Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Brilliant Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Female Friendship
Masculine vs. Feminine Violence
Women’s Work
Poverty, Social Climbing, and Sacrifice
The Uses of Community
Love, Sex, and Strategy
Summary
Analysis
Lenù writes to Lila about her feelings surrounding the prospect of seeing her beloved Nino. She imagines all they’ll do together on Ischia and believes they’ll finally become a couple. When Lenù goes to meet their bus in town, however, she realizes that all of the Sarratores except Nino have arrived. Marisa embraces Lenù excitedly and reintroduces Lenù to her family. Lenù feels depressed by Nino’s absence. While the rest of the family settles in, Marisa and Lenù walk down to the beach. They gossip, and Marisa tells Lenù that she has a secret boyfriend. She asks Lenù about Gino, but Lenù quickly tells her that she and Gino have been over for “ages.”
Most of Lenù’s experiences with boys, love, and sex has been based in utility—in the past, a boyfriend has been a way for Lenù to feel self-satisfied, attractive, or superior to Lila. Now, though, Lenù longs for Nino in a genuine way and is nervous to do or say anything that might push him away or make him believe she’s unavailable.
Themes
Marisa reveals that Nino won’t come to the island until his father leaves—he cannot stand Donato. Nino, she says, has no real friends and cares nothing for their family. That evening, Lenù eats dinner with the Sarratores—none of them mention anything about the past or ask any questions about the neighborhood. Lenù finds Donato warm and kind, more paternal than even her own father. Over the next several days, Lenù is heartened by how open Donato is and how quick he is to help his wife with caring for their children and completing simple tasks—unlike any other men she knows from the neighborhood. When Donato leaves the island to return to work for a while, Lenù is just as sad to see him go as the rest of his family is—yet she immediately begins looking forward to Nino’s arrival.
Even though Lenù knows of the strife Donato caused in the neighborhood, she finds him to be a kind and alluring presence. Lenù is drawn to Donato because he represents escape from the neighborhood—just as Nino does. The fact that none of the Sarratores ask Lenù any questions about their shared past or old neighbors shows that they have chosen to forget the part of their lives involving the neighborhood and the community of people who live there.
Themes
