The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

 

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

Tiny Overview

1990's Naples is home to Giovanna, where she hears her Dad call her ugly - comparing her to a mystery family member that has been shunned out of the family. This intrigues her, so she hunts her down and finds her Aunt Vittoria, learning about her life and adopting her mantras to cope with new issues that have popped up in her life. She learns that her Father is a liar, the marriage is failing, and nobody is as the seem on the surface. 

Themes:

• Domestic fiction
• Coming of age
• Memory
• Aging
• Class
• Sexuality
• Family
• Lying

Context

Ferrante is an Italian author, who has written four other books set in Naples - referred to as the Neapolitan Novels. My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of The Lost Child (English names respectively). She considers these to be one big novel broken up into quarters. However, The Lying Life of Adults is not part of this even though it is set in the same location.

Ferrante is a pseudonym for this Italian author. In an interview with The Guardian, she says, "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors"

Four years after the book, in 2023, The Lying Life of Adults became a Netflix TV show.

My Waffling

This was a smaller book compared to the others I have read. Didn't really know what was going on or where the book was going in the best way. It has been turned into a Netflix show, but I haven't watched it. It has been translated from Italian, and I do think of this book often. I expected this book to be a big adventure to find out who this mystery Aunt was, but we met her quite quickly. She is a very strange woman, not really encountered a character like her before. Most of the characters seemed ambiguous, not quite having any redemption arcs. It was very interesting. The book seemed to be about growing up, seeing how everyone lies, and following suit. I felt lost in the middle of the book, not really grasping that concept, just seeing where it was going. The homoeroticism was a bit strange, but I am not a teenage girl, so maybe I can't relate. This does seem to be a prevalent topic that comes up in other books, like Evenings and Weekends.

As for Aunt Vittoria, I still don't know if she's beautiful or not. Maybe it's like what Roald Dahl says in The Twits (stay tuned for that review) that when you're beautiful on the inside then it shines through even if you're not. I quite enjoyed this book. I should look into her other ones to see what they're like. 

3/5