The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

I saw this in the library and thought I would give it a try because I don’t have to buy the book and I wasn’t knocked out by her Lila and Lenu quartet even after thinking long and hard about My Brilliant Friend for the book club.

Well, for me nothing has really changed in The Lying Life of Adults. This is Ferrante writing again about the transformation from childhood to adulthood but this time with an emphasis on the lies adults tell, the effects they have and breaking free of them to become your self. Again, what I pick up through the book is a rage simmering away with the author although I do think that the lies adults tell is a really interesting thing to discuss.

The first lie that Giovanna is really aware of is when her father mutters to her mother that she is becoming ugly like his sister Vittoria and Giovanna hears him. Through eventually meeting Vittoria and all the events that happen after that, she becomes aware of a bracelet that is handed down through the women which binds them together. It is an object that signifies the light and that women’s power comes from within and is nothing to do with how they look or what they wear or even any object.

It seems to me that we tell a lot of lies as adults.

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