This was just completely the wrong book for me. I’m not super academic and this book felt way over my head. I’m not sure what I was expecting (so that’s on me), but I couldn’t get into all of the dissecting and analyzing. I love Ferrante’s work so much but this iteration just didn’t work for me.

This was a slow read but I quite enjoyed it. I struggled at times to separate the voices of the different writers talking through the Neapolitan series, but at a certain point it came together and also stopped mattering. I found lots in here to enjoy even beyond my interest in Ferrante’s work. In that sense it kind of annoyed me that the introduction worked so hard to justify the book’s existence and significance. This is an imperative in academia, but I think this book has a broader appeal alongside Frantumaglia and the series itself. I wish I had experienced the Slow Burn project in real time(apparently the book came out of a blog or website) but this was definitely a worthwhile read and I’ll miss the companionship of these people. It almost makes you feel that you’ve been in conversation.

I received this as an advance reading copy from netgalley.

One of the most interesting aspects of Ferrante's work is the amount of academic engagement it has engendered. I can't quite think of another author who - less than a decade following the publication in English of her career-defining work - would go on to become the subject of not one, but several books and at this point hundreds of academic articles that go beyond mere book reviews.

"The Ferrante Letters" is part of the literature coming out of the nascent academic sub-genre we might even be tempted to call Ferrante studies. As a book, it epitomizes the interdisciplinary and personal flair that these academic responses to Ferrante can take. "The Ferrante Letters" began as an online project, when four friends, all tenured professors at various academic institutions, spent one summer reading the Neapolitan Novels together and sending letters to each other with their thoughts. It is a boundary-breaking book, as we see the four authors pick up on Ferrante's literary references, do some illuminating and detailed close readings of the text, and perhaps more entertainingly see how the lives of Ferrante's characters map into the authors' own lives, past and present.

Chihaya, Emre, Hill, and Richards know what they're doing. Their letters are erudite, full of intertextual analysis, but also replete with personal anecdotes and musings that make the book approachable, a bit like talking to a friend about your favorite author. As a person who has been there, it is also fascinating to see how other women respond to particular chapters and exchanges, how Ferrante, writing about Italy in the 50s and 60s, still manages to feel extremely personal. It's that sort of magic that I think we keep seeking after the first time a book makes us feel like we've just emerged from a very powerful, and life-changing, spell. And "The Ferrante Letters" is precisely this: four friends on a thrilling literary treasure hunt, trying to discover the source of Ferrante's magic through words.

(This title constantly reminded me of the Cheever letters episode of Seinfeld.)

This book will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it. It is sort of a book club meets epistolary novel--4 women (3 academics, 1 novelist) take on reading the works of Elena Ferrante one summer, writing long letters to each other, emulating the intellectual exchange between Lenu and Lila in Ferrante's novels. Each offers a longer essay in part II, revealing very different takes on what they uncovered in this reading project. Finally, there are several guest letters from others lucky enough to join the discussions. And some great notes and references that would be useful to anyone studying Ferrante.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

A big thank you to Net Galley for sending me this book to review.

One spring day, Sarah Chihaya, Merve Emre, Katherine Hill and Jill Richards decided to spend their summer reading and writing about the work of a single author. Elena Ferrante was their unanimous choice. They exchanged thoughts and criticism through letters written over the summer. The work, as they stressed, was not ‘collaborative’ but ‘collective’ as each of them worked independently in their respective locations and exchanged their views in an epistolary fashion.

All four of them are professors and what is remarkable about the letters is that they are free from critical literary jargon and can be read by all readers who are enthusiastic about Elena Ferrante and her Neapolitan Quartet as the inspiration behind this book was to share ideas which the professors had when they read the book.

