I am in love with the ever-present duality of Lenù and Lila. Lenù's narration is so focused on the difference in quality of life between herself and Lila; this coupled with her belief that to excel in life necessitates Lila to fail in life, every chapter feels like a constant struggle between the women, even when the narration does not explicitly point it out as so. "Her's was a life in motion, mine was stopped." 

Lenù and Lila both use each other as tools. Lenù uses Lila to conceptualise herself without inhibitions, herself with talents, herself with ambitions. Lila uses Lenù to conceptualise her life if she had made the right choices in her youth. “ What fucking use has it been for me to imagine that you would enjoy a wonderful life for me, too.” They live vicariously through each other, but neither derives any joy from the life of the other, only pain and jealousy. 

It’s interesting, that not only in the role that feminism has to play in this novel an important one, but that the novel incorporates aspects of first, second, and third wave feminism. Lenù’s rejection of traditional motherhood at the finale of the novel, leaving her husband and children behind, offers a striking end to the novel. 

It was a wonderful book, if a little tedious at parts.