The Lost Daughter

This is one really… weird…. book. Look, I am not going to lie to you. The writing is fantastic. The subject, a mother honest about motherhood, is one of my favorite topics. As I read the book I kept thinking that this is a really well written book and I can totally equate with what the character means about finally be free of her grown up daughters and then WHAMO, it takes this really weird turn. Once it took this turn, I was hooked. I laughed out loud. I stared at the words in fascination/horror. I could not put the darn thing down! Good thing It is a fairly short book. Holy Moley. You gotta read it to believe it. I understand that the text was originally written in Italian and then translated to English. If the English version is that witty, biting, and passionate, I wonder what the original Italian translation feels like? On to "The Days of Abandonment," I can't help myself.

i had not read any ferrante before, and was told that this was a good start. it is, on the surface, the kind of fiction that i enjoy -- a closely observed character study of a complex character. there is not much of a plot -- a woman with mixed feelings about many things takes a vacation trip to a beach, encounters a family there and observes them, a child's toy is lost, things end with much unresolved. that is not usually a problem for me, as long as the character whose inner life is being presented is an interesting and nuanced one.however, this novel annoyed me the entire time i was reading it. a lack of tidy plot is one thing, but ferrante's writing is almost incoherently vague at times, with switches in mood and feeling that seem almost arbitrary. and the language is frustrating to read -- clumsy sentences with odd wording and repetition. indeed, i began to wonder if it was in part a terrible translation, but the translator appears to have translated a bunch of fiction previously, including a number of ferrante's works. so. having no reason to blame the translation, i find myself not thinking very highly of ferrante's writing, and not likely to read anything else by her.

I was inspired to read this book after watching an interview with actor Maggie Gyllenhaal who has signed up to direct a film version of this novella. A fast read, it was not until the end that I understood the author wrote in her native tongue of Italian. Perhaps what didn't work for me was the translation to English? Seemed overly simplistic with very little nuance. The translated story annoyed me and gave little insight as to why the mothers within were so self-absorbed. It was hardly a study of honesty, more a series of complaints and justification for making suspect decisions. I found myself feeling sorry for Leda's two daughters which I suppose is something of an emotional evocation, despite the thin story line and character development. I also felt sorry for the very young daughter on the beach. And the ending? What exactly was that about? It has been ages since I read anything of length outside of essays and articles so I was compelled to finish the book. To me the ending was most anticlimactic unless I am missing something. I hope the forthcoming movie works better.

I became a huge fan of Ferrante after reading her Neapolitan series, but this is the first of her books outside that series that I have read, and it does not disappoint. It concerns a single woman, past her prime, vacationing alone at a seaside town in Italy. She sunbathes, reflecting back on her life, marriage, motherhood and career, but she simultaneously becomes consumed with a young, working class mother and her toddler daughter who are also vacationing on the beach. A rash, spontaneous act turns the situation strangely sinister. Definitely a good read.

Motherhood, a shattering. "All the hopes of youth seemed to have been destroyed, I seemed to be falling backward toward my mother, my grandmother, the chain of mute or angry women I came from." The things mothers cannot bear to admit or say out loud. Many of the same themes as the My Brilliant Friend series, I felt having read the the Neapolitan series it took me deeper into Ferrante's world and agenda. Two women, similar names -- Elena Lina Nina Lenu, Gino, Nino -- a child with a doll, the doll gets taken, a large family group, one woman is lean and lovely and has a child very young and is detached somewhat from the family, has a lover. The other abandoned her children to pursue a career. The doll is a significant symbol. This is experimental fiction, it deals with the psychological light and dark of a woman struggling with identity and her choices. The macabre and horror-element is the dark side of what women hardly ever write about, let alone admit. A journey into a mother's psyche, Ferrante writes honestly about motherhood, identity and the difficult choices women face.

My book club selected this book and I was curious to read it. The selector alluded that there would likely be lots of discussion about the book. After reading, I'm ambivalent about the book. While there was honesty, I felt there was a great deal of selfishness and self-centeredness or maybe mental illness. YMMV.

This is a complex piece of literature by a highly acclaimed Italian author, who was new to me. It was the first of her novels that I read. I have now read three of them. She writes incredibly well, and delves in great and realistic detail into the thoughts and feelings of her characters, who definitely live on the page. I was so perplexed the symbolism of the doll, and what it actually means that I started a virtual book club with some of my literary friends to discuss this work as our first, so that I can hear and discuss what others thought about the depth of meaning and symbolism of various components. A wonderfully deep piece of literature; definitely not a "popcorn read", as I like to say. Food for great thought. I liked it.

Having finished the Neapolitan novels I felt a bit bereft and dived straight into this. Many of the themes will be familiar to those who have read Elena Ferrante's novels, but this short, disturbing book distils many of those ideas. What is being a 'good mother', is it possible to be one, and keep a sense of self? Ferrante manages to evoke that sense of inadequacy mingled with frustration and resentment that so many mothers feel when trying to have it all, of advancing a career, looking after young, and not so young children. I loved the circular narrative of this book, and the inexplicable mindless act of cruelty that seemed so random and pointless but underscored everything.

Ok - I think I liked it. I read it all so I guess I did. I didn’t like the main character- but she was an honest character - not perfect. I don’t think I really liked anyone in the book. But I still finished it - so it had something to keep me reading.

Found it difficult to hold concentration for this book so not hard to put down unlike other authors I follow.

I was not fond of the main character and neither did I get her inner dialogue and malaise..

Great author enjoyed the book