Things My Brilliant Friend is about, a partial list: female friendship, yes, but also childhood, poverty, male violence, education, books, social mobility, Naples, subcultures, competition, and love.

Blurt! — Sben
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Things My Brilliant Friend is about, a partial list: female friendship, yes, but also childhood, poverty, male violence, education, books, social mobility, Naples, subcultures, competition, and love.

Also

Finished reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, trans. Ann Goldstein. This was an intense page-turner, about two girls growing up in poverty in post-war Naples. The ending was abruptly and exquisitely unhappy, and was in hindsight the only way it could have ended. I’m still thinking about this one, and plan to read the remaining three in the series, but with a break to catch my breath.

— 10/10/2026 9:23am ∞
A few days ago, I finished rereading Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead. They’re even better on the second read, and straight together with the third. Together they’re a vivid evocation of Harlem of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.

— 10/5/2026 7:46pm ∞
Finished reading Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead, concluding the story from Crook Manifesto and Harlem Shuffle. Just a great hang, funny and poignant, thoughtful about New York City and family and how a person grows, or doesn’t. Makes me want to immediately reread the previous two, like I don’t have a million books to read already.

— 9/11/2026 9:54pm ∞
Forgot to post, but sometime last week I finished reading A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett, third of his fantasy murder mystery series. As with the previous two, there’s a body horror motif that doesn’t go too far for me (and I’m somewhat sensitive to it), and like the second book, he has some thoughts about the real world that he’s working out in his stories. I’ll read the fourth whenever it comes out.

— 9/7/2026 7:36pm ∞
Finished reading Nonesuch by Francis Spufford, featuring time-traveling fascists during the London Blitz of early WWII. This book felt like Declare by Tim Powers, one of my favorites, but I think this was better. Certainly seems like it’ll be at the top of my year-end list.

— 8/19/2026 9:43pm ∞