Comments (22)

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May 23, 2023SFBookAddict rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
These days I find myself needing to read uplifting stories and thus this book had been sitting on my shelf untouched for a year because this story is gloomy and heartrending. I was hesitant about getting back to the difficult lives of…
May 11, 2022
Time Magazine called Ferrante one of the 100 most influential people of 2016.
Apr 22, 2022AlwaysLiberal2019 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I found every family member and friend of my grandparents and mother in this series. My grandparents were from a very poor town in Sicily. Some of these characters are exactly some members of my family. We all found it absolutely amazing…
Jan 20, 2022maipenrai rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I have become more and more disappointed with the Neapolitan novels as I have read as I have read each successive book. A child disappears in this edition and it is barely a footnote in the rest of the soap opera. Disappointing. Kristi…
Jan 02, 2021
Book 4
Oct 08, 2020posie12 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
The love hate story begins, Starting with the brilliant Lila who had no chance at education, to Elena who did become a writer and well known, but lost her first love to Lila. This continues throughout their lives with all the politics…
Sep 16, 2019jmithen rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this series (and the HBO version). This seems like it should be required reading. European living is so interesting. I love the cultural and food aspects. Author is excellent at articulating the highly complex relationship of 2…
May 13, 2019
The audio series was good, the reader, Hilary Huber has a calm, dry cool touch which I think exudes the type of character that Elena is. But of course it isn't perfect there we times that I felt pushed away from the story because the voice…
Feb 12, 2019moraggunn rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
These are some of the best (and definitely the angriest) novels I've read in my life. What a rich, complex and infuriating universe these novels reveal, in some of the best writing of our times. I've read other works by Elena Ferrante,…
Jan 09, 2019BraveNOTPerfect rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
.....and sadly my journey with Elena and Lila came to the end, with this fourth and last instalment of Neapolitan quartet. From the book one to book four, not only that you follow two friends from childhood to old age, you also learn about…
Jul 27, 2018shuraleff rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
If you like soap operas, you will like this and the three preceding books.
jr3083
Mar 14, 2018jr3083 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is a four-part story, released at one volume each year between 2012 and 2015. Set in a poverty-stricken section of Naples in the 1950s, it is the story of a friendship between two women, Elena and Lina. At times I found myself…
Aug 14, 2017Bunny_Watson716 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The final book in the Neapolitan Quartet. I have loved all of these novels, especially the emotional development of the characters. The ebb and flow of their friendship, the ties to their old neighbourhood that they can't quite escape…
Aug 07, 2017gale37 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The Neapolitan Books are at the top of my "Best Books I've Ever Read" list. Even while reading the first, "My Brilliant Friend", I felt not only as though I knew Elena Greco intimately, but her neighbourhood, parents and childhood friend…
Jul 13, 2017redtayres rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Without the hype I'd not have picked up any of the volumes in this 4-volume story. This is an overly long yet good and satisfying conclusion to the series. Most of the time I recommend against audiobooks but with this series I alternated…
Mar 23, 2017empbee rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
An excellent final volume of a first-rate tetralogy. A friendship over fifty years also covers the life of a group of people in a poor part of Naples. The psychological insight of people are very interesting, the description of social,…
athompson10
Feb 10, 2017
As angry and astute as the rest of the set, this one is also heartbreakingly sad at times. I'm sorry for the end of the series.
Jan 22, 2017lukasevansherman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
"The order of the world in which we had grown up was dissolving. . .The exploitation of man by man and the logic of maximum profit, which before had been considered an abomination, had returned to become the linchpins of freedom and…
Jun 20, 2016singasong70 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, main character(s) qualify in this regard. Not to mention divide between being a "feminist" and acting like one when it comes to men…
May 26, 2016uncommonreader rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The last book in the quartet about a friendship and a tribute to the author's wonderful friend. The personal is political.
Mar 14, 2016NFN rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Volume 4 of the soap opera opens with Elena still so selfish and self-absorbed that she can't empathize with anyone, including her daughters, spouse, and friends. I found the first half of the book tediously repetitious as Elena complains…
booklady413
Sep 22, 2015
I am sad to see this series end. Lenu and Lila encompass all of the aspects of friendship, good and bad. The series also features all the good and bad of the city of Naples.