The mysterious Italian writer Elena Ferrante has been drawing the attention of readers and critics around the world with her books for a considerable time. Through a pseudonym and without ever having revealed her true identity, the author has produced one of the most acclaimed contemporary novels: the tetralogy “My Brilliant Friend”, which follows the story of Lila and Lenu’s friendship.
The first book begins with the disappearance of Lila who, already an elderly woman, disappeared with all her belongings – including photos – without warning anyone and without leaving any information about where she was going. Lenu, when she is informed of this, remembers that her friend always said she wanted to do this one day: disappear and pretend she had never even existed. In order not to let Lila’s memory get lost or fall into oblivion, Lenu decides to write the story of their friendship from the time they first met, in childhood, until old age.
Many issues can be discussed when we talk about “My Brilliant Friend”, after all, we are facing a complex and harshly real story that covers themes such as the violence and poverty that permeate the lives of the two girls in the suburban neighborhood where they grew up in Naples, the position of women in society, motherhood, abandonment, and the intensification of political rivalries between fascists and communists in a post-war (1950 – 1973) Italy. But the main axis of the narrative is the friendship between Lila and Lenu, so all the other events of the environment to which they belong are reflected in their lives. And among the many questions Ferrante raises, the one that perhaps generates the most discomfort and reflections is the reality, depth, and complexity of the relationship between the two protagonists. The mysterious Italian writer Elena Ferrante has been drawing the attention of readers and critics around the world with her books for a considerable time. Through a pseudonym and without ever having revealed her true identity, the author has produced one of the most acclaimed contemporary novels: the tetralogy “My Brilliant Friend”, which follows the story of Lila and Lenu’s friendship.
The first book begins with the disappearance of Lila who, already an elderly woman, disappeared with all her belongings – including photos – without warning anyone and without leaving any information about where she was going. Lenu, when she is informed of this, remembers that her friend always said she wanted to do this one day: disappear and pretend she had never even existed. In order not to let Lila’s memory get lost or fall into oblivion, Lenu decides to write the story of their friendship from the time they first met, in childhood, until old age.
Many issues can be discussed when we talk about “My Brilliant Friend”, after all, we are facing a complex and harshly real story that covers themes such as the violence and poverty that permeate the lives of the two girls in the suburban neighborhood where they grew up in Naples, the position of women in society, motherhood, abandonment, and the intensification of political rivalries between fascists and communists in a post-war (1950 – 1973) Italy. But the main axis of the narrative is the friendship between Lila and Lenu, so all the other events of the environment to which they belong are reflected in their lives. And among the many questions Ferrante raises, the one that perhaps generates the most discomfort and reflections is the reality, depth, and complexity of the relationship between the two protagonists.
Lila and Lenu: two extremely real and complex characters that teach us about the feminine condition
As already mentioned, the friendship between the two protagonists draws attention to its complexity and verisimilitude. But, of course, this is only possible, first of all, with the construction of two equally real and complex women. Elena Ferrante presents and introduces us, in “My Brilliant Friend”, to an unprecedented approach to the different sides of a female friendship, never explored before in literature. Without clichés and stereotypes, the author has managed to create Lila and Lenu, imperfect, complicated and strong women, with whom we can identify – or identify the women close to us -, because their choices, feelings and lived situations reflect and exemplify the experience of being a woman. The novel touches on points so specific and so real that, many times, we think we are reading Elena Ferrante’s autobiography.
Lila and Lenu are often seen as different sides of the same coin. Both grew up in the same social environment – a poor and violent neighborhood in Naples – but from the moment Lila is forced to drop out of school for financial reasons, and Lenu continues her education until she starts college, their fate diverges, and they live opposite experiences, but which bring them together because they have a common factor: being a woman in a patriarchal society.
Even living in opposite realities, Elena Ferrante manages to draw a parallel between the lives of Lila and Lenu. In this way, it is possible to see similarities in the way both deal with different situations: both deal with a sexist reality and seeks ways to confront – or submit to – it.
