Tolog Review: My Brilliant Friend

My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante
reviewed by Katherine Collins

In Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, Elena Creco, one of the most prominent characters, learns that her life-long best friend, Lila Cerullo, is missing. The story begins with flashbacks to their childhood and progresses throughout the story. This novel is a fiction book that takes place in Naples, Italy in the 1950s. Throughout the story, Elena and Lila’s characters are shown clearly through the author’s incredible literary techniques. I especially enjoyed the turn in evens when the two girls went their separate ways for middle school because Ferrante further developed the girls’ character in a way that was comprehensible for the reader. 

During the novel, the characters find themselves in tough and difficult situations that any normal teenager at that time would find themselves in. As Elena and Lila grow older and develop new relationships with others, the girls are subjects of interest of some of the wealthy and handsome young men of the area. These new relationships seem to be getting in the way for the friendship between Lila and Elena. On the other hand, because of these new relationship, the best friends need each other more than ever to help her make the right decision. At the end of the novel, Lila and Elena find themselves in great situations with their lives and are happy right where they are. 

My Brilliant Friend is a great novel that will have you reading nonstop as you try to follow this magical, beautiful, and great friendship between two life-long best friends. This is the first book of a series, so the story continues on for a few more books. I would recommend this book, and I cannot wait to read the next one.