This week’s last and final reading of choice is My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante. This is also the first physical copy of a book I have in this class, and what I have to say is that it’s easier to indulge into a book when you have the actual copy in your hands. With that […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with adolescent, childhood, classism, friendship, violence
This week’s reading of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend honestly left me quite confused and a little bit frustrated. Funnily enough, my brilliant friend actually lent me the physical copy of this book when I told her I was reading … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with childhood, Envy, friends, friendship, Italy, love, Wealth
Hi Everyone! Last book of the semester, congrats to everyone for almost making it to the end! This week I read My Brilliant Friend written by Elena Ferrante. I think this book lands in my top 3, along with Arlt for sure. This book discusses themes of friendship, class, poverty, love, relationships. It is truly […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with class, friendship, love, My brilliant friend, poverty, realistic, relationships, Wealth
The story of My Brilliant Friend revolves around the friendship of Elena and Lila, while also touching on the themes of gender, poverty, and class. Elena, the narrator of this book, is a studious girl who excels in school. She is a typical “good” girl who follows expectations and does what she is told. On […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with friendship, gender, poverty
Welcome to the last book review of the semester! This week I read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, and I am so happy this was the last book. It is a coming-of-age book (so on brand for this class) about two girls in a poor neighbourhood in Naples. The story starts with an older […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, childhood, family, fiction, friendship, Italy, literature, love, money, socioeconomic status
LAST BOOK LETS GOOOO!!!! This has been a wild ride. I’d like to thank my classmates, teachers, and TAs for their hard work and for reading so many blogposts and also to us for reading the books and for writing all the blog posts. Good job all. We made it. Also this class significantly contributed […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with class, Elena Ferrante, female friendship, friendship, gender, gender roles, money, My brilliant friend
There are only so many books I can read with horrible male characters. This book was frustrating to read. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante was really not my cup of tea, but I did like it just a little bit. First, the “friendship” between Lila and Elena was so toxic. The first 30% of […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with coming of age, Elena Ferrante, friendship, love, My brilliant friend, violence
It’s my pleasure to end this class with this great book!!! “We grew up with a duty to make it difficult for others before they made it difficult for us” (37). In such a place, there is no genuine friendship between adults; they share only a common interest. The relationships between families appear relatively indifferent, […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with class, friendship, girl help girl, poverty, women
I remember being very happy when I first saw the book on the list of readings for this class. For one, this is one of my favorite books as far as I could remember. I had read this entire series at an earlier time, when I was looking into book recommendations so I could learn […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Competition, Complexity, Elena Ferrante, friendship, More coming of age, My brilliant friend
The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa is a tale that intertwines reality with fiction, and the past with the present. The title of the novel is quite deceiving, as it barely mentions chameleons, but the closest we get is a gecko narrator living in Angola. The novel is a profound exploration of memory, […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, friendship, gecko, The Book of Chameleons, war
