Book Review: My Brilliant Friend is simply and massively the tortuous character study of a friendship (though more than a friendship). The setting is also significant, but the plot is secondary. The events that occur are less important: what is significant is how the characters react to those events, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. In my less elitist moments, I believe that all humans are infinite, and in My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante explores the infinite nature of a friendship between two women, going a quantum leap beyond what should've been expected. An intricate and demanding friendship. As does Tolstoy, she delves into the thoughts, waverings, perseverance, emotions, fears, determinations, endurance. Over cups, we could talk for hours comparing and contrasting Elena and Lina. Both are bright. One is careful, diligent, cautious, prudent, enduring; the other is wild, brilliant, intrepid, heedless, mercurial. But this list is a single, small scratch on the surface of the two and their relationship. Only the four books of this series can encompass the whole. My Brilliant Friend is the ultimate response to the Bechdel test. As this is only the first of four books, I don't want to say much more here. I feel I have a long enlightenment ahead of me. In her Tolstoyan way, Ferrante has taken on an epic endeavor. [5★]
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