Super weird. Wish I had bailed but it was short. ( )

Mi risulta difficile scrivere una recensione onesta de L'amore molesto, perché le vicende narrate non mi hanno particolarmente colpita, ma sono scritte davvero, davvero bene.

Si tratta di uno di quei romanzi psicologici dove la protagonista, Delia, si arrabatta nella sua mente in cerca delle motivazioni che hanno spinto sua madre ad annegarsi in mare. Questo tragico evento, infatti, riporterà alla luce in lei tutta una serie di questioni irrisolte, che lei, però, non ha tutta questa gran voglia di risolvere. Non che sia da biasimare, visto il potpourri di disagio nel quale è vissuta finché è rimasta con i genitori.

In generale, i romanzi nei quali fatti e percezioni si mischiano mi confondono sempre un po' e così è stato anche con L'amore molesto. Con un'aggravante, però: la madre di Delia si è annegata senza vestiti, tranne un reggiseno nuovo. I vestiti non sono stati ritrovati. Mi sorge una domanda: perché la polizia non indaga?

Questo suicidio non dovrebbe sembrare strano solo a Delia perché la madre indossava un reggiseno nuovo invece dei suoi soliti vecchi e lisi. È strano perché gli altri suoi indumenti sono spariti: possibile che nessuno a parte Delia si sia chiesto che fine abbiano fatto? So che messa così sembra tanto una quisquilia, e forse lo è, ma mentre leggevo non riuscivo a fare a meno di pensarci e questo mi ha dato un senso di irrealtà che mi ha infastidito per tutto il corso del romanzo.

Per il resto, lo stile della Ferrante mi ha colpito molto: ha un modo molto vivido di rendere situazioni di disagio e violenza. È difficile rimanere indifferenti alla lettura di certi passaggi de L'amore molesto ed è proprio per questo motivo che, sebbene questo primo lavoro della Ferrante non mi abbia entusiasmato, leggerò qualcos'altro di suo. ( )

This is a beautiful, troubling, remarkable, baffling and finally gratifying but despairing novel with a turn at the end that was believable while being totally unexpected. Elena Ferrante is quite a writer. ( )

Me gustó, me dejó desolada. En una de las críticas leía que quizá no sea el mejor libro para comenzar a leer a Ferrante, en lo personal resultó que fue el libro perfecto para acercarme a ella. ( )

A "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" book that should be on a list called "Books You Shouldn't Read Before You Die Unless Someone Is Paying You. A Lot."

Not sure how a 139 page book can seem so long and unnecessarily convoluted, but this one managed. It is the story of Delia, daughter of Amalia. Amalia drowns in the sea wearing only a beautiful lace bra, an item of clothing she would never wear. Sounds good so far, right?

And that's where the good part ends. The rest of the book is a mish mash of Delia trying to determine what has happened to her mother and flashbacks to a past riddled with domestic violence and other abuse.

I love a good dark story, but this book was just not good.

- First, it is laden down with description. I love beautiful prose, and maybe this prose is beautiful in Italian. In English, the amount of description just overwhelmed the story. Honestly, I didn't find it was helping me visualize the scenes well, and isn't that the whole point? Some of it was well done, but it was just too copious! The book felt like all it did was tell me things . . .it is all narrated and nothing comes alive. With the exception of one sex scene between Delia and a former childhood friend that is just kinda gross.

- Second, I didn't give a rip about any of the characters . . .I chalk that up to poor character development, and for me, if you don't get that right, the book generally is a failure.

- Finally, and worst of all, it is difficult to tease out what is memory, what is fantasy, and what is reality in this book. I guess that's the point, but I never felt as certain as I wanted to be about what was going on.

It is as though the writing was designed to obfuscate. And I can see why because the ending is truly not satisfying. This book is not written as a mystery where suspense and tension build and the end culminates in satisfying way. It's more of a psychological study of a mother/daughter relationship, but not in a way that you care about either the mother or the daughter.

This book had echoes of Atonement from a plot standpoint except Atonement was done about 20x better. And some would argue that Atonement isn't that great either. Stylistically, this book was far inferior to me, but it had a similar plot driver and also kept the reader at arms length.

I gave the book two stars because I think the idea of it had potential and because some of the description was very good even if there was way too much of it and much of it bored me. But in case it isn't clear, I really didn't enjoy it. ( )