"The Story of a New Name" is the second part of Elena Ferrante's "Neapolitan Tetralogy" and describes the youth of Elena and Lila. Together they experience love, loss, confusion, struggle, jealousy, and hidden destruction during those years when their lives diverge at breakneck speed.
Lila discovers on her wedding day that marriage is not what she imagined, and her first night is almost a rape. She intervenes in Stefano's family business with a strong desire to destroy, and seems to become the kind of woman she and Elena wanted to be as children. Lila, who has not been pregnant for a long time, and Elena go to the beach to recuperate. And that summer on Ischia changed everyone's life...
Furious at the love Lila had, "I" (Elena) fights to escape this run-down neighborhood filled with violence and feuds. "I" became the first college student on the block, got engaged to a boy from a high-class intellectual family, and even published my first novel. "I" returned to Naples with the image of a winner, only to find that Lila, who had said goodbye to her ugly marriage, was working humiliatingly in a meat processing factory.
When "I" discovered that my novel had actually completely stolen the unique power and inspiration in the secret notebook Lila had entrusted to "me", "I" was forced to face an extremely painful question: "I" and Lila, who left and who stayed?
Reader comments
This book made me feel the complexity of friendship and the vicissitudes of life. The relationship between Lila and "me" is described very delicately in the book, which reminded me of my former good friend. We have experienced similar jealousies, confusions and struggles. And I really liked the description of Naples in the book, which made me feel like I was in that neighborhood full of violence and feuds. At the same time, I was deeply inspired by Lila's tenacity and "my" efforts. Overall, this is a book worth reading and will make you think more about life.
It's very real. It feels like such a story must have happened somewhere.
It took me two days to read this book, which caused a small problem. Yesterday I read almost the initial changes, but today it took a sharp turn, but the ending spanned morning, noon, and afternoon, and what came to me became a fragmented plot.
I just finished watching it, and I almost forgot about the connecting plots. I only remembered part of them, and it came to a new stage. I remember that I had a subtle thought at first, was that love? Is that friendship? Is it something you can't get, or is it the madness of looking at what you want but not getting it? There's more to Lenon and Lila than that.
However, I haven't read any interpretation, and I can't say anything based on my subtle observations at this stage. The time when they were closely connected has passed, and it belongs to yesterday and the past.
The time when they separated has passed, and although they are closer to me than when they were close, after reading it, within a few minutes, intimacy and contradiction, separation and acquaintance, youth and childhood were intertwined, and emerged in fragments.
It's hard to say, it's just a life and a relationship. What titles should I give Lenon and Lila? But they exist. Readers pass by, read their stories, look up again, and then leave. It's not impossible. There is no need to give them anything, just pass by.
The two different choices made the young Lila and Lenon feel more and more distant. Lenon, who met more people, used sophisticated vocabulary to hide his inferiority complex. Their madness and choices in their youth resonated with many people.
A very ups and downs plot, very delicate characterization, and well-arranged content. The agility and entanglement in Elena's writing are innately poetic.
All people are changing, and the characters are very three-dimensional, allowing us to see that although we are friends, we will still be jealous and full of hatred for each other, but at the same time we are also sincere. Everyone is contradictory. We hope that the other person is good, but we cannot be better than ourselves.
Good looking, love it, like it
I don't know why, but I felt a little sad after reading it. Maybe I saw my own reflection in Lila and Lenon.
Nothing in the outside world can affect Lila. She will always dominate herself, while Lenon is the opposite. But later she also found her own balance. For Lenon, Lila was the one who influenced her the most.
The tugging between the two heroines is very nice, and both men are very sexy.
It deserves to be published, and the characterization is clear at a glance.
This book made me feel the complexity of friendship and the vicissitudes of life. The relationship between Lila and "me" is described very delicately in the book, which reminded me of my former good friend. We have experienced similar jealousies, confusions and struggles. And I really liked the description of Naples in the book, which made me feel like I was in that neighborhood full of violence and feuds. At the same time, I was deeply inspired by Lila's tenacity and "my" efforts. Overall, this is a book worth reading and will make you think more about life.
It's very real. It feels like such a story must have happened somewhere.
It took me two days to read this book, which caused a small problem. Yesterday I read almost the initial changes, but today it took a sharp turn, but the ending spanned morning, noon, and afternoon, and what came to me became a fragmented plot. I just finished watching it, and I almost forgot about the connecting plots. I only remembered part of them, and it came to a new stage. I remember that I had a subtle thought at first, was that love? Is that friendship? Is it something you can't get, or is it the madness of looking at what you want but not getting it? There's more to Lenon and Lila than that. However, I haven't read any interpretation, and I can't say anything based on my subtle observations at this stage. The time when they were closely connected has passed, and it belongs to yesterday and the past. The time when they separated has passed, and although they are closer to me than when they were close, after reading it, within a few minutes, intimacy and contradiction, separation and acquaintance, youth and childhood were intertwined, and emerged in fragments. It's hard to say, it's just a life and a relationship. What titles should I give Lenon and Lila? But they exist. Readers pass by, read their stories, look up again, and then leave. It's not impossible. There is no need to give them anything, just pass by.
The two different choices made the young Lila and Lenon feel more and more distant. Lenon, who met more people, used sophisticated vocabulary to hide his inferiority complex. Their madness and choices in their youth resonated with many people.
A very ups and downs plot, very delicate characterization, and well-arranged content. The agility and entanglement in Elena's writing are innately poetic.
All people are changing, and the characters are very three-dimensional, allowing us to see that although we are friends, we will still be jealous and full of hatred for each other, but at the same time we are also sincere. Everyone is contradictory. We hope that the other person is good, but we cannot be better than ourselves.
Good looking, love it, like it
I don't know why, but I felt a little sad after reading it. Maybe I saw my own reflection in Lila and Lenon.
Nothing in the outside world can affect Lila. She will always dominate herself, while Lenon is the opposite. But later she also found her own balance. For Lenon, Lila was the one who influenced her the most.
The tugging between the two heroines is very nice, and both men are very sexy.
It deserves to be published, and the characterization is clear at a glance.