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Jacquelyn Pedigo

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Jacquelyn is Currently Reading

Jacquelyn Pedigo is currently reading

My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)

by Elena Ferrante

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in August 2019

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Jacquelyn Pedigo said: " This book is exactly as the second word in the title says, brilliant.

Told through the eyes of the blossoming and prodigious Elena Greco, this harrowing bildungsroman tells a story of growing up in Naples and growing up in general. From the inimitabl This book is exactly as the second word in the title says, brilliant.

Told through the eyes of the blossoming and prodigious Elena Greco, this harrowing bildungsroman tells a story of growing up in Naples and growing up in general. From the inimitable Don Achille who casts a shadow descending into our own childhood villains to the constant comparison of Elena’s every achievement to those around her, this book sums up life growing up as a young girl.

Moreover, employing the scintillating Lila Cerullo, the novel’s manic fairy pixie dream girl, breaks the conventional chain that all girls and boys identified in the novel feel enslaved to. This character is a mysterious beacon of exquisite, ethereal force. No one knows what’s in her mind, why she acts in her manner, where she learned it from, if she knows that she is doing.

As the novel progresses, the characters diverge but could not have more complementary journeys although as Elena muses later that whenever one of the pair is happy, the other suffers. With violence as atmospheric as oxygen and poverty widespread in the girls’ world, the two dream of riches, a treasure chest with gold coins, a Little Women ending.

However, each chapter the adult on the other side of the book sees steep reality filtering through. How Elena is growing towards a far better fate than Lila. How Lila, the incarnate form of female envy and male desire, grows closer and closer to oblivion and cruel fate despite her acute mind, her strategic eyes.

The myopic scope customary to teenage years that propel these young girls into decision our society teams too much for girl of similar ages warps the reading. We scream in exasperation for Elena to stay in school, to study harder, to hold boyfriends loosely, to see that Nino loves her. I scream to Elena to not care so much about Lila, Lila the drama queen who I think has a narcissism complex where everyone must adore her and she must be the best. But to be the best of a Neapolitan slum, is that really a best?

That truth we all see, Elena realizes in the closing pages as Lila heads off on a path incompatible to the treasure chests they dreamed as small children. Irrevocable to her hasty exit from education. Irreconcilable to the gap widening between her and Elena’s bright future.

All this, Lila sees. Lila sees her brilliant friend, while Elena called Lila everything but those three words throughout the novel. The reader called Lila only those three words until that moment. Yet, it is Elena. The tragedy of Lila’s existence is that truth coming too late. Of Elena seeing it to seconds after Lila does, and a breath too late as well.

A tribute to childhood and a beautiful sentiment to friendship. I saw so much of my own story interwoven through this toured fabric. The richness of the text is a tree ripe with juicy fruit, inviting for every and all to come and pluck wisdom from its crammed branches. No one could pick it up, wrap themselves in it, and leave underfed.

I cannot wait until I pick up the next book and hopefully my thoughts are far more literary than weepy and personal on the review there. ...more "

progress:

(page 150 of 331)
"Reread" — Feb 07, 2026 02:40PM

Aug 05, 2019 01:15PM · see review

Jacquelyn’s Quotes

“Jessica has a forehead scar from the deep end of a pool. I ask Jessica what drowning feels like and she says not everything feels like something else.”
― Angie Sijun Lou

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“Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.”
― Bonnie Burstow, Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence

tags: feminism, mothers, patriarchy, philosophy, psychology, radical-feminism

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