For those who are not very familiar with the novels, a brief outline is included. It is stressed that the series is about female friendships, the relationship between the girls is balanced, it is not a bildungsroman—that would be a very simple classification; there are several strands—social, historical bad political beside the emotional.
Many readers will not realise the significance of the copper pot which suddenly explodes which is symbolic of the gradual undoing of the Cerullo family. Nor will the lay reader pay much attention to the cover of the book; the images lack physical detail and fit in very well with the theme of erasure which so important in the novel: Lila’s disfigurement of her wedding photograph; Lenu’s disposal of Lila’s diaries into the river and of course Lila’s disappearance without a trace.
The second part of the book is a result of the ideas which were discussed in the letters as well as some essays from doctoral students. This part of the book is more difficult to read and critical theory and theorists do make a frequent appearance. Merve Emre’s contribution on ‘The Cage of Authorship’ makes interesting reading because it brings fresh and unknown insights into Ferrante’s relationship with Saverio Costanza who has directed the HBO’s series on the Neapolitan novels. Also interesting are Emre’s own efforts to interview Ferrante and the amusing often cryptic, evasive and brief replies she got to her questions leaving her no wiser at the end of the correspondence.

The book falls into two distinct parts. The first which is aimed at the general reader, where the writing is breezy and chatty; and the essays in the second half of the book which seem to be aimed at the academic audience with references to serious literary critical theorist like Foucault, Cixous, and others. One is curious to know to whom the book will appeal to: the academic fraternity or the lay reader.

The Ferrante Letters exist for one audience only: The exuberant Ferrante Fan. This brilliant book is like an academic book club of sorts. Four literary, intelligent women got together to discuss the quartet of writings, four books, by the writer know as Elena Ferrante, beloved by many. This collection is a testament of that incredible gathering.
Personally, I sought out this book in hopes that it would help me better understand what I was missing in my understanding of Ferrante's books, and in all truth, the appeal! I just could not see it, and I desperately wanted to see it. I needed help! Even my Italian heritage was of no help! (Weak smile.)
These four educated and successful and accomplished women saw it and they wrote this book to help others see it! Here it is for all to read; really you must read; it's as if you've gained admittance to a really special book club.
There's a word in Italian, it's really slang and strongly changed in each dialect, so I'm not going to even attempt it here, but it basically translates to: "hardhead." There's probably a word in every language for kid or person who's stubborn or a hardhead; well, that was me. I was called that name in my family constantly.
So, if you can relate, ignore them and read this anyway. Authors appeal to each person in different ways. That does not label them or us as good or bad, just a different connection.

Thank you Netgalley, and the women authors of the Ferrante Letters

Reading this collection of correspondence and essays between four very smart and literary women is like joining a terrific book club. It's a different form of the bibliomemoir genre and a refreshing way to engage with a literary text, especially one as complex and layered as the Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante. As we witness how each of the women here grapples with her varying responses to the novels and what the themes and issues mean to her both personally and professionally, we come to understand a better way of reading not just these novels but any work of fiction. In this way, the book is also a masterclass in close reading and how it can alter us not only as readers but as human beings too. I came away with a whole new appreciation for Ferrante's novels. And I am now looking forward to reading other works by each of these writers as well.

Not having read Ferrante's books, I (understandably) found this a little difficult to follow. Also felt there was some unnecessary verbosity, especially in the introduction.

received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Elena Ferrante, and this project was extremely exciting to me. The idea of intentional, collective, feminist criticism is something I care deeply about, and the aims of this project are admirable - to "[offer] one model for encoding the intimidate labor of conversation as part of a scholarly work... to formalize the texture of togetherness to show that this, as much as putting one word next to another, is the labor of writing." The brilliance of this practice which "offers another model for feminist praxis, a way of tying ourselves more closely together, not just as mothers and daughters but as friends, colleagues, mentors, and confidantes... dislodges the fixation on individual productivity and its coldly quantified standards of academic success, refusing the culture of competition that defines" our life in a capitalist system.
It's such a joy to read this collective conversation, and I'm looking forward to rereading the Neapolitan Novels with these essays bouncing around in my head.

This such an enjoyable read if you like Ferrante, because it feels like talking to a bunch of very smart friends about the book, helping you see parts you might not have appreciated before. It's enriched my reading of the Neapolitan Novels, and I look forward to rereading them now that I've had this conversation by reading these letters.

