Emma, Conversations on Love & My Brilliant Friend

Back in December of last year, I wrote that a topic I wanted to discuss more was reading! One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to read more this year, at least one book per month, and so far it’s going pretty well. Andddd I love to talk about whatever I’m reading at the moment (Natalia, George and Alessia can attest to this) and to spare them my ramblings, I thought I would discuss my recent reads with all of you instead! I won’t digress any further on how much I love to read as I think I’ve made that clear in the past, so I’ll get right into talking about the books I’ve read lately :))

ALERT…. potential spoilers ahead….

Emma by Jane Austen

As mentioned in my post, book club, the book I had been reading was Emma by Jane Austen which I have since finished. It’s undeniable that Austen was a fantastic author, her stories are funny, enjoyable and no one does charming, yearning men quite like she does. I did enjoy this book overall. I thought the main characters were well-written, the comedy of errors aspect of it and some of her dialogue had me laughing out loud and I enjoyed Austen’s social commentary of the upper class, which is what she is well known for showcasing throughout her novels.

That said, this book took me an astonishingly long time to finish. However, I almost don’t want to critique this book because everything I didn’t enjoy are just common characteristics of novels at the time. Such as, lengthy detailed descriptions telling the reader about the characters, unnecessary amounts of exposition and a lot, A LOT of imagery, which in Emma is about reflecting Emma’s personal feelings to nature and the weather. Austen claimed that the character Emma is the least likeable and most insufferable character she’s ever written and while this is clearly displayed in the writing, I couldn’t help but like her. Austen does a fantastic job of showing us why Emma is the way she is: whether it’s the unconditional love and spoiling her father always gives her or her bubbly, infectious personality which appears to charm everyone (and is clearly refreshing in their town as all the background characters felt the same personality wise). Nevertheless, as a reader I felt a certain level of sympathy for Emma as it’s clear no one’s ever made an effort to get to know her below the surface, besides Mr Knightley who Emma undoubtedly appreciates, since from the very beginning it’s his opinion she values most. Additionally, the book is written in Emma’s voice and I can’t lie, she is very funny.

The plot itself was enjoyable and largely focused on the development of the characters rather than an action-filled storyline, but so many times I was still waiting for the story to get going. I loved the happy ending and how every character is rounded off, we’re never left wondering about what happened to A, B, or C, and Austen’s ability to use satire to critique what was basically her own class (she too was part of the landed gentry) is brilliant. Austen perfectly captures what I saw as the “boredom” of the middle-class, they were so bored that they had nothing better to do with their time than attempt to constantly control social situations and make people of lower class depend on them for charity. I also enjoyed how Austen critiqued women’s social standing and that the lead was the exact opposite of everything a woman was supposed to be doing: find a suitable husband for themselves. Yet, she fit in with her community and was someone they looked up to for her style, “charm” and intelligence despite being single (which of course was because she was rich- and something even Emma acknowledges).

I realise I haven’t exactly been clear about how I really found Emma to read and truthfully, I don’t think this was perhaps the best introduction to Austen. Yes, the book is funny and you can so clearly envision the characters and feel so much for them but I found the pacing to let this book down. Unfortunately I found myself bored until Act 3, where things really start to get going, and all the many, MANY characters Austen names and constantly introduces I found confusing.

Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn

The book that occupied most of my February was Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn and, oh, my heart! <33333 After reading Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton last year, this book was a perfect sequel for calming my nerves about adulthood and warming my heart. While this book in terms of mood and vibe, is similar to Everything I Know About Love, the content is wildly different in some aspects. Lunn not only shares personal, touching and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes but also captivating interviews with fellow authors, journalists and experts in the fields of relationships, desire and intimacy.

I normally don’t drift towards these kind of books, I tend to prefer fiction novels, but I was so so captivated. Lunn divides the book into multiple chapters to cover all the different types of love we experience in a lifetimes and how parts of our lives, like work or our childhood, affect how we love and what we let interfere in our relationships. As a young woman, I immensely appreciated reading this. It was extremely comforting hearing about different people’s love lives and how tremendously unique they all were compared to each other’s. Which was the entire point, I felt. There is no one way to love or live life. Love does not come in one form but spans across so many relationships that we will all undoubtedly encounter. Lunn illustrates, through her own life experiences and various interviews, how important it is to really cherish the people in our lives and not be afraid to have difficult conversations to work through the rocky parts of life, which are also inevitable.

