What a propulsive read! Elena Ferrante might just as easily have called her final volume The Godmother. It rushed like a freight train toward its uncertain conclusion proving yet again the journey often can be more satisfying than the destination. Lena's and Lila's complexly rendered friendship enters the ranks of my top ten literary experiences with Ferrante's edge-of-your-seat twists, set like intricate traps, her magnificent depiction of the ages of woman and her broader understanding of human nature--including how we become our parents and the mysterious bond between women and gay men, seen from the female perspective for a welcome change.
I sat listening and slowly rediscovered--but as if I were dragging it up from a deep well--the old solidarity of the time when we sat at the same desk. Yet only then did I understand that even if I had never been aware that he was different, I was fond of him precisely because he wasn't like the other boys, precisely because of that peculiar alienation from the male behaviors of the neighborhood. And now, as he spoke, I discovered that the bond endured.
Brava!
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