The Days of Abandonment
Ratings29
Average rating4
Elena Ferrante writes circles around 99.999% of all humans, living and dead, seemingly without breaking a sweat.
What an absolute talent Ferrante possesses with this novel.
You are forced to enter the madness of the main character, her dark descent of being abandoned by her husband. Truly brilliant.
i liked this book for like the first... 20%. and then it became olga bitching about her children and not taking care of her dog (sorry, otto, i would've loved and taken care of you better, you sweet dog). for the dog her justification is that her cunt of a husband was the one who brought him into the family, so otto was collateral damage of mario's infidelity, and i don't know, i've never been cheated on by a husband before because i'm 20 and single, but i really don't think i'd be hitting my dog with a branch. the children are a bit annoying especially the girl, but like, their dad had just left them out of nowhere, so maybe i was expecting a bit more compassion for the kids on this end.
the writing is beautiful, but i skim read like 10 chapters because it's repetitive, and i expected to read more about her and carrano's relationship, but instead i get nothing, only one attempted sex scene that made my coochie dry and fall off. like for those 10 chapters elena could've showed us more about carrano & olga but no. she just goes about bitching about her children and leaving her dog to die.
meh, i liked the writing, that's why i'm giving it like 3 stars. the obscenity didn't surprise me because it's an italian book, idk. i wouldn't recommend it though. olga just feels like a mockery of women scorned.
A husband leaves a family, and the wife - a mother of two - spirals downwards into despair, and it is raw and real, and dark and painful. Hadn't I read the Neapolitan novels first, I'd probably be more smitten with it, but now I just accept that I like Ferrante a lot.
how strange and depressing, I think. Love seems impossible, or fickle and to no end.