A review by yegua_blanca
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

4.0

Over these days I have become incredibly invested with these novels, the characters so vividly and effortlessly rendered by Ferrante. As Elena and Lila continue to grow up, they face new personal troubles, a changing political landscape - but the course of the novel remains bound to the setting of their youth, and it is the development of the characters through the space of multiple novels that makes this is all so satisfying to read. In particular, Elena's experiences with motherhood and marriage, and her increasing dissatisfaction and anger, are fascinating. I wish that the politics that make up the background were more focused, more central to the narrative. Still, Ferrante's writing remains direct and revelatory.