Lying Life of Adults (Ferrante) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[S]uspenseful and propulsive.… [It is] the story of the evolution of a young woman, so brash and sensibly secretive, allergic to banality, prone to fabrication but honest with herself about her desires. Ferrante leaves many threads dangling; we’re left to wonder at the… enigmatic, oddly heroic conclusion.
Parul Sehgal - New York Times


Yes, this book lives up to its author’s reputation, and then some. In focusing on Giovanna and her journey, The Lying Life of Adults achieves an energy and warmth sometimes missing in the narratives about Lila and Lenu in the Quartet.… Giovanna’s fate, containing elements both expected and unexpected, makes her one of this year’s most memorable heroines.
Bethanne Patrrick - Boston Globe


Ferrante… shows again how she is unbeatable at pulling you inside the mind of a teenage girl, making you see how everything that looks irrational from the outside—the moods, the silences, the jealousy, fears, tears and resentments—are utterly logical and reasonable…. The book does sag in the middle.… However, the pace picks up in the final third.… [and shows] that five years on Elena Ferrante can still deliver.
Tom Kington - Guardian (UK)


[T]he overwrought language of [Ferrante's] new book doesn’t illuminate the anguish that it seeks to plumb.... [T]he Lying Life has passages of electric dialogue and acute perception. But its crude hinting and telegraphing suggest an author who distrusts her reader’s discernment, and they made me wonder if Ferrante hadn’t drafted the story as a much younger writer, still honing her craft.
New Yorker


Giovanna’s coming-of-age trials… buttress the gripping, plot-heavy tale. While this feels minor in comparison to Ferrante’s previous work, Giovanna is the kind of winning character readers wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
Publishers Weekly


[A] powerful coming-of-age story…. Ferrante’s ability to draw in her reader remains unparalleled.… The novel simmers with overt rage toward parental deception, teachers’ expectations and society’s impossible ideals of beauty and behavior.
BookPage


(Starred review) Fans of Ferrante’s first two Neopolitan novels, My Brilliant Friend (2012) and The Story of a New Name (2013), will especially revel in Giovanna’s confessional, perceptive, gut-wrenching, and often funny narration of what she calls her "arduous approach to the adult world."
Booklist


Ferrante’s legion of devoted readers will be encouraged by another equivocal ending, permitting the hope of further exploration of Giovanna’s journey in future volumes. A girl, a city, an inhospitable society: Ferrante’s formula works again!
Kirkus Reviews