The four volumes are indeed about the friendship of two women, but they are also much more about a society that judges and oppresses them for being women, while Italy is going through political and social changes.
Companionship vs. Rivalry
Lila and Lenu have been friends for a lifetime, but we cannot say that their relationship is entirely healthy. One of Elena Ferrante’s greatest merits is that she doesn’t romanticize their friendship as perfect and an example to be followed; she shows the naked truth of a relationship where the two love, support, and encourage each other at the same time as they compete, resent and envy each other. Their friendship is a reflection of many human relationships, which are made up of ups and downs, of people who make mistakes, but who are always trying to get it right and adapt to the situations in which they find themselves.
The story is narrated by Lenu, which means that the readers have access to only one version of the facts. Like every person, Lenu has her own partial view of events and others, as well as her own opinions and feelings. Furthermore, her main motivation for writing the book was to record her story with Lila, but also to show the deep admiration she had for her friend.
Lila’s rebelliousness has fascinated Lenu ever since they became friends. Lila is seen by Lenu, who has a quieter and milder personality, as a force of nature, untameable, strong, and domineering. Furthermore, Lila is effortlessly the best student in their class, as if her intelligence and brilliance were inherent parts of herself: she didn’t need to work hard or dedicate herself to be brilliant, she simply was. When Lenu starts to feel like this and see her friend in this way, she starts to look up to Lila and see her as a standard of perfection to be surpassed and, consciously or not, creates a feeling of competition and envy for Lila that accompanies her until the end of the friendship.
Although we only have Lenu’s subjective view, we can see that Lila also had this feeling of competition and admiration for Lenu. It is possible to identify that the two are divided between the feeling of loving the other, but at the same time envying her. At many times, Lila seemed more Lenu’s enemy than her friend. This becomes noticeable by the several times she is cruel to Lenu, treating her with resentment and envy, belittling what she does and feels, and at the same time putting her down, looking to her for advice, as if she also sees her friend as smarter than herself.
Lila and Lenu’s turbulent friendship is a reflection of the social relations established by women in a society that teaches them to envy and compete against other females. Women are conditioned to see themselves as enemies, rivals, and Elena Ferrante has the merit of bringing this out in a relationship so contradictory that opposing feelings go together without canceling each other out.
The interdependence between the two
One thing we can conclude from this conflicting and problematic relationship: Lila and Lenu do not exist without each other. They would never be the same if they were not friends if their paths had not met, and if they had not cultivated this strangely wonderful friendship.
The story is narrated by Lenu, so we get the impression that she depends more on Lila than the other way around, but based on the facts told by the narrator, we realize that the feeling is reciprocal.
Lenu has even admitted that, for her, the merits of her achievements are due to Lila. While Lila considers Lenu her ” brilliant friend,” her favorite person in the world. Both are equally dependent on each other, and this is precisely why this friendship has lasted for more than 50 years. The story of this friendship is, in fact, the life story of each of them.
Their interdependent relationship is marked by moments of closeness and distance. There are moments when the two friends stay together and moments when they don’t speak to each other for months. But they always find a way to get together again.
Even during the long period in which both are physically distant, Lenu acts as if her actions and feelings are somehow being controlled by Lila, and the narrator hints that the other friend also shares the same feeling. It is as if we follow a relationship of harmony and disharmony between the two as if they were an inverted mirror of each other, who resemble each other as much as they differ.
In the end, it is hard to say which of the two is the “brilliant friend”. With their singularities, Lila and Lenu teach us more about ourselves than about themselves. Elena Ferrante’s tetralogy makes us reflect on various areas of life, but above all on what it is to be a woman and on how the feminine condition leads us to fall into contradictions. Ferrante’s writing is painful, because, as the author herself says, she “turns the knife on the wound,” leading us to reflect and see what we try to keep hidden inside us.
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The article above was edited by Marina Ponchio.
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