The End of the Neapolitan Saga

After My Brilliant Friend, it took me some time to continue reading the rest of the much praised Neapolitan Saga. Meanwhile, I´ve read her two other novels by her and a much more interesting collection of short personal accounts, my favorites in fact, because it makes both her reading and concepts much clearer. As I was not extremely impressed by the first book, especially after acquiring an accurate understading of her mission as a writer, I expected to have a better reading experience with the rest of the trilogy. That proved to be only partially true.

The Story of a New Name

The second installment, The Story of a New Name followes Elena and Lila in their 20s. They may fall in love with the wrong men but at this age, such mistakes are not important at all. For Lila, marriage is a way to get out of poverty, as dictated by the society look on women in the post-WWII Naples. Elena is about to start her writing adventure, while continuing her education. 

In certain respect I´ve started to feel like belonging to the realm of the story and the Ferrante´s empathic storytelling drew me in, although not necessarily very much impressed by the story in general. The literary take is outlined by fine social observations, better reflected in the mentions about language and ´´the dialect´. 

The Story is mostly a journey through coming of age, in a very sexually competitive way between the two which I personally not clearly acknowledge/accept/appreciate.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

I love this title and will never give up the temptation of reading a book with such a title. For me, it is the most elaborated book from the entire trilogy, also because although it maintain the ´human´ part of the characters and their wrong choices of men, do have an amplitude which encompasses a more diverse take which touches upon the world of a writer, his/her sources of inspiration and how this inspiration translates - and at what extent - into the literary work. The literay construction is fine and all the details seam together in an entincing way.

The ending is also open and encourages to start immediately the next book in order to see the continuation of the story. 

The Story of the Lost Child

Unfortunately, my adventure ended bad as The Story of the Lost Child was unbearably soapy. That kind of experience when one does not understand why a character is made to look so bad. Elena, the educated successful writer is caught into a shameful sentimental entaglement - not because he is married with another person, but because she accepts to be treated like the second wife. Were all the men in Naples disappearing? The tone - both of the book and the characters - is aggressive as well, strident even.

There is one particular part of the book which I really appreciated as a great example of writing: the moment of the earthquake described from the point of view of the effects on people who were experiencing it, but also from the point of view of the characters. 

I don´t remember when was the last time when I dedicated my time reading/listening long trilogies. Getting to know The Neapolitan Saga was a special experience for me, especially as it is such a rare novel focused on women and women only, and told from the point of view of women, and women only. It sounded sometimes artificious and there is the drama part which is not of my liking but the writing is good and the literary qualities of Elena Ferrante are definitely worth experiencing it.

I had access to the trilogy in audiobook format, read by the actress Eva Mattes, translated from Italian into German by Karin Krieger, both of them offering a passionate unique rendition of the books that compensates once in while the lack of interest caused by just a written page.