The Story of the Lost Child

What a brilliant first half of the book. I would have given it 5 stars. Everything is fluid, everything is so well written. And then there is this plot twist and everything changes. Everything had to change, but here the story looses itself. I no longer recognize the characters, all their behaviors and words feel fake or exaggerated, the events are narrated one after the other like a distant enumeration. People grow old, ‘this is what happens to x, this is what happens to y'. Lenú's daughters plot feels rushed, stereotypical or simply not interesting. It feels like the rushed summary of each character's lives is only there to please the ready or to delay the moment when the writer will have to end the book. Starts chapters of descriptions of the city's monuments, Lenú older talking about the plot of this exact same book, more of Lenú rambling and describing her daily routine...The last quarter of the book feels completely unedited and ends with a somehow feel-good moment, so different from the previous style of the book.

In the end, I love this full series, but the ending of each book disappointed me deeply and often made me forget the brilliance of the rest of it. Then I remember why those books are part of my classics, and I let their brillo comfort and change me.

Last of the Neapolitan Novels! Great tetralogy, but truly one long epic. That's a goodbye to Elena and Lila. I've been pingponging between preferring one girl over the other, while reading their life stories. Both of them are flawed and admirable, strong and annoying. Just as fascinating literary characters should be. They'll definitely stay in my head for a bit.