A review of three books makes up the subject of this post. The first is The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante. The second two are Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. Ferrante's book is about a teenage girl coming of age in Naples. Strout's two books are about the eponymous character Olive, set in Crosby, Maine.
I had read Elena Ferrante's earlier book My Brilliant Friend, the first novel from the so called Neopolitan Quartet. It was tough going for me as I have written earlier. The HBO series rescued the story from the writing (translation?) and presented it quite evocatively. The struggles of two girls in post WWII Italy against quite challenging odds is quite beautifully captured in the TV series.
The Lying Life of Adults takes us back to Naples, with yet another teenager, Giovanna. Lives are grittily depicted, as is the city. Adults lie as the title of the book promises. They lie to each other and to themselves, it seems. It felt very much like Ferrante was trying to recapture the spirit of her earlier work, but I felt the story quite labored and the characters not much to care about. The main character in the story is her aunt Vittoria. She presents a brassy and coarse contrast to Giovanna's academic parents. Ferrante's attempt to make Vittoria a relative that Giovanna can learn from as she grows up, falls flat.
Other tales of teens growing up such as A.J. Cronin's The Green Years and Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are better rendered.
Elizabeth Strout picks up on her character Olive, after she retires as a school teacher in Crosby, Maine. Olive is thoroughly disliked by one and all of the characters that surround her. Yet in Strout's sure hands Olive comes to life in a remarkable way.
I accidentaly discovered that Elizabeth Strout is a gerontologist, which she mentions in passing in an interview on BBC World Book Club. Both her writing skills, narrative force and learning about aging as a gerontologist are on full display in both her books - Olive Kitteridge and also Olive, Again.
The author won the Pulitzer Prize for the first of these two books.
Both books have an interesting structure. Neither are end-to-end novels. Instead, they are a series of short stories. Olive is the main character in some stories and a secondary character in other stories. The effect of this technique is that the stories that surround Olive are much more fleshed out and nuanced. Characters that surround her are given their due as well.
As the stories progress through the first book and through the second, the wisdom of aging comes to the forefront. Not that Olive grows wiser. Nor even that the reader grows wiser. But rather the reader becomes aware of the wisdom associated with the life lived.
Strout's writing is clear and direct. Her character sketches are economical. Each of her stories are well laid out and succinctly told.
HBO also created a TV series out of the first book, with Frances McDormand and Bill Murray in the billing. Just like with the My Brilliant Friend series, HBO does a remarkable job with Olive Kitteridge in bringing not only Olive to life, but also the town of Crosby, Maine.
In this centennial of the 19th Amendment here in the US, it feels quite fitting to read these three books of women, by women for all interested readers.
However, in reviewing these book, I would highly recommend Olive Kitteridge and suggest leaving the lying adults to themselves in Naples.
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