My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

 

Characters
Friends and families	Others
Lila Cerullo Rino – older brother, shoemaker Rino – Lila’s son in Prologue   Elena Greco   Stefano Carracci – runs family grocery store, married Lila Don Achille– father, murdered Alfonso – high school student with Elena Pinuccia - sister   Carmela Peluso Pasquale – brother, construction worker Alfredo – Father, blamed Don Achille for his failures, arrested for his murder   Enzo Scanno   Nino Sarratore – went to Ischia with family Donato – father, poet, affair with Melina, tried to seduce (assault) Elena Lidia – mother, tormented by Melina Marisa – sister, friend of Lila and Elena   Marcello and Michele Solara – brothers   Gino – high school student, son of pharmacist   Antonia Cappucio Melina – mother, considered a mad woman, in love with Donato Sarratore, waged war against his wife, Lidia, to win Donato Ada - sister	Maestra Oliviero – teacher, discovered that Lila knew things   Maestro Ferraro – teacher and librarian   The Blue Fairy – Lila’s story, given to Maestra Oliviero, never returned or commented on   Nella Incardo – Maestra Oliverio’s cousin who lived in Ischia

NOTE:  Since the characters are listed by family at the beginning of the book, I have listed them by the names of the children who were friends with Lila and Elena.  The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. In the Prologue, Lila told Elena about 30 years prior that she wanted to “disappear without leaving a trace” (page 20).   Why do you think she wanted to do that?
2. What was Lila’s allure to Elena even though she did not always like her? Why was she fascinated with her to the point of trying to imitate her?  After it was revealed that Lila could read and do math better than anyone in the room, Elena said, “I devoted myself to studying and to many things that were difficult, alien to me, just so I could keep pace with that terrible, dazzling girl” (page 47).
3. What did you think happened to Lila and Elena’s dolls after they were thrown down the grate into the cellar?  Why did Don Achille give them money?
4. From when she was six, Elena felt that her mother did not like her (page 44).  But when Elena did not pass the exam to move on to the next grade and her father refused to pay for any  private lessons, her mother encouraged her to study on her own and told her, “Nowhere is it written that you can’t do it” (page 105).  Were you surprised at her mother’s encouragement?  Why did she do so?
5. What were Lila’s episodes of “dissolving margins” (page 89)?
6. What was the importance of the shoes made by Lila and Rino and why did they cause such a family disturbance?  Why was their father so mad when he found out about them?
7. On page 190, Lila asked Elena, “Is there something wrong with me?...I make people do the wrong thing.”  Also, on page 143, Elena had the realization, “…it slowly became clear to not only me, who had been observing her since elementary school, but to everyone, that an essence not only seductive but dangerous emanated from Lila.”   How did people relate to Lila and were they correct in this assessment?
8. There were a few things I did not understand.  Did you??
1. On page 329 Lila wrote Elena that a copper pot on the wall of her kitchen had spontaneously exploded.
2. On page 231 Elena remembered that four years earlier Lila “had placed the blood that spurted from the neck of Don Achille when he was stabbed” on the copper pots.
9. Discuss Lila and Elena’s friendship.  Was it strong?  Why was it strong?
10. The blurb on the front of the 2015 edition from the New York Times Book Review is, “One of the great novelists of our time.”  Do you agree?