“Her quickness of mind was like a hiss, a dart, a lethal bite.”
I first heard about this book from @graceatwood’s favorite books list, and I added it to my TBR. James Wood of The New Yorker called it a “large, captivating, amiably peopled bildungsroman,” which aptly describes the story.
Spanning from childhood to adolescence, this novel follows the ever-changing friendship between Elena and Lila. I say “ever-changing” because, as with most friendships, the relationship ebbs and flows and goes through times of intense closeness and times of feeling like the two are seeing past each other but aren’t really connecting as they did before. It’s beautifully written and captures various stages of life so well – meeting a new friend who you think is so cool and not wanting to disappoint them, feeling more driven or less captivating than a friend, struggling when a friend is in a different stage of life than you and losing the feeling that they understand what you’re going through.
This book captures the nuance of friendship, and I found it to be a very accurate depiction of friendship. As I was reading, I found myself relating to Elena and Lila at different points and analogizing many of their experiences to experiences I’ve had with my friends. The writing, while captivating, is quiet, moving slowly through the years with a narrative closeness that reveals a bittersweetness – we know one of the characters is filled with possibility while the other is limited by circumstances beyond her control. As you read, you want to know the ending but also fear it.
My Brilliant Friend is part of the Neapolitan quartet and I plan to keep reading. Have you read this? 💛
Read It Like Rory 