Page 5 - SCG December 2015.indd

LETTERS cont’d from page 4
of Ms. McCurdy’s review focuses not on the novel My Brilliant Friend, but on the publicized enigma surrounding the true identity of the author Elena Ferrante. The fact that Ms Ferrante had declined to do book tours, to sign first editions, and to provide inter- views leads Ms. McCurdy to conclude that “this reticence only enhances the mystique probably doing more to pro- mote sales than a more ordinary route would”. If I understand this sentence correctly, Ms. McCurdy is calling into questions whether Ms. Ferrante’s wish to remain private may well be a clever marketing ploy. I direct Ms McCurdy, and any other interested readers, to read an interview with the elusive Ms. Ferrante in the Spring 2015 issue of The Paris Review to answer this question for themselves. www.theparisreview.org/ interviews/6370/art-of-fiction-no-228- elena-ferrante
encourages them to study their way to independence in order to escape the misery of their current circumstanc- es, as well as to break out of the cycle which prepares them for nothing more than a future as oppressed house- wives. How the two young girls react to this challenge has repercussions for them, as well as their families, friends and the entire close-knit community as well.
I regret to say that McCurdy’s book review struck me as pejorative and high school-ish in tone. The novel was tedious, boring? How so? Good per- suasive writing requires the use of fac- tual details to back up opinions. While the question is not whether or not Ms. McCurdy liked or disliked the novel, my objection is to her lack of precision in words like “boring” “tedious” and “I felt like nothing was happening”. If Ms. McCurdy’s review had been writ- ten by a high school student, it would have been sent back for revision. She would have been required to include evidence for her opinions taken from the novel itself, as students are being instructed to do with Common Core education all over Sonoma County schools.
Among other things, this book of- fers a sustained study of envy. Intense friendships include unspoken rival- ries between “best friends” – and in the novel this occurs between the two young girls Elena and Lila. “My friendship with Lila began the day we decided to go up the dark stairs that led, step after step, flight after flight, to the door of Don Achille’s apartment.” The novel begins in Ferrante’s wonder- ful economy of language, as she beck- ons readers to follow her, step, by step, flight by flight, up the dark stairwell of childhood to answer the question, is envy an emotion that can sometimes be mistaken as love?
“We climbed slowly toward the greatest of our terrors of that time, we went to expose ourselves to fear and interrogate it.” Ferrante’s novel ex- plores in intimate detail the deep com- plexity of female friendship. As I was reading I wondered, where in my life was this dark staircase; and who did I follow, or lead, to the top? What was waiting for us when we arrived, and how did we react to it?
But Ms. McCurdy’s book review was not written by a high school student. Boring, tedious? Then why read it? If I found a book so tedious and boring, I would most certainly put that book down altogether and begin another. Why review it? Why not review the book you just finished that you just can’t wait to tell other people about?
“At the fourth flight, Lila did some- thing unexpected. She stopped to wait for me, and when I reached her she gave me her hand. This gesture changed everything between us for- ever.” By the novel’s end, I felt inspired to look back on my own life, reflecting on the people and events that have led me to become who I am today; the pro- found changes and challenges along the way that have split my spirit apart; the profound changes and challenges that have sent it back to me and made me whole. How little many of us know about ourselves, Ferrante’s novel sug- gests. How perplexing our mental sou- venirs and icons. To discover that what we have been doing, in the end, was what we had always done.
My Brilliant Friend opens the read- er’s eyes to a world many of us know very little about, the miserable out- skirts of Naples after World War II. “I feel no nostalgia for our childhood,” Elena, the narrator, says early on in this, the first novel of the series. “It was full of violence.” In fact, this theme of domestic violence is a thread that runs throughout the entire novel, and not one character remains untouched. Yet while the world of this impoverished community is depicted as harsh and bleak, the author does provide a coun- ter balance of hope. This comes in the form of knowledge—its possibilities and its limits – for it is a schoolteacher who single-handedly spots the bud- ding talent of both Lila and Elena and
Masons Marina
I live and work in Bodega Bay and have been a Sonoma County resident for 27 years. My husband, (a Sonoma County native) is a Bodega Bay business owner and the bulk of his work is on the Sonoma coast. I walk Doran Beach several times a week and speak to hundreds of beach goers. The beauty and tranquility of this area is
LETTERS cont’d on page 6
12/15 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 5