#5 stars
Review: How To Be a Normal Person
How To Be a Normal Person by TJ Klune Release Date: October 16, 2015 Genres: Romance Rating: Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with…
“There was something unbearable in the things, in the people, in the buildings, in the streets that, only if you reinvented it all, as in a game, became acceptable. The essential, however, was to know how to play, and she and I, only she and I, knew how to do it.”
I am late to Elena Ferrante. Very late. Boy did I miss out.
My Brilliant Friend is the story of Elena and Lila, two best friends in Naples in the 1950s. Lila is fiercely intelligent and vivacious while Elena is quiet, thoughtful and full of self doubt. They meet one day and immediately bounce off one another. As children their relationship is complicated, often hurtful and doubtful but also comforting. Both girls hail from a poor neighbourhood in Naples but while Elena’s family allow her to pursue her education, Lila’s holds her back. This is a beautiful story about about expectations and self doubt, about finding your place in the world. It is a wonderful tale of female friendship in all its complexity. Ferrante’s prose is so beautiful and jarring because of its honesty and clarity. A wonderful read.
