I’m afraid I may never be able enjoy another book. These Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante are pure perfection and set way too high a bar for anything I may read from now on. I’m reviewing them as a set because I gobbled up all four in under three weeks and they are so cohesive. Although the books were released one by one, each September since 2012, it’s easy to imagine Elena Ferrante (a pseudonym) sitting down and writing all 2,000 or so pages in […]
A Meh Take on Friendship and Growing Up
Rufi Thorpe’s debut novel, The Girls from Corona del Mar, focuses on the friendship of two girls as it stretches from childhood to adulthood. Lorrie Ann is the golden girl with a perfect family and a perfect home. Mia has an alcoholic mother, two young brothers she both loves and hates and, as the book opens, is 15 and figuring out how to get out of a soccer game so she can get an abortion. As they grow older, one becomes a teacher and researcher, the other […]