During the last few weeks, I watched the television adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels and returned to re-read the fourth and final novel, The Story of the Lost Child.
Ferrante’s four novels, My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Stay and Those Who Leave and The Story of the Lost Child, caused a sensation in the literary world when they were first published. The reclusive author never engaged in the marketing of her novels although the mystery of her identity added to their allure. Even when her identity was outed, nobody took much notice. Ferrante had achieved her aim of focusing attention on the fascinating characters in her novels rather than herself.
Elena Greco is the first-person narrator of the four novels. At the beginning of My Brilliant Friend, we learn that Elena’s lifetime friend from the poor quarter of Naples, Lila Cerullo, has disappeared. In recalling what she knows about Lila, from her childhood to her 60s, Elena hopes to understand why Lila has left. In telling Lila’s story, Elena needs to tell her own in the context of the families of the neighbourhood and the volatile post-war politics of Italy.
Although both Elena and Lila have various partners, marry, and have children, the focus in the Neopolitan novels is on the two women: the constraints they face in their education and careers, their emotional struggles and the complex pattern of closeness and envy which drives their relationship and life choices. It is as if the sensible Elena and the mercurial Lila are two clashing yet complementary aspects of the one person.
In The Story of the Lost Child, Elena has reached her thirties. Ignoring the warnings of Lila, her family and friends, Elena moves from her marital home in Florence to Naples to be with Nino Sarratore, the man she has loved since she was a girl. In doing so, Elena returns to the old neighbourhood and Lila’s sphere of influence.
If you have not yet read Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels, I commend them to you wholeheartedly. If, like me, you did read them close to a decade ago, you will enjoy returning to them as novels or by watching the excellent TV adaptation of the first three which you can find on SBS On Demand.
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