[Neapolitan Novels 4 Books Set] (By Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Books):My Brilliant Friend/Story of a New Name/Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay/The Story of the Lost Child Paperback

I love the calming and peaceful feeling that I have

Awesome set of books. Love the story.

Read straight through

Good read but the story gets old after the first two novels.

I so disagree with poor reviews! For me, this series of novels was captivating. You learn to love the characters and feel transported back to the time it takes place. Roughly time period is from 1950's to around 1980's. You get the life story of two of the main characters from little girls thorough teen years, young adults and now moms.I never found these boring in any way. Also loved that they were from an Italian author, as I believe she pics up nuances of the culture and location better than if written by American about Italy.It is definitely a woman's novel as it covers actual and emotional trials and triumph from a woman;s perspective.I rank it among the top 10 novels and vibes I have read.

Perhaps his set of novels will be seen in future decades and centuries as one of the classics. Each succeeding book adds depth and resonance to what has gone before until the doll is finally recovered.

I was given all 4 books in the Neapolitan Novels by someone I am very fond of, and so tried my best to like them.I did read all four, and for me, it amounted to something of an endurance test. Elena Ferrante likes words! There were times where I did think some of it was beautifully written - but that was obscured by pages and pages of obsessive waffle. I felt like I’d had to wade through treacle to find the odd nugget of gold.The plot was so slow, with scant dialogue. I felt trapped in a limited person’s head. Some of the characters were far more interesting to me than Elena, but, of course, they were never expanded upon, because, well, they weren’t Elena.The narrator, Elena, who’s assessment of her childhood friend Lila’s outlandishly exceptional - almost magical - abilities, seemed to be built largely on her own fantasies. She never outgrew simplistic sibling-type jealousy. Her own competitive nature deprived her of any consolation that her own success may have brought, and gave her an inability to feel any compassion for her friend’s limited life chances. Time and time again I wanted to shake her.For me, it was like being forced to spend time in the company of someone I didn’t like, a self-obsessed person who damaged anyone close to her. Intolerably me me me - even her mothering was created through that lens.I have read that this is a masterpiece, a study of female friendship. All I can say is that with friends like this, who needs enemies? I'd say it is a bleak study of a negative, obsessive mind and I’m on team Lila.

These books start to get repetitive after about the first 1-1/2 books. The women characters are tedious after a while. Its easy to empathize with the narrator Elena (although the variety of nicknames for the two female characters is confusing at first and then they settle into Lila and Lenu); but the character Lila is exasperating and difficult to like -- and impossible to think of as being a real person. The male characters all seem to have the same deficiency of selfishness and thick-headedness. I have some memory of Italy of this period (although as an outsider) and of European politics of this period, and of feminism, but I find this series difficult to appreciate.