In a moment of pique, Giovanna's father says that Giovanna's face has become like that of his estranged sister, Vittoria. Having never met the much maligned Vittoria,
Giovanna becomes curious and ultimately meets her aunt, who is weirdly attached
to the wife and children of her dead lover.
Vittoria asserts that there are two sides to the argument that caused
animosity between her and her brother, but Vittoria is certainly a force to be
reckoned with, and may be a catalyst to upsetting Giovanna’s family
harmony. This book is a tale of
undulating loyalties, as Giovanna discards and then reclaims friends with
typical teenaged vacillation. One symbol
of these ever-changing liaisons is a bracelet whose history is complicated and
whose ownership changes so frequently that it becomes a character in its own
right, like a traveling garden gnome.
The most intriguing relationship in the novel is the three-way
relationship between Giovanna, her friend Giuliana, and Giuliana’s erudite and
charismatic fiancé, Roberto. Giuliana
may be beautiful, but she is no match intellectually for Roberto’s educated
friends, whereas the much younger Giovanna is enthralled by their cerebral
discussions. I was reluctant to read
this book because I really did not care for Ferrante’s
My
Brilliant Friend.
However, for me, this is a much better read. Giovanna sheds one identity after another in
an effort to find her true self, transitioning from acquiescent daughter to a
rebellious one who dresses only in black and neglects her studies. She eventually outgrows this phase, thanks
largely to her admiration for Roberto, but she is only sixteen when the book
ends, and I’m sure she has personal transformations still on the horizon.
No comments:
Post a Comment