The Days of Abandonment [Paperback]

Elena Ferrante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

"She is among the greatest Italian authors of recent years."-Corriere della Sera

"Ferrante dissects the personal microcosm so well, and with awesome lucidity and precision shows us the meanderings of a woman's mind, the suffering that accompanies being abandoned, and the awful rumbling of time passing."-El Mundo

"Elena Ferrante has given us a startlingly beautiful novel of exceptional and bold strength."-Il Manifesto

"Severe and rigorously unsentimental, packed full of passages written with dizzying intensity at a rare and acute pitch. Ferrante is at her best when her writing holds tight to those nagging, niggling obsessions that make up our mental landscapes."-La Stampa

A national bestseller for almost an entire year, The Days of Abandonment shocked and captivated its Italian public when first published. It is the gripping story of a woman's descent into devastating emptiness after being abandoned by her husband with two young children to care for. When she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.

Elena Ferrante was born in Naples. Though she is one of Italy's most important and acclaimed contemporary authors, her identity is a mystery. Theories and speculation as to who Elena Ferrante really is continue to circulate; however, the author has successfully shunned public attention and has been able to keep her whereabouts and her true identity concealed. The Days of Abandonment, her second novel, is currently being made into a film by director Roberto Faenza, due for release in North America in 2006.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once an aspiring writer, Olga traded literary ambition for marriage and motherhood; when Mario dumps her after 15 years, she is utterly unprepared. Though she tells herself that she is a competent woman, nothing like the poverella (poor abandoned wife) that mothers whispered about in her childhood, Olga falls completely apart. Routine chores overwhelm her; she neglects her appearance and forgets her manners; she throws herself at the older musician downstairs; she sees the poverella's ghost. After months of self-pity, anger, doubt, fury, desperation and near madness, her acknowledgments of weaknesses in the marriage feel as earned as they are unsurprising. Smoothly translated by New Yorker editor Goldstein, this intelligent and darkly comic novel—which sat atop Italian bestseller lists for nearly a year, has been translated into 12 languages and adapted for an Italian film slated for 2006 release—conveys the resilience of a complex woman. Speculation about the identity of the pseudonymous Ferrante, whose previous novel is scheduled for 2006 release by Europa, has reached Pynchon-like proportions in Italy. (Sept.)
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From The New Yorker

In this deeply observed, excruciatingly blunt novel, Olga, a middle-aged wife and mother, is plunged into a breakdown after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Her anguish is expressed through obscenity and violence, as she neglects her children and day-to-day responsibilities to obsess over what sexual acts her husband and his lover might be performing. Olga's rage and self-pity threaten to turn her into something of a monster; when she hears her daughter crying for her, she thinks, "But why should I hurry? I discovered with remorse that, if the child needed me, I felt no need of her." Still, Ferrante knows just when to let up, and the redemptive note struck by the ending is a welcome reprieve.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Europa Editions; First edition. edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933372001
• ISBN-13: 978-1933372006
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Days of Loneliness In Italy, September 25, 2005

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C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Days of Abandonment (Paperback)

This is a remarkable novel about the abandonment of an Italian wife by her cad of a husband. The translation reads so smoothly that the reader would not be aware that the book originated in Italy. A quick read at less than 200 pages, "The Days Of Abandonment" is for anyone who suffers an unexpected rejection from a long-time lover or spouse.

The novel is accurate in tracing the major depression that Olga undergoes and comes through with agonizing pain and not always with grace. But she does come through it. The universality of abandonment is the same whether the reader is in Italy or America or anywhere else.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Brutal Yet Compelling Novel About The Pain of Divorce, September 28, 2005

By 

L. Young "palmtree2000" (West Orange, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Days of Abandonment (Paperback)

In brilliant prose that is sometimes lyrical and sometimes brutal,this Italian novel puts us inside the mind of 38 year old Olga, mother of two young children, after she is abandoned by her husband for a younger woman. Olga is bereft. Her sense of self collapses and we watch as she descends into a kind of madness, haunted by the specter of the 'poverella', a woman abandoned by her husband who lived in Olga's building during Olga's childhood. However, what I found flawed about this beautifully written book is twofold. First, we are never shown how she emerges from her meltdown. It just seems to happen. Secondly, the ending is a cop out. Olga conveniently and quickly finds another man to take the place of the one who has left her. So in the end what has she really learned about herself as a human being, one not part of a couple? The message seems to be that a woman needs a man in her life in order to survive. For those readers who are animal lovers, be aware that there is a disturbing scene in the novel involving the death of the family's pet dog.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unprecedented, August 31, 2006

By 

Nancy L. Corbett (Monroe, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Days of Abandonment (Paperback)

Everyone knows divorce is a terrible ordeal. When a marriage, a family, is suddenly ripped apart by the husband leaving for a younger woman, the suffering is horrific. It's one of the oldest of stories. Countless woman have experienced it. Those who do, look on others embarking on the path with pity and knowing. Women who've experienced this kind of break up know that the only way through it is, well, through it.

But no one talks about it. Probably because it hurts so damned much. Eventually, the mother and children get through the ordeal, each with their own private scars, but it just becomes a bad spot in the past, like a bruise on a banana.

Elena Ferrante talks about it. In Days of Abandonment, she goes into the home of Olga, Ilaria and Gianni and shows us what went on behind that closed door after Mario, husband and father, left them for Carla. The story is from Olga's point of view, and it is her anguish we feel most poignantly. But we see all of them, Olga, Ilaria, Gianni, even Otto the dog, swirling in the wake of Mario's departure. They plummet until it doesn't seem they can go any lower. Then they begin to heal.

The well-being of the mother and children can be measured by the way they view Carrano, their neighbor. When the story starts out, they see him through the eyes of Mario. Mario didn't like Carrano, and his observations were taken in by the rest of the family without question. After Mario leaves, Carrano goes through a remarkable series of transformations. He starts out sullen, unattractive and rude and migrates through lechery, incompetence to being a source of comfort.

Ferrante accomplishes all of her magic by showing us the transformations of Olga's outside world as she goes from shock to despair and up through the dregs to find her strength.

A fantastic book about an occurrence all too common but little understood. The book is difficult to read because the subject matter is so painful and displayed so graphically. But well worth taking the opportunity to become acquainted with this marvelous Italian talent.