The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
…I state, after only reading two of her novels and two of her shorter pieces…but at this rate, I am all-in on Elena Ferrante and I am STILL mad at myself for taking this long to catch on. I’m two books deep in the Neapolitan Novels, but I had to interrupt my trajectory for two reasons: I needed to read this story before seeing the new (read: 2021) film adaptation I need to see the film in order to solidify all of my (mostly negative) […]
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
The cover is even WORSE this time- not only do we have another DIY looking illustration, but the featured pull quote from The Australian‘s John Freeman is ABYSMAL: “Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you’ll have some idea of how explosive these works are.” Fuck right off, guy. Emphasis on GUY. Just because Austen characters aren’t slapping and cussing each other out does not mean that they aren’t also filled with the contained rage of being a woman trapped in position- a woman who will do […]
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
1970s Naples: a thirteen year old girl of privilege is suddenly removed from her seaside home and returned to a cramped and dirty apartment outside the city. The key word here is “returned”; our heroine has been sent “home” to a place that she never knew. She spent her entire life living with her glamorous mother and policeman father, only to have that reality shattered in one afternoon when the man she knew as her father bundles her and all of her belongings into the […]
