My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante · 2012
Two girls grow up in a violent, impoverished Naples neighborhood, and one of them is a genius. Ferrante's first Neapolitan novel launched the most talked-about literary phenomenon of the 2010s. The friendship between Lenu and Lila is rendered with such ferocity that it rewired how millions of readers think about female bonds, competition, and class.
The case against
Volume one of four, and it does not pretend otherwise; the book stops mid-wedding rather than ending. You will lean on the character index at the front more than you expect, the childhood chapters move at childhood's pace, and the sentence-level prose is plain to the point of gray. The spell is cumulative; the commitment is four volumes.
Best of Last 10 Years · the Pro canon
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