Lottie Lomme
Elena Ferrante. They read her books all over the world. Or actually: are books. Ferrante is a pseudonym of Domenico Starnone. The Neapolitan series, four books about two girlfriends, was world famous and recommended by Hillary Clinton, among others. A wonderful series, which I recommend to all my Italian students (to read in Dutch).
The novel . was published in the Netherlands in the autumn of 2017. Snares by Domenico Starnone. This one got good reviews, but I found it rather gloomy myself. A book about a marriage that seems to know no love.
tormenting love
Now there is then Chronicles of love, which brings together three previous stories by Ferrante.
I read the first story tormenting love about Delia going back to Naples to bury her mother. Also a sad story, but less gloomy than Snares. A story about a difficult childhood and the consequences it has for the rest of your life. It takes place in Napels, which is clearly the author's favorite setting.
The author has his own style and it is interesting to read a different story with the same themes. The big themes: love, relationships, passion. Persevere, fall and get up again. Themes that will appeal to everyone.
Delia grew up in poverty with a jealous and abusive father and a psychologically vulnerable mother. The book unravels the story of her mother and of herself. Her mother lowers her eyes in front of her father.
She has completely changed her life just to prevent her husband from beating her. Her glance, her tone, her choice of words. But it doesn't help. Under the mask slumbers a cheerful and spontaneous woman who loves life.
And then there's the mother's mysterious relationship with Caserta. Her husband's employer. Who sends her flowers that she puts in a vase at home.
But is she having an extramarital affair? For her husband, it is undisputed. Because daughter Delia once told him, as a small child. But you only read what really happened at the end of the story. The story weaves itself around Delia and the reader like a spider's web.
Get to know the writer
although I Snares Wouldn't recommend it for fun reading, but I do recommend this book. It is intriguing to gain insight into this writer, who clearly has special qualities.
Why are these stories so beautiful? He describes well what people are like, with all their limitations and the tragedy they carry with them. You see the same elements in all novels: the longing for love and the disappointments in it, the eternal search for happiness.
You see this in all books by Elena Ferrante/Domenico Starnone, but stories do differ from each other: The Neapolitan series is compelling, tormenting love from Chronicles of love technically very clever and Snares ruthless and mercilessly harsh. Find your favourite.
3 books in 1
Chronicles of Love contains the previously released novels tormenting lovee, Days of Abandonment en The hidden daughter.
In tormenting love After the death of her mother, a woman returns to Naples, the city where she grew up. In a language that penetrates the deepest layers of life, Ferrante dissects the feelings of a woman in search of the roots of her existence.
Days of Abandonment is a sharp and merciless portrait of thirty-eight-year-old Olga who is abandoned overnight by her husband for another woman. An unprecedented story that bursts with despair, anger, disbelief and loneliness.
In The hidden daughter Finally, in a cottage by the sea, Leda thinks about the difficult relationship she has with her daughters. Ferrante writes about major themes such as identity, desire and motherhood in a sober style that touches the reader deeply.
Chronicles of love
by: Elena Ferrante (translated by Marieke van Laake, Manon Smits, Els van der Pluijm)
480 pages
€ 19,99 (also available as an e-book)
World Library, April 2018
ISBN 9789028427488
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