I went back to start the Ferrante tetralogy from the start. The first volume is compelling in many ways, with the child's perspective on growing up in poverty and violence, seeing the school as a way out. By becoming academically brilliant, you can write a book, make money from this, and escape all of this squalor. This is what Elena manages to do eventually, but that is much more of a problem for Lina, who is academically brilliant [bravíssima] but also "cattiva." The two girls take an exam to get into the next level of schooling, I guess it would be middle school. Lina write a story, but the teacher is not too impressed, seemingly. She is beginning to favor Elena over Lina, even though Lina is the more academically gifted of the two.
Now, the two girls decide to skip school one day and go to try to find the ocean, which neither of them has ever seen...
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