gimley reviewed The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (Neapolitan novels -- book four)
Review of 'The Story of the Lost Child' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A couple of months ago, I finished this book and started writing this review. Now I have come back to finish it and here's what I find:
Four books ago, Lila disappeared prompting Lenu to write about it. Now, in the epilogue of book 4, she admits defeat. "What is the point of all these pages then? I wanted to capture her. To have her beside me once again."
Now that I've finished reading, the boundaries have disolved. Can't I just go back and start over with them? Can I have them beside me once again?
Unlike books, real life inclines toward obscuity, not clarity.
So that's what I wrote last December. I can no longer distinguish between what I was saying and what I was quoting. I was immersed at the time. When I say "boundaries desolved" I was either quoting or referring to Lila's use of the phrase …
A couple of months ago, I finished this book and started writing this review. Now I have come back to finish it and here's what I find:
Four books ago, Lila disappeared prompting Lenu to write about it. Now, in the epilogue of book 4, she admits defeat. "What is the point of all these pages then? I wanted to capture her. To have her beside me once again."
Now that I've finished reading, the boundaries have disolved. Can't I just go back and start over with them? Can I have them beside me once again?
Unlike books, real life inclines toward obscuity, not clarity.
So that's what I wrote last December. I can no longer distinguish between what I was saying and what I was quoting. I was immersed at the time. When I say "boundaries desolved" I was either quoting or referring to Lila's use of the phrase but that is a sort of immersion experience. These are books that take you over for a while and when you are released, you feel the loss of the experience. You become like Lenu without Lila. You have obscurity without clarity.
I could try and clarify now, using the simplification of distance which is partly illusion--the result of forgetting the details. But the loss is the point, isn't it? Or part of the point. The truth is I can't even clarify now.
