The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition) Elena Ferrante Hillary Huber Inc Blackstone Audio Books
Download As PDF : The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition) Elena Ferrante Hillary Huber Inc Blackstone Audio Books
An IndiBound best seller, 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.
The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition) Elena Ferrante Hillary Huber Inc Blackstone Audio Books
I had been warned by some reviews and by friends that had read "The Days of Abandonment" to realize that it may be hard to read and a little weird. I had just finished lounging in the pure ecstasy that only prolific readers know, of reading Ferrante's "The Neapolitan Series". Basking in the afterglow of that intense literary experience I immediately downloaded "Frantamaglia: A Writer's Journey" which is Ferrante's musings on writing her amazing books. It quickly became apparent that I would not be able to enjoy the full impact of the journal without reading "The Days of Abandonment".I should have known that Elena Ferrante is not capable of letting her readers down. I languished on every sentence of 32 year old Olga, attempting to navigate the first month of being suddenly abandoned by her beloved husband, Mario and their two children for a younger woman. Olga quickly finds herself behaving irrationally. The worst thing possible has occurred as far as she is concerned and she has no choice but to continue with the mundane duties of everyday life....caring for her children, managing everything in her home and trying to regain her sense of femininity and autonomy after being nothing but Mario's wife and loving mother to his children after 15 years. She loses it. Completely. Her life becomes literally a stream of consciousness. She is just not writing in this style....this is the way her life is unfolding. I have never experienced a writer put this kind of feeling down in words so very powerful and succinctly. Yes, it is weird. Because she is feeling exceedingly weird and the reader soaks up every bit of it. I have experienced this state of mind when I was very young and have often wondered how to verbalize it, let alone put words to describe it down on paper. The house, the children, the grocery shopping, the laundry, and every other ordinary life event become distorted and that is the way Olga tells us what she is experiencing. Before reading this book I would have told you that it was impossible to express these feelings the way that Ferrante manages to do. She does it and it is absolutely mesmerizing.
If you are a Elena Ferrante fan, you cannot miss the "The Days of Abandonment". If you are new to this author, start with the Neapolitan series. You will get to know the author first and understand her extraordinary writing skills before you begin. This book takes you on Olga's emotional journey. It will become real to you, not just a literary experience. This author has captured a feeling, a mania, a phenomena, that before reading this book I would have thought that no one could do. This is painting with words. It is a rare, carefully written work, that deserves to be carefully read.
Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition): Elena Ferrante, Hillary Huber, Inc. Blackstone Audio: Books, ,Elena Ferrante, Hillary Huber, Inc. Blackstone Audio,The Days of Abandonment,Blackstone Audio, Inc.,B00ZYGH73I
People also read other books :
- Clearwater Nemesis Volume 35 Al Rennie 9781542851596 Books
- AlKomur Market Desert and Nile Volume 1 Prof Omar M Saeed Books
- Caribbean Splash edition by Jeff Egerton Literature Fiction eBooks
- Instinctive Shot The Practical Guide to Modern Game Shooting eBook Chris Batha
- The Coffee House edition by Nikolas Wong Humor Entertainment eBooks
The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition) Elena Ferrante Hillary Huber Inc Blackstone Audio Books Reviews
If The Days of Abandonment were a theatrical play instead of a novel, it would have to be performed in one act. Once begun, it is impossible to wrench oneself away from the extraordinary power of a this narrative of a 40-ish woman who navigates Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s four stage of grief (denial, anger, depression and acceptance).
In clear and non-pitying prose, Olga relates this “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…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.”
Ms. Ferrante is unsparing in her portrait of Olga, without turning this into a maudlin tale or a “poor pity me, the victim” type of story. First of all, the prose is precise and exquisite (examples Olga’s husband blew away the past “as if it were a nasty insect that has landed on your hand.” Or this “In those long hours I was the sentinel of grief, keeping watch along with a crowd of dead words.” Or this “Starting at a certain point, the future is only a need to live in the past. To immediately redo the grammatical tenses.”)
