The Days of Abandonment

If you're fascinated by psychological breakdowns, this is the book for you.

One of the most brutal and raw books in the world, one of my favorites. Some of the imagery feels so visceral years after reading it, it still filters into my brain. Ferrante's writing style is my favorite writing in the world. It both deeply submerses you in the emotion and reality of another human being, it's like being in your own head. It moves as effortlessly as though it's unfolding in your own unconscious. The movement of emotions and rationalizations as one moves through heartbreak, the dissolution and reconstitution of reality, it's so beautiful and painful. Ferrante is so good at saying things that I have never heard named

i liked this book for like the first... 20%. and then it became olga bitching about her children and not taking care of her dog (sorry, otto, i would've loved and taken care of you better, you sweet dog). for the dog her justification is that her cunt of a husband was the one who brought him into the family, so otto was collateral damage of mario's infidelity, and i don't know, i've never been cheated on by a husband before because i'm 20 and single, but i really don't think i'd be hitting my dog with a branch. the children are a bit annoying especially the girl, but like, their dad had just left them out of nowhere, so maybe i was expecting a bit more compassion for the kids on this end.

the writing is beautiful, but i skim read like 10 chapters because it's repetitive, and i expected to read more about her and carrano's relationship, but instead i get nothing, only one attempted sex scene that made my coochie dry and fall off. like for those 10 chapters elena could've showed us more about carrano & olga but no. she just goes about bitching about her children and leaving her dog to die.

meh, i liked the writing, that's why i'm giving it like 3 stars. the obscenity didn't surprise me because it's an italian book, idk. i wouldn't recommend it though. olga just feels like a mockery of women scorned.

Really liked it but also had a hard time reading it? Couldn't focus on for more than a few chapters at a time. Not sure what that means

What an absolute talent Ferrante possesses with this novel.

You are forced to enter the madness of the main character, her dark descent of being abandoned by her husband. Truly brilliant.

A husband leaves a family, and the wife - a mother of two - spirals downwards into despair, and it is raw and real, and dark and painful. Hadn't I read the Neapolitan novels first, I'd probably be more smitten with it, but now I just accept that I like Ferrante a lot.

Elena Ferrante writes circles around 99.999% of all humans, living and dead, seemingly without breaking a sweat.

how strange and depressing, I think. Love seems impossible, or fickle and to no end.