My Brilliant Friend
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I was in college when I first readMy Brilliant Friend,the first volume in Elena Ferrantes Neapolitan Quartet.
When push came to shove, how could we make something real out of what we believed?
In the aftermath of writing a book about womens liberation, Lenu liberated herself.
She calls Pietro, hoping to talk to her daughters, to no avail.
Nino infuriates mebeyond reason.
When she makes it back to her old apartment in Florence, its empty.
A Christmas tree glows sadly forgotten in a corner; she looks for her daughters in every room.
She demands to know why she hadnt been consulted about the girls Christmas plans.
Not unreasonably, she argues that they need to make some kind of agreement about how to move forward.
But Lenu wont change her mind, and it drives Immacolata into a rage.
Youre not my daughter anymore, she says before asking the Lord to take her.
Its a striking scene, brutal to watch.
Later, through a closed door, Pietro tells Lenu: Its too much.
Even you dont deserve it.
If Immacolata is disowning her unequivocally, Lenu hopes at first to find maternal leniency in Adele.
Someone wants to know what Lenu herself is guilty of.
Of learning the language of males to have more success with your books?
A weekend turns into a month, a year, a year and a half.
They beam with the invincibility of new love, their optimism seeping into the way they carry themselves.
Nino never ran the essay; Lenu thought that it was because he didnt think it was good enough.
Just as she is about to ask him to move in together, the phone rings.
Pietro is in the hospital, his head bandaged and his temper softened.
A group of fascists jumped him, dealing blows to his head with a stick.
She is excluded from the family unit: Dede in particular can barely look at her.
Its Pietro who comforts them, Adele who allows them to have a soda.
But not all of the Airotas are experiencing the same kind of pity.
But Adele wont be rattled.
She couldve only taken Lenus comment as an insult, but to her its all the same.
Theyll eat when Guido, her husband, and the girls grandfather, gets home.
Also, Lila called one million times.
But Lenu doubles down.
She finally asks Nino to move in with her in Naples.
They are running after each other, naked, like kids, when she does.
He agrees ecstatically; it almost looks like she just told him shes pregnant or something.
She wants to speak with Lenu urgently.
Lila is not the only person from the neighborhood who is trying to get in touch with Lenu.
Still avoiding Lila, Lenu agrees to meet with Carmen for coffee.
When Lila arrives, she tells Lenu she had Antonio follow Nino.
This is what she learned: Nino never left his wife.
Hes still living with her.
Theyve just made him a director of an important bank research institute under the patronage of his father-in-law.
Lila is not scared of confirming all of this face-to-face with Nino either, but that wont be necessary.
She loses her words, her breath.
And then she leaves.
Since the last season, the phone has become an almost active character in the story.
