In "The Story of the Missing Child", Naples is again in front of us, and even again the same quarter in which both the main characters of the novel cycle grew up, only Lila and Lena are not at all what they were before: one runs her own computer company, echoing a famous writer. In the yard, first the middle of the 70s, then the 80s, and the final refers to the nineties.
The changes taking place in the world complement the picture of everyday life with small strokes, the real events of those years, like an earthquake or parliamentary elections, fit well into the plot unfolding on the pages of the book.
In the final book of the cycle, there is an opportunity to meet all those with whom the author introduced us earlier: what Ferrante can't exactly blame is the logical conclusion of each storyline and attention to all the characters introduced into the text, of which there are really a lot (and it's even strange that they are all remembered! But if something is wrong, at the beginning of each book there is a list of heroes and their brief description, I always read, since the translations were published during 2017 with a difference of about 3 months and during this time it is no wonder to forget who is a brother to whom and who is a matchmaker).
Since I was waiting for a summing up from the novel, at the beginning of reading the book I had a list of legitimate questions that Ferrante had raised in one way or another on the pages of the texts:
- is it possible to escape from the environment in which you were born and brought up (remember the saying about the girl and the village);
- is it possible to find an adequate language to describe real life;
- does the perception of the surrounding reality change over the years;
- what does a girl's friendship turn into-envy when you are over 40/50/60.
And yes, I did get them, and not by postulates in the forehead, crammed into the replicas of some reasoner or a sudden insight of the narrator, but quite adequately woven into the main storyline. Of course, some things made me a little uncomfortable (for example, Elena's lameness after the death of her mother, which seemed to indicate that no matter how she rejected her in her youth, the nickname turned into her), but in general there was no disappointment.
I especially liked the way Ferrante beat the development of generations: each new one at some point becomes very similar to the previous one, a time point appears when some are tracing paper of others, and here it is important to go your own way, and not go down the beaten path, repeating the same mistakes and becoming a copy of those you once dreamed of being unlike.
I read about several layers of the "Neapolitan Quartet" only on the third book ("Those who leave, and those who stay"), when I began to monitor who speaks what language and in what cases and what Lenuccia, who is trying to write at least as well as Lila, is broadcasting about literature and the craft of writing in general.
Now, after reading the fourth one, I can say for sure that in addition to all the serial intrigues from the category of who sleeps with whom, who dumped whom and what's going on with the Italian mafia of Solara, there are themes of persistent envy and female friendship in the novel, there is definitely a second layer addressed to book aesthetes who sometimes think about why it sometimes happens that the book is written in a beautiful language, but is perceived as lifeless, and therefore absolutely does not touch, and sometimes you encounter something on the at first glance, artless.
It may even be stingy in places, too simple, so that thoughts come from the category "yes, I can write like that," but it touches you to the depths of your soul, catches you, makes you read at night with your mouth open. Actually, even at moments when the heroines are moving away from each other, Ferrante, followed by the narrator-writer in the person of Elena Greco, are looking for an answer to the question "why is this happening?" in the language: one has to translate her thoughts and feelings from dialect to literary language, and the second - from literary to dialect, as a result, both create unnecessary obstacles and hide behind the created image.
Actually, the problem of describing the world of the Neapolitan poor artisan quarter also lies in the form and language of expression: an art book implies a fair share of fiction, whereas life here is so vibrant, bright and eventful that it no longer needs any fiction, a documentary can be too harsh, frank and devoid of emotional evaluation, and it is important to show not just Neapolitan slums.
What are they objectively, and the beloved Neapolitan slums, which, despite the crime rate, dirt, bad neighbors and everything else, occupy a fair share in the hearts of those for whom it is their own, native, familiar from childhood. Written in literary language, the text of such a book will cease to be adequate to the described object, and an excess of vernacular, dialect and rude expressions may give the reader the wrong impression.
In fact, Elena's whole life is a life in search of an adequate language (or the right proportions) to tell about herself, what she was and became, and Lila, whom she lost, putting literature above real life at some point. In my opinion, she found it, but here... pa-pam! everything was somewhat spoiled by an illiterate translation with minor blunders like "finish school".
The big plus of "The Story of the Missing Child" is also that the heroes of this Italian saga have finally stopped annoying me. Maybe I finally got used to them and accepted them with all the minuses and pluses, or maybe they finally developed and grew to the level when they stopped behaving like flighty teenagers for whom there is only the word "I want!", but in any case, thanks to this, it was easier to read the last book of the series.
I already understood that all the "caramel passions" and the overwhelming inadequacy of the residents of the quarter, stuck in time at the beginning of the 20th century, are not perceived by the author as the norm (and after reading the first book it seemed that way. I think it's worth putting a warning sign so that those who didn't like this particular thing don't give up the story after the first volume).
In general, the "Story of the Missing Child" seemed to me the strongest part of the "Neapolitan Quartet", there was a place for real drama, not just serial passions, the characters became formed personalities that are interesting to watch, and really interesting questions came to the fore, and not just bullshit from the category "who is Lila pregnant from?".
This is even surprising, because usually the finales of book cycles, if not disappointing because of their weakness, then at least not better, but slightly worse than all the previous parts.
344.483 SRY