My Brilliant Friend: Childhood: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

Lila and Lenù sit for their final elementary school exit exams. Lenù gets straight 10s—Lila, however, gets only nines and eights. After this, Lila distances herself from Lenù and begins hanging out with Carmela Peluso. Lenù, however, will not let herself be abandoned—she joins the girls and together they form a kind of trio, even though Lenù often feels Lila purposefully trying to leave her out of jokes and games. Lenù notices that Lila seems to be going through her days in a kind of “daze”—she continues talking about attending school next year, even though both Lenù and Carmela know she did not sit for the admissions test, as Lenù did recently. Lila insists that she is going, “test or no test.”

As the weeks go by, Lila seems back to her old self—but Lenù can sense that she is still suffering under the surface. Lenù notices that Lila has started picking fights with her family: on days when they meet up in the courtyard, Lenù can hear Lila shouting horrible vulgarities at her parents. One afternoon, when Lila doesn’t show up to play, Lenù goes to her window and starts shouting for her—and soon, she hears Fernando’s agitated voice and the crash of a broken object. Lenù realizes that Fernando and Lila are having a shouting match. A few seconds later, Lila flies through the air—Fernando has thrown her out of the window. Lenù rushes over to Lila, who insists she isn’t hurt in spite of her visibly broken arm.