The over-the-top, it's-awesome-man kind of coverage of the novel by the North American literary establishement of this series, and of the reclusive author, is fascinating in its own right; but beware of overused adjectives and false expectations. There evidently are 'devastating' scenes in this 'masterly' work, which I have yet to find. In fact, the second installment to the potboiler series of two girlfriends in, now 1960's, Naples continues in the same vein as the first. With teenage angst slowly turning into real life melodramas, we have in our hands an Italian style photo-novel: jealousy, adultery, poverty, pregnancy, failure and success, you've got it all. This isn't high literature; nor is it a great story. It is a close up of a childhood friendship gone 'toxic'. I will read the third installment, this time out of morbid curiosity about the empress' clothes. OK, so in spite of my lukewarm review of the 1st book in the series, I found myself buying this on sale from Amazon and picked it up lacking anything else. Am glad that I did because it was quite the page turner.I still get all the names confused so the list of characters in the beginning is worth a browse every so often. As to the actual story, it's still the ebb and flow of the close friendship between Elina and Lila as they grow into young adulthood. Just more of the story and as I write this I'm into the 3rd book and I've read that a 4th is planned. So it's an enjoyable read and I tried to get my sister into it, taking the Italian heritage angle, but we don't look for the same things in our reading. A shame since the writing is very compelling, sensitive and personal.
Do You like book Story Of A New Name (2014)?
Great writing. I liked this one even better than her first in the series (My Brilliant Friend).
—Shay
Top notch soap opera. A scary amount of violence among spouses and acceptance of it by wives.
—yoli13
Another great book...can't wait to read the third book in this trilogy...
—Bagger
Another beautifully crafted book by Ferente
—yearbook
Blown away. Is there a third book?
—christineelaine
