Customer Reviews

The Days of Abandonment

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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.

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.

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.

This book is amazing. I felt the pain of Olga in the book; Elena Ferrante does an amazing job of portraying the feelings of abandonment.

Very intense and emotional, be prepared and enjoy.

It's a cute story, with a dramatically French title, but a solidly sentimental ending which I shouldn't give away, but those who remember Natalie Wood in SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS will chuckle fondly when they get to the end of DAYS OF ABANDONMENT, for everything ends up on the same note as in the epochal Elia Kazan film of 1961.

Elena Ferrante tells a story beautifully, and the scenes of Olga falling apart when Mario leaves her for the youthful, exquisite Carla have true pain inscribed in them. Olga's poor children, Gianni and Ilaria, bear the brunt of her madness and develop their own pained strategies for dealing basically with an inadequate mother, and that's what hard to read, that and her neglect of the family dog, Otto. When Mario walks out, it's as if Olga goes into free-fall. Falling is one of Ferrante's tropes. When Mario meets the underage Carla, he "falls" in love with her; when he abandons Olga and the kids, he falls into a black hole and so does Olga, feeling lost, floating on her back, with no sure footing on earth,

Ann Goldstein's translation is spectacular, and the way she brings to English Ferrante's peculiar blend of high language and the gutter colloquial is outstanding.

Watch out for the utterly frank sex scene between Olga and her neighbor. It's pathetic, sexy, hilarious and chilling all at the same time.

Not all of the writing is on this level, but it's a gripping tale.

Isn't it odd that Amazon tells us that people who bought this book also bought the CD, "When Gospel Was Gospel"? Who are these people and what were they thinking?

Unputdownable! A very intense, super-charged atmosphere!
Recounts four months in the life of a married mother after her husband leaves her abruptly for the love of a 20-year-old girl. The severe depression ensuing from her husband's betrayal and abandonment hits rock bottom. She is left to fend by herself, to take care of two kids and a dog. As in similar cases of acute depression, she becomes, sleepy, lethargic, disoriented, clumsy and neglectful of her self and her kids. She is transformed into the nemesis of her true self: angry, vulgar, ugly, dirty and, in a failed attempt at getting back at her husband, almost prostitutes herself with a stranger.
This is a roller-coaster of emotions, anger, childhood memories and soul searching episodes the reader feels suffocated and in desperate need of a breather. The characterization is superb and real, the protagonists are almost tangible.
Take a deep breath and plunge in.

Lately, I've found myself returning to authors that I've enjoyed in the past. Elena Ferrant is one of these authors. Here is my review of her book, The Lost Daughter, in case you missed it previously. In The Days of Abandonment, the title pretty much says it all. A short novel (188 pages but, with a story, and an intro that packs a wallop.

"One April afternoon, right after lunch, my husband announced that he wanted to leave me. He did it while we were clearing the table; the children were quarreling as usual in the next room, the dog was dreaming, growling beside the radiator. He told me that he was confused, that he was having terrible moments of weariness, of dissatisfaction, perhaps of cowardice. He talked for a long time about our fifteen years of marriage, about the children, and he admitted he had nothing to reproach with us, neither them nor me, He was composed, as always, apart from an extravagant gesture of his right hand when he explained to me, with a childish frown, that soft voices, a sort of whispering, were urging him elsewhere. Then he assumed the blame for everything that was happening and closed the front door carefully behind him, leaving me turned to stone beside the sink."

What follows is the story of a 38 year-old wife and mother with two young child who begins to unravel, losing all sense of normalcy in life with this unexpected announcement by her husband Mario. Of course, Mario's confusion is just an excuse, as there is a 20 year-old woman in the picture which is revealed early on. The new woman is actually a student Mario had once tutored, and then began to see on the side. He told his wife the affair was over, when in fact it was still going on.

Olga was once a writer, but she traded her dreams of becoming famous for marriage and motherhood, and after 15 years of comfortable routines, she finds herself totally helpless with what has just happened. Once Olga kept a spotless house, cooked gourmet meals, her home is now in shambles, her children and even the family dog , Otto are neglected. She spends her time in desperation, writing letters to her husband - not even knowing where he is staying. She spends a lot of time analyzing what and when things started to go wrong in their marriage. She experiences, many of the stages of "death and dying" -denial, anger and rage, a bottomless pit of depression before she moves on to the final stage of acceptance.

She has a hot and heavy sexual encounter with an older man, Carrano, who lives in her building, which could shock some readers. It's descriptive, complete with foul language and some remorse afterward. A sad incident involving the family dog occurs, and there is incident when Mario comes over to see the children and she invites him to stay for a meal that really left me chuckling. After several months of watching her own life spiral downward, Olga gradually begins to accept the fact that life as she one day new if will never be the same.

This sparse book was so well written. It was translated from Italian, and the words just flowed so well. It's an additive read, told from Olga's point of view, which worked perfectly; she was a believable protagonist The story's ending was hopeful . I invite you read this book, and to go inside the mind of, "a woman scorned. "

Extraordinarily well written story of the months following a wife and mother's abandonment by her faithless husband. Ferrante closely follows the woman's thoughts and emotional devastation, and we feel as though we're sitting inside her head from moment to moment as she goes through her agonizing experiences. Although I can't vouch for the accuracy of the translation, it reads wonderfully. It never sounds stilted or artificial; if I hadn't know it was a translation I wouldn't have suspected it.

One indication of the writer's mastery is that, as callous as the husband is, and as painful as the woman's ordeal obviously is for her, she's not a particularly noble or sympathetic character; she's pathetic and often nasty. Yet her psychology is so naturally presented that regardless of whether we've ever had a similar experience, we feel her pain, understand how she must feel, and can't judge her harshly; we know this is just how life can be.

The most powerful work of its kind I've read.

Interesting read. Talented writer. Dark narrative. Much of this story is in the form of internal angst. For this reason, it may not appeal to everyone. For myself I would have liked more external conflict. Also, I did not find this to be a "...comic novel" as reviewed. It is dark, troubling and potent.

The last half of this novel was excruciating. If you are a dog lover, and maybe even if you aren't.

I was mesmerized by the prose style, but the novel felt structurally uneven: a stunning establishing of context (in the first 50 pages); then a meticulously observed descent into obssession (next 50 pages); then a detailed account of a long and excruciating day; then a "tidied" up ending in which the narrator begins to feel better, for no discernible reason (though it did come as a relief that she was feeling somewhat better by the end)