Troubling Love: A Novel

If you love Elena Ferrante this is a must read. This was her first work - difficult to read in some areas, but worth it. Ferrante's writing are so descriptive that you feel immersed in her story. Book in excellent condition and shipped fast.

I have a deep and abiding love for Elena Ferrante. The first book I read by her was My Brilliant Friend and I went on to read the next two books in The Neapolitan Novels the same day. Her writing is controlled but also passionate, frightening. Her characters have recklessness to them that I really enjoy. I picked up Troubling Love because I was reading Frantumaglia (which I highly, highly recommend, it's the best nonfiction book I read this year) and I realized that I wanted to read all her novels before I continued to read it because it consists of interviews about her various books. Troubling Love, as I understand, was Ferrante's first book. She says in Frantumaglia that she was writing for many years before she wrote it but this was the first story that she felt really had literary truth, could stand on its own two feet. I find Troubling Love to be a kind of perplexing and unsatisfying book. I would probably say that most her other books are strictly better, but this book does have the kind of raw power that characterizes all her writing, and Delia's relationship with her mother has the trademark complexity that defines all of female relationships Ferrante depicts. I love the Naples that she brings to life in every novel. I read a New York Times review of Troubling Love in which the author describes ripping the book down the middle and says Ferrante will "recognize my compliment since she’s clearly an idolizer of the unchecked urge, the gut response." The unchecked urge: that's Ferrante.

ferrante is one of the most gifted living writers on the planet, but this book, although beautifully written, was pretty tedious. even if you've already read it, your time will be better spent re-reading My Brilliant Friend.

Many reviewers have approached this novel as a peculiarly intense story about a daughter mother relationship, a psychological, sexual introspection of a woman approaching age, even a mystery novel(see Eurocrime.co.uk/reviews). Yes it is all this and more. The adjective most often applied to this novel is intense. It is that and more. The attention to detail is unnerving and I dare say that the average or most male readers will experience for the first time those female attitudes and experiences that at time we males ignore, and that is my point. Ms. Ferrante has written a novel that transcends ersatz dime store female literature and presents a moving picture of universal interest. Great literature is not great simply because a woman wrote well or not great because women by definition cannot or should not write (remember George Eliot). But let me not belabor the obvious. I believe that two unremarked aspects of this novel are the brutally realistic picture of life in Naples (one need only read Ferrante's letter to the New York Times, available from Europa Editions) and the clever exposition of her male characters and their reliance upon women to define their existence. These qualities are what make it great and enduring.

This author, who writes so compellingly elsewhere, gets lost in her own narrative. This retrospective tale of discovery is hampered by confusing flights of fancy and disjointed storytelling. It comes together somewhat at the end, but not successfully. Try other works by her before wading into this.

Beyond boring. Nothing like My Brilliant Friend.

I read this while also reading Frantumaglia and watching snippets of the movie on youtube...I thought it very interesting, more about personal emotions than the Neapolitan quartet which I thought was brilliant. The latter gave much insight into Italian politics of the 60s and 70s.

Having read, and absolutely loved, the first three books of Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels (NNs) I was slightly dissapointed in this book. It read like a short story that has been stretched out. The characters, if not the same, were very similar to those we grew to love or dislike in the NNs except, not as well developed. The context, again, was very similar as were the issues covered. A slightly surrealist, but difficult to fathom, twist was the only point of difference.

I read this book for college. Elena Ferrante is a great writer - very thought provoking.

Tres mediocre compare surtout a ses quatre livres que j'avais lu auparavant sur la vie de ces deux amies ! La je me suis purement ennuyée !

I Trembling Love first. this was one of the few books that I have read (as a Palliative Care physician) that illustrates in words the sensual and visual images that remain with the living following the death of a loved one by any process. Be it disease or suicide. Many people are too afraid to talk about 'seeing the loved one' after death because they will be considered crazy or mad. The vivid portrayal of the events in this book suggest the author has an intimate knowledge of these experiences and as Ferrante herself states, "it is allin the words, I do njot have to be known" (paraphrase)

Fascinating, complex!

Reading this was like finding a used tissue in a pocket with nowhere to dispose of it. Not one sympathetic character in the entire story. Very disappointing.