her innocent life. 

The plot is relatively simple and spatially follows the different characters which are assigned different roles in the tragi-comedy of deceiving. Physical and emotional cruelty and cynicism are the predominant feelings that are part of the adulthood. The lying life of adults, that´s is. The various installments of the story and the behavior of the characters are proofs of the main thesis. Thus, the story goes slowly, but there is a masterwork-coordination of different episodes.

The social elements are also present, but the focus in the book is more on the emotional-human developments. Ferrante is an outstanding painter of human worlds and although, at least in this book, there is such a sad take on growing up, the literary statement is fully proved by the behavior and acts of the characters. People with bad intentions will never have a good life, seems to be one of the author´s takes. 

I am glad that I´ve read the book in the excellent German translation and as I already have the other books by Ferrante, all in German, I will further continue with Krieger´s rendition of Ferrante words.

Rating: 3 stars