Book Review: Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels

What an epic, how do you even write about it?

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As a guy some people are surprised when I express how much I love these books.

The common response is that the Neapolitan Novels by the enigmatic Elena Ferrante is a story of female friendship.  That usually puts me on the defensive.    

While reading I found myself asking why when the friendship is between males it’s just friendship, but when it’s between females it’s qualified as female friendship?  Isn’t it universal?

Now that I’ve finished the fourth and final book in the series I think I’ve learned that there are unique dynamics at play that I hadn’t understood before.  Being female is central to the way Lenu and Lila experience the world.

But before I try to flush that out it’s important to recognize that there are so many themes masterfully conveyed by Ferrante.  Many of them were more directly resonant for me, but none of them have nearly as much power independent of the others.  

There is a thread at all times being woven between the personal and social aspects of their lives with the political and historical context of where and when they lived.  

Previously I knew nothing about Napoli, and very little about Italy during or after World War 2.  This is not a history book, and yet she was able to teach me more about the consequences of the history and the political systems operating at the time than I ever could have learned in that format.

This is also not a generic intergenerational coming of age story.  You can not separate these two girls, or their relationship, from the specific version of Napoli that they lived through.

Because Ferrante is such a strong writer, you would probably still care about the characters (and in this series she makes you feel totally committed to the fate of every primary and secondary character you are introduced to), but you won’t truly understand them, because our environments make us who we are.  

Why do I love and hate every one of these characters? 

Besides Enzo, I’m not sure any of the characters could be characterized as truly good.  And even Enzo threw a rock at Lila’s face when they were young, so maybe that rules him out too.

I think that’s one of the important questions that Ferrante asks.  Who’s good and who’s bad?

Are you more of a Lila or a Lenu?  I definitely adore Lila because of her me against the world attitude, and I’m rooting for her every step of the way, but I’m constantly let down by her self-destructive actions.

Lenu seems impossible to not like until her unfettered ambition makes it impossible for her to maintain healthy relationships.  

And Nino?  Throughout the first three books I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt every time.  For every self-serving moment, he was the first person there to have Lenu’s back.  But then by book four it was clear that he really was a narcissist who was incapable of putting others before himself.

These characters are complex.  As complex as real life people.  Everyone is both good and bad to varying degrees.

To the extent that you can become better over time requires self-awareness.  

That’s why I think I liked Lila the best, and maybe Pasquale, and even Lenu’s first boyfriend when she moves to Pisa.  They were the ones with the most conviction, and belief in who they were and how they wanted to live their lives.

I think this was illustrated best through their political beliefs, or lack thereof.

Pasquale was a committed communist, it never wavered.  It was rooted in his life experience.

Lila was basically an anarchist, even though she would probably reject the label, in her skepticism of all authority and institutions.  School?  She could just educate herself.  Political parties?  They were all bad and hypocritical one way or another.  Marriage?  Not necessary, she could raise a child perfectly on her own. Friendship?  She could never allow herself to trust even the one person who was there for her the most.  

Characters like Lenu, Nino,and Pietro wavered.  To them life turned into a game, and political beliefs were part of it.  None of them were willing to sacrifice their individuality.  They put themselves before others, even each other, every time.  

Friendship and Community

The series begins with Lenu as an old woman learning that Lila has disappeared.  Her reaction is cold, and it’s clear that their relationship has always been fractured.

I wonder though, even though she continuously criticises Lila for her role in damaging the relationship, whether at this time in her life she has regrets and really blames herself for not being a better friend.

The entire story is framed around Lenu writing this narrative of their friendship, but specifically for her to tell the story of Lila as honestly as she can.

So it’s a cathartic exercise.  By writing she is able to truly comprehend Lila, and able to gain the self-awareness that she always resisted.  

One thing that Lila understood instinctively as a very little girl, and consciously and spiritually after studying the history of Napoli as an adult, is that we can not separate from our world.  Even when you think you’re running away from it, it stays with you.  

For Lila her world robbed her of material opportunities.  As a girl growing up in poverty without even the small bits of fortune and circumstance that was afforded to Lenu, she became a fighter.  More than anything else it was a fight for her soul.  One thing she would never give up was her agency.  

I can’t go to school?  I’ll just start a business.

I need to marry a man in order to live a comfortable life?  I’ll just live in poverty and support myself as a factory worker.

The world won’t let me live in peace, so much so that it takes away the daughter who meant everything to her?  I’ll just disappear from the world on my own terms.

But as hard, and even miserable, as her life was she was always able to find respite in her friendship with Lenu.  

Together they had navigated and survived the world of their violent neighborhood in post war Napoli.  As women, they inspired each other to be brilliant and powerful in their own unique ways.   

Tragically they also hurt each other so often that their relationship couldn’t survive.

But their spirits were inseparable and imprinted upon one another.  The same way that they could never separate from the community that had both hurt and formed them.  

In the end you’re left wondering what would have happened if Lila had been allowed to continue her education.  What would it have meant for their friendship?  For their lives?

As Lenu writes the story of her friend I think that she realizes that nothing is more important than this friendship and that together they were unstoppable, but separate they were just complex humans.

Anyways, this series was so good I could probably analyze it a thousand different ways, and disagree with myself vehemently every time I read it back.  I’m pretty sure that’s the reaction Elena Ferrante was going for.  

P.S.  I forgot the point I was trying to make in the beginning about whether this was primarily a book about female friendship or not.  I guess it doesn’t matter, but I think it’s a topic better left for someone who’s not me to investigate. I know it touched me as it has for millions of people around the world and it will stick with me as I try to appreciate and improve my own friendships.