As Olga falls into the void – the “absence of sense” – she falls into a frenzy of self-loathing and inertia. It take a strong stomach to read about her attempt to seduce a neighbor in a near-parody of what “making love” is really all about. During the end of that passage, it becomes clear that Olga’s “days of abandonment” are not caused by her husband Mario’s departure; rather, they are caused by her abandonment of herself. While she reaches rock bottom, she is also responsible for her young son and daughter and the innocent dog with “good dog eyes”, Otto. One feels their sense of confusion and betrayal as well – and commiserates.
I have never read Elena Ferrante before and have rarely read a book with such raw honesty and such ferocious power. I am, fortunately, happily married but anyone who has ever suffered feelings of betrayal (and all of us do, at some point in our lives, through husbands, family members, friends) will gasp in shock at the authenticity of Days of Abandonment. I believe it’s a masterpiece.
An anatomy of a breakdown after her husband abandons her for a younger woman. Brilliantly and sensitively observed; Ferrante writes the dissolution of a woman who believes she is nothing without a man, she is the poverella (the poor abandoned wife). A woman who has been rejected by a man is a thing to be reviled, a creature rejected by the community, a monster who frightens children. The counterpart of the bogeyman. She believes she is no longer beautiful or attractive, has no sexual desirability, should in fact be destroyed. And so she begins to destroy herself, pull herself and her children down. It's the way, in certain communities, the wife has no value once the husband dies or leaves, so she must die. Burned on a funeral pyre with him. It runs so deep that there is still an element of this in modern society. Ferrante writes experimentally, exploring issues women deal with - the loss of love and desirability, the need to dissolve or disappear if they are not young and beautiful, the roles of wife and mother, issues of her own career struggles while also trying to be wife, mother. How men have it all so differently. Aging, friendship, intellectual pursuits. She is a contemporary feminist writer.
I had been warned by some reviews and by friends that had read "The Days of Abandonment" to realize that it may be hard to read and a little weird. I had just finished lounging in the pure ecstasy that only prolific readers know, of reading Ferrante's "The Neapolitan Series". Basking in the afterglow of that intense literary experience I immediately downloaded "Frantamaglia A Writer's Journey" which is Ferrante's musings on writing her amazing books. It quickly became apparent that I would not be able to enjoy the full impact of the journal without reading "The Days of Abandonment".
I should have known that Elena Ferrante is not capable of letting her readers down. I languished on every sentence of 32 year old Olga, attempting to navigate the first month of being suddenly abandoned by her beloved husband, Mario and their two children for a younger woman. Olga quickly finds herself behaving irrationally. The worst thing possible has occurred as far as she is concerned and she has no choice but to continue with the mundane duties of everyday life....caring for her children, managing everything in her home and trying to regain her sense of femininity and autonomy after being nothing but Mario's wife and loving mother to his children after 15 years. She loses it. Completely. Her life becomes literally a stream of consciousness. She is just not writing in this style....this is the way her life is unfolding. I have never experienced a writer put this kind of feeling down in words so very powerful and succinctly. Yes, it is weird. Because she is feeling exceedingly weird and the reader soaks up every bit of it. I have experienced this state of mind when I was very young and have often wondered how to verbalize it, let alone put words to describe it down on paper. The house, the children, the grocery shopping, the laundry, and every other ordinary life event become distorted and that is the way Olga tells us what she is experiencing. Before reading this book I would have told you that it was impossible to express these feelings the way that Ferrante manages to do. She does it and it is absolutely mesmerizing.
If you are a Elena Ferrante fan, you cannot miss the "The Days of Abandonment". If you are new to this author, start with the Neapolitan series. You will get to know the author first and understand her extraordinary writing skills before you begin. This book takes you on Olga's emotional journey. It will become real to you, not just a literary experience. This author has captured a feeling, a mania, a phenomena, that before reading this book I would have thought that no one could do. This is painting with words. It is a rare, carefully written work, that deserves to be carefully read.
0 Response to "⋙ Read Free The Days of Abandonment (Audible Audio Edition) Elena Ferrante Hillary Huber Inc Blackstone Audio Books"
Post a Comment