The Story of a New Name

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
Oct 20th, 2016

Blog written by Melissa

Quoting from the New York Times review by J. Luzzi September 2013:

“The Story of a New Name” is the second part of a trilogy that began with “My Brilliant Friend.” Both novels are primarily set in Naples, are Naples, as they teem with the city’s dialect, violence and worldview. Tracing the friendship between Lila Cerullo and Elena Greco, two extraordinary and troubled girls who become extraordinary and troubled women, Elena’s first-person account charts what scholars and politicians alike have ominously labeled the Southern Question: the cultural and economic divide between north and south that has defined Italian life for centuries. But history never overpowers what is at heart a local story about the families living along a poor Neapolitan stradone, or avenue, with intricate plotlines spun like fine thread around Elena and Lila.

Our Book Club continued reading the epic saga of friendship in Ferrante’s second book of the Neopolitan series; The Story of a New Name”.  We were thankful the novel included a reminder map of who’s who - and we ventured forth into the heart of the story of this unique friendship which provoked fantastic discussions about feminism, class, politics and literature.  The sensitivity and intimacy of the writing had us wondering whether the ‘anonymous’ writer may be writing autobiographically – and if not - even greater credit to her skill and imagination.

The friendship between the women is both fraught and inspirational for each of them. They seem to serve as the grit for each other’s pearls which is uncomfortable at times to observe and yet somehow strangely understandable. It is also fascinating to track their individual, independent journeys and those of the entire neighbourhood - and indeed that of the experience women’s freedom during this era and the cultural and political atmosphere of Italy and Europe at the time.
This rare writer’s voice feels honestly, maturely and deeply female, a raw uncut perspective of truth, whose story is identifiable and believable. It is a joy to read a female story that is completely devoid of cliché, stereotype and predictability – content that is both intimate and worldly – in a structure that is beautifully organised and satisfying.

Many of us, inspired by this intimate and intelligently written drama, have now completed all four novels in the sequence.  Highly recommended.


Our rating for this book is 8.5/10 and it is described as sensitive, intelligent and intimate.

Our next meeting is on Thursday Nov 10th at Megan's and the book choice is Reckoning : A Memoir by Magda Szubanski.

My Brilliant Friend

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Blog written by Sally

This a compelling story of a childhood in Naples in the 1950s. Elena narrates the story of her relationship with her best friend Lina – starting from her first impressions of Lina as a rebellious first grader, up to their 16th year, when Lina gets married to a local boy and the two childhood friends appear to be set to live very different lives. It is the first novel of a trilogy and from the prologue we learn that Elena is writing the story in her sixties, when it appears her friendship with Lina has taken another dramatic turn.

I really enjoyed reading this one!  Elena tells a very vivid tale of what seemed to me to be a very foreign place and period of time. I felt she was writing just as much to understand herself as to present the story of Lina, and her perception of herself seems to be shaped from the contrasts she sees in Lina. The relationship of these two girls drawn together despite their very different personalities is certainly complex and often unsettling.  There is a strong sense of foreboding about the future for Lina despite her apparent effortless brilliant intellectual and creative ability and drive as a child. While Elena, who seems to be pushed by a need to prove herself and fear of failure, seems to have a future that will be much more secure. Her hard work at school earns her the title of “my brilliant friend” from Elena.


Overall our group enjoyed the book scoring it between 7 and 8. I think we all agreed the writing style was masterful. The negatives included getting started was difficult with many different similar sounding Italian names to get used to. The index of characters at the front of the book is definitely useful. Most of us found the level of violence in the community which pervades the whole book from the first encounter between Elena and Lina to be disturbing. It doesn’t really offer relaxing reading. A few of us found the tale of childhood as told by the adult Elena perhaps a bit affected. Some were not satisfied by the abrupt ending. Despite these shortcomings, it was a very intriguing and stimulating tale for discussion and we all agreed we wanted to read the next book in the series.

Our next book is The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and we will be meeting at Meredith's on June 16.