Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Ferrante)

Discussion Questions
1. In this installment of the series, is there a shift in Elena’s relationship with her mother? Or is their dynamic essentially unchanged by time?

2. Has Elena treated her family in Naples unfairly as they claim? How much guilt must she carry for the increasing distance between her and her family?

3. What events lead Elena to understand that violence and ugliness do not end at the border of the old neighborhood? How does this revelation affect her?

4. How does the worldview Elena formed growing up in the neighborhood influence her adult life in more cosmopolitan Florence?

5. How does Ferrante explore the relationship between mind a body over the course of the novel?

6. Michele Solara, the son of the feared loan shark Manuela Solara and Lila’s one-time suitor, says that “money invents scenarios, situations, peoples lives.” Does Ferrante seem to believe this? How much of Elena and Lila’s actions and character are determined by money? Does Elena’s relationship to money and power differ from Lila’s?

7. Is Elena’s violent reaction to her younger sister Elisa’s relationship with Marcello Solara justified? How does this development affect Elena’s relationship with their family?

8. How do Lila and Elena approach motherhood differently?

9. Ferrante delineates a stark difference between the burden of motherhood and the passivity of fatherhood. Is this dynamic specific to the time and place of the novel, or is it universal?

10. Elena grapples with new feminist writing, debates women’s issues with her cultured circle of female friends in Florence, and makes an effort to reconcile the idea of women instilled in her by the neighborhood with the new feminist model. What unspoken, contemporaneous shifts for men and masculinity affect the male characters in the book?

11. Lila says to Elena, “Each of us narrates our life as it suits us.” How reliable is Elena as a narrator?

12. Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels have been described as “one of modern fiction’s richest portraits of friendship” (John Powers, NPR’s Fresh Air). Do you agree that Ferrante captures the nature of friendship between women? Do your friendships resemble Elena and Lila’s relationship in any way?

13. Do Lila’s high standards for Elena do more to inspire or to paralyze her friend?

14. Nino says that Elena attributes character traits and achievements to Lila that actually belong to her. Do you think this is true? If so, which traits?

15. Lila asserts that nothing ever happens unexpectedly. Does anything truly unexpected happen in this novel, or can all the events be traced back to their origins in the first book?

16. What are your predictions for the final installment? Will Nino and Elena really start a new life together? How will that relationship affect the bond between Lila and Elena?
(Questions are issued by the publisher.)

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