Jean-Paul’s Rating: 5/5 stars
The brutality of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels continues with “The Story of a New Name”. Lila is now married to Stephano and their marriage is brutal, just like everyone’s relationship in the book. Lenu is lost in thoughts that are brutal. Friends are brutal to friends. Business partners are brutal to business partners. This is the everyday world of Elena Ferrante’s Naples. Lila and Elena’s (Lenu) relationship continues to grow or perhaps fester in this world. They both experience sexual awakenings that are traumatizing, as every female’s awakening in this world probably is. They grow apart and come back together and love the same man and grow apart and come back together. It is a messy, complicated, beautifully flawed relationship.
The brutality is a product of upbringing and upbringing is a product of the neighborhood and the neighborhood is a product of neglect and the neglect has lasted generations. Welcome to the world of Naples’ working poor. Ferrante continues to dive into it with unrelenting indifference. There are no moments of “Oh, poor Elena” or “Oh, poor Lila”, it’s all straightforward “This is how it is”. Lila gets stuck in this world. Elena has a chance to escape. Elena finds, however, that the world follows her. She needs to change her manner, her speech, her dress, and still she gets looked down on. Both of them have a determination to not let this world they grew up in define them, though they follow two very different roads less taken.
Seeping and oozing throughout the novel is rank misogyny. It festers and corrupts everyone and everything it touches. Violence is the starting point of confrontation. Women are objects to be purchased and used and thrown away. Boys hate their fathers and run from what their fathers are only to become them. The perverted and cruel circle of life thus continues.
Elena Ferrante continues to be brilliant and the Neapolitan Novels continues to be not for everyone. There really isn’t much feel good to be found here. There aren’t even any good characters to root for. At best, there’s empathy. What this book is, like the one before, is straight, honest, and unflinching. If you don’t mind not having a good guy when you read, you should start reading Ferrante’s brilliant novels now.