The Story Of A New Name

What’s it about? This is book two in the Neopolitan Novel series by Elena Ferrante.  I really liked the first book- but felt like it was an introduction to a very Italian cast of characters.  This second book really picked up steam.  The book continues following the lives of Lenu and Lila.  Two friends whose lives go in different directions. What did it make me think about? This book makes me think about the complexity of relationships, the pull of family, and how our early years are always a part of who we become. Should I read it? This was such a fun and engaging book.  However, almost without you realizing it,  Ferrante writes with layered precision about family and relationships.  This book has so much to say.   I can not wait to pick up book 3! Quote- “I understood that I had arrived there full of pride and realized that- in good faith, certainly, with affection- I had made that whole journey mainly to show her what she had lost and what I had won.  But she had known from the moment I appeared, and now, risking tensions with her workmates, and fines, she was explaining to me that I had won nothing, that in the world there is nothing to win, that her life was full of varied and foolish adventures as much as mine, and that time simply slipped away without meaning, and it was good just to see each other every so often to hear the mad sound of the brain of one echo in the mad sound of the brain of the other.”