Praise for Incidental Inventions
“Both timely and deeply personal...this varied assembly of considerations is a portrait of an acclaimed storyteller’s bold and singular voice.”—Columbia Journal
“In prose that provokes and transforms, evoking wonder and tension in the most gratifying sense, these fragments of Ferrante ultimately cohere into a full, absorbing portrait of an enduring author.”—Library Journal
“As with her fiction, Ferrante’s voice here is clear, eloquent and powerful.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“This essay collection is subtle. Ferrante’s writing is akin to a whisper from one friend to another: It utters the truth one would rather not hear, but says it compactly and devastatingly.”—Harvard Crimson
“Wide-ranging and curious, often ‘charged with feeling’ and always underscored by a sharp and careful intellect...Incidental Inventions is very much a masterclass in style.”—The Saturday Paper
“If you are interested in the experience of having a drink with the author and listening to her muse on various subjects...here’s your answer.”—Vulture
“You’ll never want to put this book down.”—Better Reading
“Incidental Inventions is a more coherent and cohesive mapping of the writer’s inner world and quotidian life—her desires, fears, ambitions, failures. Ferrante peeks, as it were, from behind the curtains-pages pictured on the book cover, revealing a sliver of herself.”—Reading in Translation
“There are spontaneous splashes of colour, highly concentrated phrases and much rich, aphoristic profundity. Reading Ferrante reminds me of the wonderful tradition of European essayism lying behind high journalism.”—Canberra Times
Praise for Elena Ferrante
“Ferrante can talk about politics, history, philosophy, sexuality, loneliness, and I willingly go with her, without ever questioning it. I don’t know any [other] writer who can do that.”—Beth Nguyen, San Francisco Chronicle
“Ferrante’s writing seems to say something that hasn’t been said before—it isn’t easy to specify what this is—in a way so compelling its readers forget where they are, abandon friends and disdain sleep.”—Joanna Biggs, The London Review of Books
“Ferrante, in her unflinching willingness to lead us toward ‘the mutable fury of things’ places the readers inside intimate relations between with an irresistible and urgent immediacy.”—Roger Cohen,The New York Review of Books
“Reading Ferrante is an extraordinary experience. There’s a powerful and unsettling candor in her writing.”—Nick Romeo, The Boston Globe
★ 02/01/2020
In 2017, the Guardian commissioned a weekly column from Ferrante, who agreed to the project on the condition that its subjects were provided by the publication's editors. The resulting "incidental inventions," expertly translated by longtime Ferrante collaborator Goldstein, ran from January 2018 to January 2019, offering a glimpse into the famously elusive author's creative intentions ("I'm interested in digging into the ordinary and causing confusion, pushing myself to go beyond appearances"), most intimate memories ("What I distinctly remember about my first love is my state of confusion"), and deepest convictions ("inequality generates an extraordinary waste of minds and creative energies, which, if trained and put to use, would likely make our history an active laboratory for repairing the damage we've caused so far"). Accompanying Hopper-esque illustrations from Ucini match the mood of each piece perfectly. VERDICT In prose that provokes and transforms, evoking wonder and tension in the most gratifying sense, these fragments of Ferrante ultimately cohere into a full, absorbing portrait of an enduring author.—Annalisa Pešek, Library Journal
