“You still waste time with those things, Lenù? We are flying over a ball of fire. The part that has cooled floats on lava. On that part we construct buildings, the bridges, and the streets, and every so often the lava comes out of Vesuvius or causes an earthquake that destroys everything. There are microbes everywhere that make us sick and die.”
This is one is a really slow burn. I'd heard nothing but rave reviews which kept me reading and eventually that tenacity paid off. I kept thinking this was a book that would appeal more to my mother due to its detailed descriptions of minutiae, much like the way she describes every detail of her day. Perhaps what turned me off so much to begin with was the fact that I just didn't like the two protagonists. Lila and Elena were not characters I could particularly warm to in their infancy. Perhaps that was because they brought up uncomfortable memories of how cruel children can be to each other, and the unpleasant recollections of a childhood full of bullying.
Yet dear reader I read on. Now, as you might guess by the lack of reviews of late, I finished this quite some months ago. Life has thrown some curve balls, and stress has possibly played tricks with my memory. I know that upon finishing the last few pages I immediately ordered the other novels in the Neapolitan novels which suggests my ultimate appraisal as a positive one.
5 out 5 a childhood friendship is a complicated one.
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