On my trip to DC, I finally had some time to check out the novel that is attracting so much attention. After reading it, I can’t say I know what the hullabaloo is about. My Brilliant Friend is a solid but unremarkable addition to the genre of childhood and adolescence novels. I read a lot of this kind of thing when I was a kid because back in the USSR this was a genre that produced quite a bit of decent writing. Literature for adults and about adults was way too controlled ideologically while books about kids could avoid being quite as ideological. (They were still ideological, of course, but not to the crazy extent of the rest of available literature.)
The problem with this genre is that it is tied to the stages of human growth and ends up being way too scripted as a result. First toys, first friendships, first day at school, first fight, first book, pimples, insecurities, sexual awakening, first kiss, etc., etc. You can switch around a couple of these stages but that’s pretty much the only variation that the genre allows.
There are a few ways of livening up this otherwise limited genre. One could work on the language to turn a pedestrian account of “she goes to school, she comes back from school, she does homework, she plays with her friends” into something a bit more like an actual work of art. One could set the childhood and adolescence in an interesting time in history and show how historic events shape the process of a child’s growth. Ferrante doesn’t do anything like that. History is even less than an afterthought in her novel, the writing is extremely straightforward, and the novel ends up being just like a million other childhood and adolescence novels.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good, decent contribution to the genre. If I read this book at the age of 12, I’d be all over it. I definitely recommend getting this book for an actual child or adolescent but I’m not sure what use an adult can derive from it other than relying on the novel for an undemanding beach or airport read.
Clarissa's Blog 
In the USSR, some of the books for children were really wonderful, such as those by Nosov, Marshak, Barto, or Chukovsky. They still sound terrific when we read them to our granddaughter. 🙂 Why KGB allowed them is a mystery: the guys used to forbid all talented books back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
There were some really good things in those times, but, in general, the USSR was not the best country to live in, to say the least. That’s why I don’t understand many people’s nostalgia about the Soviet Union. One really great thing about that era was that we were younger. The rest can be compensated easily now. 🙂
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This is a novel for adolescents. It would be way too complex for the small kids who’d enjoy Marshak and Barto. The Soviet equivalent to Ferrante would be Alexandra Brushtein, Lev Kassil, Kaverin, etc. Great writers all.
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Will you be reading the next 3 books in the series? They are mostly set in the adult years of the characters’ lives, I believe.
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Probably. This is very easy, undemanding reading that is relaxing and enjoyable.
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