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randi_jo's Reviews (420)
My favorite book of the trilogy. It's so engaging and incredible to think about the work put into the different races and languages. Years later I still think about Treebeard and the idea of it taking years to speak a single sentence. Love it.
My Brilliant Friend is the beginning of a 60 year journey of two lives, entwined by friendship and rivalry. It's set roughly 5 years after the end of WW2 in Naples, Italy, in a neighborhood that is beset by poverty, talks of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism. The main character, Elena, mostly called Lenú, goes through her coming-of-age with her friend that she calls Lila. She is besot with ideas of superiority and inferiority, the dichotomies between herself and the intelligent Lila, despite also being very clever herself, and begins her journey to try and escape the vicious cycle of "plebian life".
Elena Ferrante's prose, even translated from Italian, is gorgeous. It reads very much like a memoir, written by someone who is older, attempting to put old memories to paper with appropriate amounts of insight and judgement on events that would come with years of reflection/learning. She continuously pulls you in with the waves of despair, joy, selfishness, envy, pride that Lenú experiences.
I am very much looking forward to reading the next installment!
Elena Ferrante's prose, even translated from Italian, is gorgeous. It reads very much like a memoir, written by someone who is older, attempting to put old memories to paper with appropriate amounts of insight and judgement on events that would come with years of reflection/learning. She continuously pulls you in with the waves of despair, joy, selfishness, envy, pride that Lenú experiences.
I am very much looking forward to reading the next installment!
This book swings from profound to utterly ridiculous so fast and back again, that I have mental whiplash. I can't tell if this book has aged terribly or exceptionally when it comes to how offensive some statements are, since it's meant to offend, and society has become a lot more sensitive towards some of these things since the 80s.
Either way the first 5 or 6 chapters and the last 3 or 4 chapters are worth thinking about when it comes to how society sees and treats people with deficiencies, and also how a person can have everything they could ever want, without actually having what they want - and only someone who thinks simply, would choose to leave it behind to pursue a life that he enjoys. Everything in between though, is a comedy of errors that, in my opinion, go way too far for the sake of a cheap laugh.
Either way the first 5 or 6 chapters and the last 3 or 4 chapters are worth thinking about when it comes to how society sees and treats people with deficiencies, and also how a person can have everything they could ever want, without actually having what they want - and only someone who thinks simply, would choose to leave it behind to pursue a life that he enjoys. Everything in between though, is a comedy of errors that, in my opinion, go way too far for the sake of a cheap laugh.
A very honest and raw journal of grief for the death of a spouse/partner. The circulating thoughts, finding them in every mundane task, unable to break free from "at this time one year ago" - it's so vivid and sad.
Didion makes good points on how mourning and grief are viewed today, and why they should be, to some extent, reevaluated. Grief is as important as happiness.
This book made me cry a few times and I appreciate how provoking it was.
Didion makes good points on how mourning and grief are viewed today, and why they should be, to some extent, reevaluated. Grief is as important as happiness.
This book made me cry a few times and I appreciate how provoking it was.
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. The central theme of American-Indian lives and their hardships that are both normal and extraordinary is fantastic. I really enjoyed the different characters, the variety of perspectives,
A really great read!
Spoiler
the difficult topics, and the ending that rings on such a positive, grateful note.A really great read!
