The Story of a New Name: Book #2 of Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
Italian Literature
While sharing my thoughts about ‘My Brilliant Friend’, some people told me that their favourite book was the second one: ‘The Story of a New Name’. I finished the book wondering why; Despite enjoying it greatly, I felt a bit irritated and uncomfortable. Why did I feel much more comfortable with the first book than with this one? I still don’t have a clear answer to that, but I feel like this book awakened some emotions in me that I’ve tried to hide for so long. It is somehow my defence mechanism to cope with everything that makes me sad. I try to run and hide from those feelings. As I remember, in my mind, I had a closet, and whenever I felt rage, sadness, or insecurity, I put all those emotions in that closet and locked the door. So, they were never in front of my eyes. Actually, I feel better this way until something provokes them and makes them start talking and yelling at me. And I feel ‘The Story of a New Name’ awakened some of my unresolved emotions, which is why I felt uncomfortable.
Let’s move on to the book review:
If you haven’t read the review for ‘My Brilliant Friend’ yet, read it first.
The second book covers Elena and Lila’s early adulthood, focusing on the difficulties and terrifying responsibilities that adulthood brings. They wanted to take control of their fate from a young age; as children, they made a pact to write a book, get rich, and escape. As they grow up, Lila chooses another path, marrying a wealthy man to gain money and power, while Elena sticks to their original plan of staying in school, writing a book, and becoming rich.
For Lila, adulthood is about starting a family while she’s still a teenager and doesn’t know anything about married life and its responsibilities. For Elena, it’s more about shaping her future by studying hard and writing her first novel, which changes her life. Elena stays in school and aims to find a career that will allow her to move away from her family, neighborhood, and the predetermined roles of the women she knew. In contrast, Lila marries a rich man and stays in the neighborhood, focusing on his business.
Despite the different paths their lives take, and although Elena is sometimes angry with Lila and tries to avoid her, she can’t deny Lila’s influence on her identity and personality. She believes Lila is a part of her. They share something profound, something that has connected them since childhood. Their bond is so strong that not even their conflicts can completely separate them. As Elena feels, they are actually two halves of a whole, completing each other.
I admired how masterfully Ferrante depicted the feelings of teenage girls, Elena's secret love for Nino, her feelings about her rivals, her hidden wounds, and their effects on her sexual life. How she adores Lila and at the same time hates her—just like reading my teenage diary! (I received a message from one of my friends yesterday; she told me my "Lila" is coming to London next week, and I’m going to meet her after ten years! What a coincidence!)
The story shows us how they are products of their time and place. They both try hard to detach from their family and neighbourhood, but in the end, they are shaped by that time and place, and it feels like there is no escape from it.
Reading ‘The Story of a New Name’, I felt like I was growing up with them. You can see the process of growth in each character. It’s so brilliantly written that the reader never feels a gap anywhere! Sometimes it makes me believe that the whole story is truly the memoir of Elena Ferrante, much like Elena herself, who is the writer of the story in the book.
I’m living with the book all the time; I think about it a lot. Most of the time, I think about Lila, an uneasy girl who doesn’t want to have a child with her husband. The rumours that say “She has the power to unconceived babies” stayed in my mind for days, and last night, they were with me the whole night. Let me tell you what happened:
When I’m home, I like to turn on the TV and play something. I like to hear people’s voices when I’m home, so most of the time, I play random TV series or movies without really watching them. Last night, I played a movie whose name I don’t even remember, but it was about some women who were either pregnant or trying to have a baby. One of the characters was Jennifer Lopez. As I understood it, her eggs were lazy, and she couldn’t get pregnant, so they decided to adopt a baby. One of her dialogues with her husband was: “I feel bad that I can’t do the one thing that a woman is supposed to do!” Hearing this, I was alarmed and thought, WHAT?!! It’s not shocking to hear that, though. Just as in the book, in the 1960s, people judged Lila as an inadequate woman because she wasn’t an obedient wife and couldn’t have a child in her unready body; it’s the same in 2012 in a movie full of stars—and I bet it’s still the same today!
To me, Elena Ferrante’s book is a comprehensive exploration of women’s lives—their feelings, frustrations, and attempts to fit into a patriarchal world without losing their identity. Most importantly, it’s about their relationships and how crucial they are in their lives. It's a story of brilliant, troubled girls with different paths but the same goal: to become brilliant, troubled women!
Now that I’m writing this, I’m reading the third book, and I’m enjoying it while thinking about how much I miss my best girlfriend, who helped me find myself, just as Lila did for Elena.
Side Note:
In the book, whenever they want to make fun of Lila's new appearance (out of jealousy), they mention that she wore clothes like a princess, similar to Soraya, the former Queen of Persia. Here is a short note about our former queen, Soraya Pahlavi:
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary (1932-2001), commonly known as Soraya Pahlavi, was the second wife of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Born in Isfahan, Iran, to an Iranian father and a German mother, Soraya grew up in a privileged environment, being educated in Switzerland.
She married the Shah of Iran in 1951, becoming Queen of Iran at the young age of 19. Soraya was known for her beauty and grace, often appearing in the media as a glamorous figure. However, her marriage to the Shah was troubled by her inability to produce an heir, a critical issue for the royal family. Despite attempts to resolve the issue, including medical treatments, the couple remained childless, leading to their divorce in 1958.
After her divorce, Soraya moved to Europe, where she lived a relatively private life, though she remained in the public eye due to her previous role as Queen. She briefly pursued a career in acting, appearing in a few films in Italy, but ultimately withdrew from the spotlight.
Soraya's life was marked by both immense privilege and profound personal sadness. Her story is often viewed as a tragic tale of a young woman caught in the complex web of royal duty and personal desires. She passed away in Paris in 2001, leaving behind a legacy of beauty, elegance, and a life shaped by both love and loss.
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