The Story of a New Name: A Novel (Neapolitan Novels, 2) Paperback – September 3, 2013

The Story of a New Name is the second in Elena Ferrante's highly-praised Neapolitan Quartet. In it, we again meet the two friends. Lila and Elena, both born in August 1944 and now in their late teens and early twenties.By the end of the first book, My Brilliant Friend, teenaged Lila was already married to the wealthy grocer Stefano. Their marriage had continued the neighborhood pattern of rape and beatings. The "brilliant" Lila, who, like Elena, had longed for a different kind of life away from the impoverished neighborhood where they grew up, had escaped the poverty of her childhood in her marriage to Stefano, but she couldn't escape the culture of male domination and physical abuse. That was simply the accepted way of the world.It was inevitable that the spirited Lila would eventually rebel and seek more from life. The only surprising thing about that was where and from whom she sought that "more."Elena, meanwhile, with the help and encouragement of her teachers and her own hard work, as well as a little bit of luck, continued her progress through the educational system. She escaped the trap of an early marriage and managed to continue to college, which opened up a whole new world to her.The story of Elena's first trip away from her neighborhood to go to the college at Pisa brought back some vivid memories for me. I could relate very well to the apprehension and anxiety of a girl who had lived all her life in an insular neighborhood as she struggled to find her way and her place in this new world she had entered. Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt.This really is, in so many ways, a heartbreaking story. The barriers that life throws up for these two young women must seem almost unreal to younger women readers living in Western societies today, but their older mothers, aunts, grandmothers can testify that the barriers really did exist and, in all too many instances, still do, even if in modified form.Elena continues to be the narrator of this story, but her narration is informed by some notebooks of Lila's. Lila had given them to her and pressed her to keep them - but not read them - so that Stefano would not find them. They were notebooks containing her writing about her feelings and experiences from the time of childhood right up through her marriage. Of course, Elena could not resist the temptation of reading them, and so she is able to tell us what Lila was feeling concerning many of the events of both their lives.The two young women had always been competitive, especially about school, but, as they reach adulthood, they also become competitive about men. They are attracted to the same young man, although Elena denies her attraction. This attraction will have important consequences for their friendship and for their lives.Throughout these years, the friendship undergoes repeated trials. The lives of the two have diverged in very significant ways and, at times, they are emotionally distant as well as physically distant from each other. But always something brings them back together.I loved this book. I thought it was even better than My Brilliant Friend. From the very first page of The Story of a New Name I was mesmerized. I would have liked to read the entire book in one sitting, but, unfortunately, life intervened. I had work to do, places to go, appointments to keep, but I always returned to it as soon as I could, because I just couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.My only real problem with the book was one of the same ones I had with the first entry, namely trying to keep the cast of thousands straight! All those confusing names and all those families and their interrelationships. Had the author not again included that index of characters at the beginning as a handy reference, I might have been irretrievably lost.As it is, I now feel that I know and understand Lila and Elena. The drama of their lives seems so real, so well-written, and so engrossing that one can't help feeling that it must be based upon real life. The author herself is something of a mystery, but she grew up in Naples and it seems likely that she experienced or observed events similar to the ones that she describes in her books.Or maybe she just has a really vivid imagination.

I barreled into this book and sailed through the first 200 pages, but then it flagged for me in the middle, picking up again in the last 150 pages - but that may just have been because the end was near!I was so torn about this book. On the negative side, all of the characters are detestable human beings. All of them are awful in their own way and it just becomes a question of degrees. The people in the "neighbourhood" are not people I would want to spend time with. Maybe day-to-day they are perfectly pleasant, ordinary people, but in the story of their lives as recounted by Lenu they are deficient in character and action. There is violence, selfishness and base motivations - money and sex primarily. No one looks good in this story. And if they do, it's not for long.Even though Lenu is the narrator, this is Lila's story. Lila may be fragile and broken in ways that no one can truly understand, least of all Lila herself, but she is still a horrible human being. She is a terrible wife, she is an even more terrible friend. She is manipulative and selfish and capricious. If she was my friend I would break up with her. But the friendship is complex and the codependency of the two friends is the meat of the story and there is a lot of juice there to keep you in there with them. They are also still very young and in addition to their major character defects there is a layer of immaturity that can be missed because so much has happened in their lives. They are both completely unaware and totally, starkly aware of all that they don't yet know and perhaps can never know.On the positive side, Ferrante draws these human failings so well. She draws a community mired in all this awful human weakness that was born in poverty, that cannot seem to extricate itself even as they become more affluent. She writes with recognition and surety of the human condition and it is a wonder to read.Also on the positive side, I liked very much where Ferrante is taking Elena. She is growing and changing and I liked particularly her observations on how hard it is move into another class. Elena may be educated and have a degree, but she recognizes that she will never belong in the class that she aspires too. Those scenes where she sees clearly and yet still feels the pull of the neighbourhood are poignant. Elena is the least horrible of the characters, but she also has the advantage of being the narrator. I liked that Lila's position is such a stark commentary on the position of women in Italy in the 1960's and that Elena's juxtaposes that and pulls against it as she tries to gain her independence in work, socially and sexually. It mirrors their friendship in a lot of ways.The book is masterful on so many levels. The themes of poverty and friendship continue to dominate, but are now interwoven with those of social change and social mobility. But, ugh! They are so hard to be around! They are fascinating and complicated and there is so much to chew on, but they are awful and annoying at the same time. The people in this story are a train wreck that you want to turn away from with discomfort because there is nothing you can do for them and it is so embarrassing for them to have you see, but you rubberneck anyway because you want to know if anyone is going to make it out alive.I will probably return to Elena and Lila for the third book, but I think I need a little break from them. A solid 3.5 stars reaching for 4.