The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

The Story of a New Name is the sequel to My Brilliant Friend and is the second of four novels. I posted about My Brilliant Friend

at the end of our winter reading session and have had all your comments pop into my mind while reading!

In particular, JNaz on the redundancy of the story. It feels Whitmanian! I have to say, with isolation, the book helped me escape to Italy and enjoy the drama of life from another angle, language and time–

In reading the second book, I reminded myself that the last time I read a series quickly it was right after I submitted my dissertation in May 2012. I read The Hunger Games books in 48 hours while not talking to anyone- that is what I call a celebration!

I am enjoying the characters and stories, though I can see the truth of JNaz’s words — the books could be trimmed a bit, stories streamlined. However, I imagine the author’s intent is full immersion via length and description, and perhaps even repetitiveness– and it works! I love that at the end of the second book, Elena publishes an accidental novel– it is fun to think about how that must have felt.