Book Review: The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

The Story of a New Name is the second novel in Elena Ferrante’s four-part series known as the Neapolitan Novels. I picked it up almost immediately after I finished reading My Brilliant Friend (the first), and I devoured it almost as quickly.

I am transfixed by Ferrante’s ability to engage me so deeply, especially because I don’t typically gravitate toward stories about drama-filled female friendships. Maybe it’s the historical time period, the place, the intricate character study, or the brilliant prose that has me hooked. Or maybe it’s all of it.

While I didn’t love this second novel as much as the first (TBH: I had become kind of bored with it on more than one occasion), I’m committed to sticking with the series and have already started the third novel.

If you’re just joining me, Ferrante’s series is, at surface level, an intricate saga about the complicated friendship between two Italian women. Lila Cerullo and Lenù Greco grew up in similar apartment buildings on the poor side of Naples in the 1950s.

[Aside: My mother’s side of the family is of Neapolitan descent…commonly pronounced by those of us in the States as NAH-balla-don.]

As I continue to explore Ferrante’s world through the lens of her fiction, I understand why those that could left on boats in droves. Families who remained needed to find a way to survive the day-to-day hardships of poverty, political dissonance, and low-level organized crime. For most, this meant keeping their heads down, minding their own business, and accepting their lot in life.

Lila and Lenù come of age with dreams to circumvent the status quo, even if they don’t quite know how… Though denied the opportunity to attend school beyond 5th grade, Lila nevertheless grows into a beautiful and charismatic teenager. She retains all of the toughness that set her apart from the other girls her age, including her best friend Lenù. Lila, for beauty, for boldness - or for whatever - captures the heart of Stefano Carracci, the handsome son of deceased power broker Don Achille. A marriage between the two will go a long way to elevate Lila’s social and economic standing, but that is not why she accepts his proposal. She actually loves him.

So the title of this novel refers to Lila Cerullo’s rags-to-riches transformation into the elegant and refined Signora Carracci, the envy of all women, and the object of every man’s desire. It picks up almost immediately where the previous left off: at the couple’s highly-anticipated wedding. But Stefano’s shady business dealings force him to do something that betrays Lila’s trust, and she discovers this at a terrible time: the last hour of the wedding reception.

This serves as a significant turning point in Lila’s story.

When finally alone, Lila responds angrily to Stefano’s betrayal. She receives a beating in response that incites the complicated series of unfortunate events to follow. Lila, a woman of no personal wealth or stature, wields no actual power. Despite her intelligence, she lacks a responsible sense of “place.” Pride and poor impulse control thus become catalysts for her eventual undoing.

There are so many things that happen in this novel that would make a thoughtful plot summary seem absurd. I know it seems like I gave a lot away already, but its barely the beginning! This book reads like a soap opera, shifting from character to character and scene to scene, developing many different conflicts and plot points along the way. This is the reward for the folks who decided to continue past My Brilliant Friend: More drama for your mama.

In contrast to the charismatic Lila, Lenù is more of a mousey introvert. While this checks the “opposites attract” box on our literary archetypes checklist, the girls’ friendship also embodies two distinct realties of southern Italian women in the 19th century. The ability to pursue a formal education is the one advantage that Lenù has on Lila, but it does almost nothing to boost her confidence. Bereft of vision or any meaningful goals, Lenù seems to waddle through adolescence suffering mild existential crises that distract her from her studies. But just when it seems like Lenù is about to quit school and marry the poor mechanic (that she doesn’t actually love), something happens to bring her back. In many cases, and for reasons both benevolent and selfish, it is Lila that says or does something to right the ship.

Over the course of this novel, the girls’ relationship becomes increasingly dysfunctional. Though probably not intentional, Lila indulges a selfish whim with neither consideration nor concern for Lenù’s feelings. Without getting into specifics, the slight would be a perfectly justifiable reason for Lenù to distance herself from Lila, but she doesn’t. She can’t.

The aforementioned slight is levels the playing field: both girls envy the other because the other has something that she does not (and cannot) have for herself.