my brilliant friend

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (Europa, 2012)

The first of Ferrante’s trilogy (now a quartet) of novels set in Naples, My Brilliant Friend follows two  girls, best friends, from the age of about 5 to 16, as they grow up in poverty in a blasted neighborhood outside Naples.  Both girls are smart: one possesses an extraordinary innate brilliance, and the other, the narrator, works very hard to educated herself and benefits from the education that her parents reluctantly allow her to pursue.  Nothing extraordinary happens to these girls, but Ferrante’s careful and dramatic depiction of their everyday lives make this book engaging and interesting.  She observes their difficult lives with dignity and respect, and we see something heroic about these two young girls struggling against countless obstacles and misfortunes to become their brightest and best selves.

 The translation of Ferrante’s Italian by Ann Goldstein is fresh and clear.  One feels this book and its heroines add something signficant and unique to the literature of youth.