The Days of Abandonment

Definitely one of the toughest books I have read recently.It's Travel Blog of Olga - from Sanity to Insanity.I have no idea how Elena was able to describe a degrading mental health and the depression so vividly - as if she has experienced it somehow.70% of the book is taking you through the mental degradation of Olga. But I really appreciate how Elena has penned the whole saga - so well. Throughout the book I kept thinking - what is she going to do? Are her kids going to be OK? Will her Dog be OK? When will she care? When will she snap out of this torrential depression.Amazing book!!

"I was like a lump of food that my children chewed without stopping; a cud made of a living material that continually amalgamated and softened its living substance to allow two greedy bloodsuckers to nourish themselves, leaving on me the odor and taste of their gastric juices. Nursing, how repulsive, an animal function. And then the warm sweetish odor of baby-food breath. No matter how much I washed, that stink of motherhood remained.Sometimes Mario pasted himself against me, took me, holding me as I nearly slept, tired himself after work, without emotions. He did it persisting on my almost absent flesh that tasted of milk, cookies, cereal, with a desperation of his own that overlapped mine without his realizing it. I was the body of incest, I thought, stunned by the odor of Gianni's vomit, I was the mother to be violated, not a lover."

A friend had told me about this book many months ago, and I finally found it as an ebook. It is as fabulous and breathtaking as I hoped it would be. A literary feat. I love the candidness, the unabashed delving into the depths of despair and shame. I enjoyed the sense of suspense that was created in the book's most pivotal scene. The language breathes, not calmly, but like a beating gong that keeps resounding...

Raw, deep, aching portrayal of woman, man and children. Includes an almost unbearable narration of a quasi psychotic state, that somehow Ferrante coalesced into tolerable. This perhaps her greatest strength, the rendering of ordinary human madness in all its primal awfulness, and then a quiet return, and an almost serene, acceptance of what has been.

My first elena ferrante and her brilliance shines through it. I finished the neapolitan quartet right after reading this.Raw and captivating emotions. True yo the core narration

Sometimes difficult to read, but as always Elena Ferrante's writing is insightful, colourful, sucks you in and makes you feel things every emotion her characters feel.

I liked the depth of despair that was portrayed in the book and the subsiding of it.The translation linguistics was interesting as in all of her books.

Interesting view of cultural difference family violence deep love and honesty

Wert zu lesen, wenn man (Frau) Ihre eifersüchtige / verlassene Freundinnen nicht wirklich versteht...ich konnte dessen Schmerz spüren! Und ja, irgendwann und irgendwie geht das Leben ohne Mann dann schon weiter...

The book was dirty upon arrival