Thanks Netgalley & Columbia University Press!

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Columbia University Press for allowing me to read this book. It was quite an experience. I had read all four books of the Napolitan Quartet four years ago. As I started reading the Ferrante Letters, I went back to my Library and got My Brilliant Friend out. I'm now working my way through all four of them a second time. I put down the Letters until I finished My Brilliant Friend.

This book is a compilation of letters that four academic women sent to each other over the course of a summer. In advance, they picked the book(s) they wanted to read, set up the guidelines and went their separate ways to learn what would happen. Clearly they thought it a success or I wouldn't have been reading the published results. The book isn't for everyone. It helps if you have academic blood in your veins, but anyone who loves The Quartet and is interested in what someone else liked and found interesting will enjoy reading these letters.

Personally I found I needed these four women to bring some important themes to my attention. The first time
I read the Quartet, I zoomed right through them finding them hard to put down. This second time, I'm reading much slower and still I missed things: the violence in the neighbourhood in direct proportion to the poverty; the competition between the girls with whatever is handy. First schooling and when Lina no longer went to school, riches and wealth. The letters also point out the cruelty between the two and that it comes with the territory. I looked back over the many books I've read about friendship and I have never read the cruelty of friendship stated so matter of factly. Or the passion. Or the many other qualities of a friendship that last over sixty years.

The Ferrante Letters made me think. And I liked that. I'm ready to start all over again from the beginning. I also found it interesting that these women didn't know each other well when they started writing the letters to each other. They seemed inspired by the friendship between Lena and Lila. They jumped right into deep revelations, questions and remarks. They are very different personalities and it was enjoyable sensing the different thoughts about the themes they talked about. I loved that one of them went to Naples and tried to find the neighbourhood. That's something I would have done. That's love!

I recommend this book to anyone who loved the Ferrante Napolitan Quartet and who want to be stimulated to consider the books more thoughtfully. It is a book you could read and put down and pick up again later. In fact, I don't think one should read this book in one helping.

I suspect this was a one time experiment but I would love it if they did the same thing with another beloved book.

Do you ever finish a book or series and immediately need to discuss with someone who's just finished reading so you can fully process your experience? If yes, this book is for you. A must-read for fans of Ferrante, The Ferrante Letters is half lecture hall, half book club where four writers take on the task of divulging their responses and criticism of the Neapolitan Quartet through the writing of letters. A delightful take on the exchanging of thoughts and ideas as a group, then shared with the public. A slow, but thoughtful read.

I’ve read a lot of academic texts during my studies in English Literature but this collection of epistolary essays was something different, being much more personal and interesting but still giving real insight into the novels it discusses. It also reminded of how great the Neapolitan novels are so thanks for that!

Essays letters meditation an interesting collection a compilation of thoughts on Ferrantes writing .athoughtful well written collection.#netgalley#columbiau

This book is a must read for anyone out there who like and loved and cried when reading Ferrante's Neopolitan novels. A mix of essays and letters, these pages will bring you back in Ferrante's fascinating universe of melancholia, sorrow and friendship.

This was interesting but also difficult to read. I've read the Neapolitan series novels and really enjoyed them. This book felt like reading a book clubs minutes but not always understanding the original thought process. I did like some of the insight but on the whole I found it a little hard to read.

Reading Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet was one of the most intense literary experiences I've enjoyed as an adult; her books led to much deep and interesting conversation amongst the women with whom I shared the books.

"The Ferrante Letters" helped me revisit the pleasure and interest I found in the novels. The authors combined literary criticism with the kind of book talk one might expect to find in a really good book group.

I particularly enjoyed the letters section of the book though the critical essays were also interesting and illuminated several ideas and themes I hadn't previously considered.

Recommended for the serious Ferrante fan and for students wanting to understand the books on a deeper level.

A meditation on Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet universe, a collection of letters and essays that explore various literary themes throught the scope of cultural theory; well-written with strong arguments and poignant, critical interpretations.