Kerensa Cadenas – 16 Nov, 2018
you may have noticed Twitter slowly becoming abuzz about a new HBO show premiering this weekend: My Brilliant Friend. Naturally, Twitter obsessions with HBO shows should sound off a little red alarm in your brain: What do I need to know about this? Do I care? And should I watch?!
So, first things first. If you’ve never heard of My Brilliant Friend, don’t feel bad. Yes, it’s a wildly successful series of four books that literally millions of people have read. But who has time to read allll the books? More importantly, you def don’t need to have read the books to enjoy the show. Here’s what you need to know to get started.
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS MY BRILLIANT FRIEND?
Author Elena Ferrante and her Neapolitan Quartet have become an international success. My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of a Lost Child (2015) all follow the same story of two best friends, Elena and Lila, and it’s all set in Naples, Italy.
The mysterious author’s four-part series about the decades-long friendship has become a contemporary coming-of-age classic. Ferrante herself considers the series a “single novel,” even though it had to be split up because of length.