The way I’ve summarised this book unfortunately seems to have reduced Lunn’s brilliant work to a cliché, to the sayings we’ve all heard that roughly go, “tell people you love them before it’s too late”, but no. Lunn’s writing truly opened my eyes, forced me to ask myself questions about what I value and want in life and was a refreshing read.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Finally, my most recent read, and the one that stood out to me the most: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I would consider myself a relatively slow reader, but it turns out I just hadn’t found the right book because I sped through My Brilliant Friend and loved every moment. I found it to be is a gripping and uncomfortably honest commentary on female friendships as well as, to an extent, Mediterranean culture, specifically in 1950s Naples. My mother is Maltese, and grew up in Malta and all her family still live there too, so I grew up hearing stories about what life, for women in particular, was like on this tiny island situated right in the heart of the Mediterranean and one which shares a lot of similarities to southern Italian culture. This book was a disturbingly accurate portrayal of how I heard my Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even my own mother, talk about their culture. People I’ve spoken to or the reviews I’ve read have sometimes been mixed; some commenting on how it is just a complete stereotype and nothing new, particularly in regards to commenting on Italian / Neapolitan culture. However, I felt that was the point. The central theme of My Brilliant Friend was not to criticise or understand Neapolitan society, but friendship. Lila and Lenù’s friendship is the entire point of the book, the fact they’re living in a very difficult time in post-war Naples largely due to politics simply adds to the obstacles they encounter growing up in their neighbourhood, it is not the central theme to focus on. Additionally, if I didn’t have Maltese heritage and a pre-existing connection to Mediterranean culture, for me, this book would’ve been completely new and shocking in terms of that this novel is supposed to be a realistic account of Naples in the 1950s.

My Brilliant Friend does explore the harsh political and social realities of post-war Naples, also the casual sexism, and how severely important education is. The novel follows Lenù and Lila, from Lenù’s point of view, focusing on their friendship as they go through all the stages of growing into young women in an impoverished, violent and narrow-minded neighbourhood. Ferrante confronts how the community Lila and Lenù grow up in could not afford to dream of life outside the neighbourhood, that there was never enough time or resources to imagine or work towards a life outside of Rione Luzzatti di Gianturco which creates tension between the girls and their families. I don’t want to spoil much, but essentially, Lenù and Lila have immense potential to become intelligent and talented women in whatever career they would choose. Unfortunately, to Lila in particular, Naples’s standards and traditions that is maintained for women hold her back. Furthermore, a lack of money circulating in their neighbourhood, except for those involved in the black market which invokes violent and jealous streaks particularly in the men, restricts Lila from finishing school and having the ability or confidence to access her full capabilities.

Ferrante’s writing is poignant and she illustrates a painfully truthful depiction of two complex “friends” racing to outdo one another. The story begins with Lenù feeling exceptionally behind Lila despite only being in the fourth grade and it is Lila’s approval and the hope to outsmart her that spurs Lenù on to keep studying. Lila ultimately gets left behind and begins to excel in what their neighbourhood expects of their women, despite relentlessly fighting against becoming that version of herself her entire childhood. As their lives begin to reach what may be a disappointing point, Lenù appears to set aside her jealousy and almost, fear, of her supposed friend and is there to look out for her, and Lila allows Lenù to know the real her. The side of herself she has never revealed to anyone as Lila always maintained a perfectly manicured wall which, I think, added to the fear Lenù felt towards her, despite Lila considering her a friend. Lila never allowed anyone to know her, just the defensive, arrogant and .purposefully aloof version.

I can understand why, especially nowadays, this book wouldn’t necessarily be considered gripping or even enjoyable for some readers as this first book (it is one of four) is only setting up the story. While I did not find it slow or boring as some people have described it, it is understandable as this is just the introduction to Lila and Lenù. This first installment offers a background and an understanding for the reader for when you read on and encounter them in the later novels. Personally, I found that My Brilliant Friend is just the start of a brilliant quartet Elena Ferrante produced and I cannot wait to read the rest of Lenù and Lila’s stories!

I hope you enjoyed my reviews of my recent reads, and will hopefully consider picking one of them up to be the next book you enjoy! :))

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