The Days of Abandonment, by Elena Ferrante

My initial interest in this book was solely based around the public shyness of the author. From Naples, Italy, Elena Ferrante's work is published by Europa Editions. Rumors abound on who the real identify of the elusive writer is. Some say she is covering for another writer. Some say it might be a male author. And some just think she doesn't want anything to do with public scrutiny.

It was intriguing and I wanted to pick the book up immediately. Thanks to my local library, I was able to get it right away, and I promptly read it in a day and a half. I would have finished it a lot sooner, had I not thrust the book down for extended periods of time in complete disgust by several actions by the main character, Olga.

The down and dirty of this story is that Olga has been married to Mario (one heck of a sh*t human being) for fifteen years and they have two children. He decides to leave her, unceremoniously announced one day, and Olga is left completely alone in the city. The summer is upon her and she begins to unravel. Her identity with this man was clear for fifteen years and The Days of Abandonment is a thoroughly unapologetic view of one woman's breakdown. It is vulgar, it is heart-wrenching, it is disturbing. It's hard for me to say whether or not I liked it, though. When I look back at my notes on Goodreads, it seems pretty evident that I miserably and voraciously hated it. I don't think there is one single note I made in that day and a half that was positive at all. However, I don't feel right to say that I hated it. I'm conflicted.

Olga's husband is a complete loser. I hated him immensely. He is no honorable man. I understood the initial moments of Olga's immediate breakdown, sanity falling away in those first few moments, but the eventual result and actions (or inaction, in some cases) of her worst moments that occur with her children and her dog made me absolutely mute with helpless anger. I couldn't deal with any more pages of Olga falling apart, and so many times it was almost willingly. In part, I cheered her on to come out of it, since I did not want her to lose herself and allow her husband, that little moron, to come out unscathed. Argh, he was horrible. Horrible! But so was Olga and there is no excuse with it at all, I felt. So I was just frustrated. But it's when the actual finality of her weakness is evident with her responsibilities and her children, and then with her dog that I found it all completely unforgivable and I had absolutely no sympathy. There was just no way I, as a reader, could recover from page after page of this helplessness. I hated Olga.

After coming off of Kate Chopin's classic short story The Awakening, I'm struck by some of the similar themes of a woman falling apart, from books published more than 100 years apart. I'm annoyed by it because doggone it, women can be and are, much, MUCH stronger than this.

So that is why I am conflicted by The Days of Abandonment. I was insanely frustrated by Olga and was disturbed by her complete lack of common sense and how she miserably threw it all away, allowing her children and dog to suffer (which drove me BATTY with anger, resentment and frustration with her), but again, like The Awakening, it was still beautifully written. It was so VIVID, the descriptions of certain scenes absolutely painful, poetic and genuine. Amazing. There is almost a stream of consciousness to the writing style that I loved, but then again, it was also a stream of only Olga suffering all the time, and it was something like complete selfishness that overtakes her and she ultimately focuses only on her own pain, allowing others to suffer who depend completely on her.  I get that this is extremely symbolic to the story, but it drove me nuts. Beautifully written, but absolutely frustrating to read.

It's very difficult for me give a thumbs up or down for this book. You read it and let me know what you think. For me, I wanted to devour the beautiful words (excellent translation), and then on the other hand, I wanted to throw the book across the room as I read.

I'll still read another one by Elena Ferrante, though.

Passages of Note:

Certainly something had happened to me during the night. Or after months of tension I had arrived at the edge of some precipice and now I was falling, as in a dream, slowly, even as I continued to hold the thermometer in my hand, even as I stood with the soles of my slippers on the floor, even as I felt myself solidly contained by the expectant looks of my children. It was the fault of the torture that my husband had inflicted. But enough, I had to tear the pain from memory, I had to sandpaper away the scratches that were damaging my brain. (p.101)

Publisher: Europa Editions
Release Date: 9/15/05
Pages: 192

Others said:
Bibliophile by the Sea
Care's Online Book Club
Dolce Bellezza
Reviews by Lola

FTC Disclosure: I checked this book out for free from my awesome local Virginia Beach Public Library.

About the Author (from Europa Edition's website)

Elena Ferrante was born in Naples, Italy. Though one of Italy's most important and acclaimed contemporary authors, she has successfully shunned public attention and kept her whereabouts and her true identity concealed.