THE NEAPOLITAN NOVELS BY ELENA FERRANTEBook Series Review + Recommendation [CC]

Hi everyone, today I'm going to do a
video that I've been meaning to do for a while now. I've been talking about these
books on my channel all of 2016. They're some of the best books I've read, and
I've been meaning to put this video together and it's just taken a while
since I finished the series to really put my thoughts in order. And I decided
that today I'm going to talk to you about The Neapolitan Novels by Elena
Ferrante.

This isn't really going to be a review as much as kind of an
analysis of my reading experience and why I think you should read these books
as well. Before we get started I'm just gonna go through the books: the first
one is called "My Brilliant Friend", the second one is "The Story of a New Name",
thirdly we have "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay", and the final novel is
"The Story of the Lost Child." These were all released by Europa Editions. They are
originally written in Italian and translated by Ann Goldstein. I believe the first one came out in 2011
and then they were released---2012--and they were released annually after that.

So the
final one just came out in the fall of 2015. It was a series that I think
garnered more and more fame over the last maybe two years. I had heard about
them for a while but honestly seeing this cover and not knowing much about it
I just did not think it was for me. And let's be honest, this isn't a book that I
think most guys would probably pick up at first glance, but after hearing such
rave reviews and reading articles about Elena Ferrante who is a pseudonym--
she keeps herself totally private--I was really intrigued and I decided to just
give it a go.

The first thing I would say is that I
think reading this was somebody, which is what I did, I read it with my friend
Marines--and discussing it really helped me get into the series more. The first
book I would say the first 50 percent of the first book is really slow. It's hard
to get situated; there are so many characters. This is like a Dickens novel
set in Italy.

There's a whole list of characters at the beginning and their
families and a sort of explanation about each person and it only gets longer as
you get through the books because you get more and more about each character
and you get introduced to new people. But basically we're following Elena and Lila
and they are two young girls and they start out the story about five
years old. And they live in an apartment building in Naples, Italy. It is set in the
1950's, so post-World War II.

There's a lot of crime and corruption
and these books are very tense. There's a lot of discussion of masculinity and
femininity and those power plays as well as in a larger scale the discussion of
politics and the history of Italy at this time. Elena Ferrante uses historical fiction in a
really interesting way because this book is not about the history-- it is about
these two women, about their lives and the series as a whole is about them and
their intertwined relationship and just the complexities of human life and
existence. But she takes these small everyday occurrences in these girls'
lives and makes them feel like historical events.

She does this great
thing of blowing these relationships out of proportions and making it feel like
you really are reading about somebody's real life history, which makes me think
that maybe because the author keeps herself private these are really
autobiographical. I mean the main character is named Elena and the
author's pseudonym is Elena so there is definitely in my opinion a
correlation between those two people. So like I said I read the first book with my
friend Marines, and then we read the second one together as well. And then sadly I just
couldn't wait so I read the third and fourth without her.

But we still discussed
them as she caught up and we had such wonderful discussions about these books
because there really is a lot to dig into. These are like books that I wish I
could have read when I was in school. I mean they weren't all out yet, but these are
books that I think could in the future be read and discussed in school. Because
the first book, like I mentioned, it's not the most engaging and engrossing novel.
The first book is definitely one I think would benefit a reread because you would
pick up on so much more, especially after finishing the series.

But also you don't
really get that emotional attachment and investment until way later on in the
first book and into the second one. And once I started reading the second one I
had such a greater appreciation of the first book because Ferrante is a master at
setting things up things that you don't discover until books like way into the
series, even just the intricacies of their relationship and the personalities. They're just
so well-rounded; it's a really character driven story and that's what she does
best. Like I mentioned you're following these
two girls in each installment as they grow up and as they become mothers-- and
I don't think that's a spoiler; it's pretty evident--- but as they become
mothers, as they go their separate ways and as they come back together and just
how they can't get rid of each other and how they really depend on each other
throughout their lives.

And it's a beautiful and toxic relationship, and I
think it's fascinating and beautiful and excellent and a lot of other adjectives.
I will definitely read the series again in my life, Probably multiple times, if I'm honest, because
like I said I think that you would be rewarded so much on a reread with
clues and characterization, subtleties that Ferrante is a master at sneaking in
when you don't even realize it. I would also have to say that this book, the
second one, has some of the best writing I've ever read-- especially one paragraph that
I can't read to you because it has a lot of spoilersm but I think I read it like
10 times in a row because I was just blown away. She has this ability to
capture emotion and sensations so well. And it seriously stopped me in my tracks,
and that doesn't happen too often.

I read a lot of books and it really takes
something special to capture me like that. So this one I gave it four stars, I
think originally, but after finishing the series and after being captured by it so
much I definitely bumped it up to a 5 star. The thing about choosing a favorite in the
series is that they're all so dependent on each other, which is why I think some
people might have an issue with it. The first book definitely feels like you're
left hanging, it's totally a cliffhanger but it's awesome.

And I think that if you
think about the series as a whole as sort of one book then it makes more
sense. And she really just had to break it up into four books like logistically
because it would be way too big as one book. But if you think about them all as
really one story, the arc is from the beginning of book one to the end of book four, then i think you can have a greater perspective on it. Some people might have a problem with
that because they think each installment should stand alone.

I think these work
really well together and you know it's it's really hard to separate the events of
one book from another at the end because it really just becomes like one big
story. I think it's a masterpiece. I think
that's enough for now. I hope this video convinces at least one person to
start this series.

I know a few people who have tweeted at me and said, "I
picked this book up because of you" and it just makes me so happy regardless of how
much they love it or not. This is one series that I just think everyone should
try at least the first book, and preferably the second because once you
get into the second one I think you will be hooked. If you have read this
series in its completion please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Be careful of spoilers; I don't want people
to be spoiled, not that there's too much you can spoil for this book because it's
more of a character-driven one, but they're still events I don't want people
to see or hear about before reading them.

It's just so much fun to discover on
your own, and I hope you guys all try it out. So I hope you found this sort of
recommendations video, not so much a review, helpful and again I hope you guys
pick it up and I will see you in my next video. Bye!.