Frankie Frabizzio’s Reviews > Lies and Sorcery > Status Update

Everybody in this book except for Alessandra has a personality disorder

I miss Alessandra :( whatever became of her :( she just faded away at Francesco’s slow plodding indirect dismissal of her :( she doesn’t even know her granddaughter oHHHHH my god im going to cry

I thought Rosaria would be kind to Elisa :( sigh

I miss Alessandra—her story was the most compelling—and Francesco is an awful son to her (re: manipulating the truth so that she could not come to his wedding and then taking all her money and land!).

It’s official: this novel is the most triumphant character piece I’ve ever experienced thus far in life. Part four, detailing Francesco’s village life with Alessandra and Damiano, could be an entire novel in itself. I’m sincerely struggling to put this thing down when I have to. Fascinating, heartbreaking, complex, and stirring character work woven with incredible social commentary. I’m so inspired

Alessandra’s story in part four is utterly fascinating.

What truly propels my reading this is how brilliantly character-focused this is, which is flanked by an incredible examination of class-conflict and a steady commentary on socioeconomic yearning throughout it all. I shake my head practically every page while reading about these folks while also understanding exactly what has led them to act the way they do. Seriously fascinating stuff

Every single member of this cast is miserable. Genuinely the most hatable group of characters I’ve ever experienced in a novel, and yet I want to know everything about them. Morante’s writing is so exhilarating and so full of empathy for the most detestable group of fictional humans I’ve encountered, and because of that, I understand every single one of them perfectly. Frustrating, brilliant, and addictive.

Alessandra’s section of part 3 taking her only possessions of value to her buttface son so he can continue his “studies” was so tragic oh my god my heart broke about fifteen times