Thoughts 
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante, Europa Editions 2005 – 4th printing 2008 / original 2002, 188 pages, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein
WHY this now/then: For the Europa Editions Challenge. Picked up at BEA 2010 upon the urging of Softdrink*.
FIRST Sentence: “One April afternoon, right after lunch, my husband announced that he wanted to leave me.”
WHAT’s it ABOUT: This is the story told by a mother of two children ages ten and seven of how she handled the first months after being left by her husband. It is a psychological tightrope of conflicting emotions; confusion, rage, disorientation, desperation and grief. Finally, she arrives at something that might be called acceptance — but wow! what a ride it is to get there and the ending is one that left me unsure.
It is not for the weak of stomach.
Did I like her? Would we have been friends? Did I agree with anything she did? Could I understand? Could I even guess if I would have had any of the same feelings or reactions? At the end, was she really moving on or what exactly?
Would this make a good book club discussion book? Oh yes.
Did I curl up beside my husband, hug him and tell him** to never ever leave me? Um, yea. I did. And that was before page 30.
The author was skilled at keeping that tightrope taught, the pacing unforgiving, the descriptions both succinct, sharp and yet at times, hazy and vague. At many points, I too was lost in her thoughts only to be jolted with questions of WHAT?! Where am I? The writing kept me reading on, marching word after word; disoriented and lost just like Olga and her mind-wandering experience. I would not hesitate to read another novel by Ferrante.
RATING: Four slices of pie. Blackberry. With seeds that catch in your teeth, and no ice cream. And a crust slightly more salty than sweet.
Other REVIEWS: I recommend clicking on the cover image above to go to goodreads and read the Community Reviews.
QUOTES:
“I had taken away my own time and added it to his to make him more powerful. I had put aside my own aspirations to go along with his. … I had disappeared into his minutes…” p.63
“… starting at a certain point, the future is only a need to live in the past.” p.92
“I thought of beauty as a constant effort to eliminate corporeality.” p.97
“But enough, I had to tear the pain from memory, I had to sandpaper away the scratches that were damaging my brain.” p.101
“I read and reread, but my eyes ran over the questions without understanding. Something in my senses was not working.” p.107
“A broken clock that, because its metal heart continued to beat, was now breaking the time of everything else.” p.107
WORDS:
p.69 – prehensile – “As if it were prehensile, my eye grasped the letters of the of a plaque on the building opposite.” – SEIZING, TAKING HOLD OF SOMETHING. Other good definitions for this new to me word: able to perceive quickly, having keen mental grasp -and- greedy, grasping, avaricious. Actually, maybe this last definition fits the sentence better.
p.151 – tisane – “He prescribed … tenderness for the children, tisane of normality and repose for me.” – AROMATIC TEA.
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* Jill was influential for bringing me to the Europa booth at the Expo more than pointing me to this book. Not sure anymore why I picked up this exact one.
** and my husband’s nonemotional answer? “Uh huh, ok.”
HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine
Care's Books and Pie 
This sounds page-turning. It is not my normal read, though.
Kailana, I would agree that this novel is not your usual fare! But then, I don’t think any of use would seek this out as a consistent genre to ‘enjoy’.
Care, this sounds like an intense and amazing book! I’m going to see if I can get my hands on a copy. Thanks for the great review.
Vasilly, intense is the right word. Thank you for the compliment. 🙂
Heh. Love your husband’s answer, which made me laugh out loud. I think mine would say the same, probably with the same inflection, or lack thereof.
Jeanne, exactly. He was watching Sports Center…
Those quotes really spark my interest – I like the use of language!
Trisha, I’m glad! I enjoyed the writing and assume the translation was excellent.
Egad–another book to throw into the choices for my book club. This really does sound like it would make a great read but my group kind of expressed last time that they great tired of reading “downer” books. Still…
Egad! It’s almost hard to find a good book that isn’t a downer book now that I spend a few seconds thinking about your quandry… Hmmm. This one has such a discussable (discussible?) ending though.
I am always on the lookout for good book club books these days! I’ll have to make a note of this one — the day when it will be my turn to pick Book Club Book is not far off, and I have NO IDEA what to suggest.