REVIEW: My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante)

Book: My Brilliant Friend

Author: Elena Ferrante

Premise: Growing up in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples, two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other.

I had heard good things about this book, the first of a quartet. It follows the lives of two girls growing up in the 1950s in Naples, showing how they grow and the country changes around them. I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately it didn't quite land with me. Personally, I found it quite slow and repetitive. I also found the jealous rivalry between the two friends annoying, even though it's probably a decent reflection of teenage friendship. So sadly not a book for me.