‘T
he Story of a New Name’ is the second in the series of Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante and translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. The book opens with Lila asking Elena to hide a box of notebooks from her husband. Instead, Elena dumps them in the river but not without reading them first and the story continues where the first book ‘My Brilliant Friend‘ left off with Lila leaving school and getting married to Stefano Carracci, a well-off local grocer. Unsurprisingly, their marriage is tempestuous from the very beginning while Elena is planning to continue her education and go to university.
The themes of female friendship and how it affects both Elena and Lila’s individual identities remains central to the series. Having left behind their early childhood, ‘The Story of a New Name’ focuses on Elena and Lila’s late adolescence and early adulthood during the 1960s and 1970s. Ferrante masterfully combines Elena’s memories with Lila’s version of events as documented in her notebooks to drive the narrative and although Elena is the narrator, it also ensures another side of the story is heard this time. Aside from the two main characters, Ferrante continues to tell a wider and equally complex story of Italian society in the post-war era and there is further development of the large ensemble cast in their neighbourhood.
Although I would have liked to have read more about Elena’s life at university studying literature at the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Ferrante allows the story to have a sort of effortless and fluctuating structure and pace where characters come and go naturally as they do in real life. Similarly, seemingly insignificant or everyday events and conversations are brought into focus while several years can pass by in a flash. One of the main set pieces of this volume involves a holiday to Ischia and the developing affair between Lila and Nino Sarratore, who Elena secretly loves. Yet the jealousy is mutual as Elena continues her education on a more independent path which Lila is unable to pursue further studies and feels trapped in her unhappy marriage. Their intense friendship continues to oscillate between rivalry and intimacy, competing for attention both from each other as well as their friends, lovers and families.
Overall, it is the nuances in the characters and their relationships which demonstrate Ferrante’s exceptional talent for “showing” rather than “telling” a story. I adored both ‘My Brilliant Friend’ and ‘The Story of a New Name’ and the Neapolitan novels are shaping up to be one of my all-time favourite series. I’m looking forward to reading the third volume ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ before the fourth and final book in the series ‘The Story of the Lost Child’ is published next month.
A Little Blog of Books 
what is the language level — poetic, trashy, vernacular, etc,?
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Definitely not trashy but I wouldn’t say it’s poetic either! The prose itself is straightforward to read but I would say the books are all about the characters rather than the style.
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Glad you enjoyed this book I am currently about 50 pages from the end of the third one. I loved the first and second volumes and have enjoyed the third one almost (but not quite ) as much.
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That’s good to hear – looking forward to reading it!
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I’m glad you enjoyed this book. I’ve read the first three and I’m looking forward to the fourth book. A lot of reviewers have discussed how the book deals with female friendship (which I agree is brilliantly done) but it was good to see your review reflecting on the changing face of Italy, which I often saw as something of a shadowy character in the background of all the novels. The scenes of daily life from Lila and Elena’s neighborhood, particularly the domestic violence, limited options for women and poverty was quite an eyeopener for me, especially given they are set in quite recent history. Not a lot is known about the author and there is a lot of speculation that the novels are as much autobiography as fiction (I guess the key protagonist sharing the author’s name helps feed this idea). What are your thoughts? Given how true to life Elena, Lila and their relationship is I was fairly convinced by this idea.
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I agree that the writing has a very autobiographical feel so I can understand the speculation. But I also like the mystery of not knowing to what extent the story is based on events in the author’s life so in some ways I hope I never find out if that makes sense 🙂
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Makes perfect sense. I’m also enjoying the fact that there is a bit of mystery around this author. I think the only ‘interview’ she has given was a written response to questions sent to her.
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I’ve got a sample of the first book but it hasn’t grabbed me… I’m suspecting that it needs a bit longer to do it justice?
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Yes, it’s all about the character development so I would recommend trying a bit more 🙂
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I am champing at the bit and so eager to start these books!!!
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Hope you enjoy them!
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This sounds really intriguing – I will look out for My Brilliant Friend now!
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Hope you enjoy it!
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Just had a friend recommend this series to me, and then here was your review of it the very next day! Love it when things like that happen and eager to start!
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Hope you enjoy them!
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This review has made me so excited to read this book! I recently read My Brilliant Friend which is beautiful, it was quite difficult to put it down. Will you be reviewing the next in the series soon? If so I look forward to it. 🙂
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I will probably read the third book sometime in the next few weeks so watch this space… 🙂
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