Talk:The Lying Life of Adults

Setting

In response to this recent edit by 70.18.9.106:

I find no reference to the 1990s in the book, and no reference to events that might provide a historical marker. Given that Ferrante is almost certainly a woman in her 70s, and considering that her earlier novels were situated in the early post-World-War period, the novel is most likely situated in the late 1950s. One sign of this is the naivete of the main character, a girl in her teens, about sex. That a smart, curious city kid in the 1990s would be so uninformed is highly doubtful. Also, although her parents are well-off working academics, there is no reference in the novel to computers or cell phones, although both technologies became widespread in the 1980s-90s. Teen culture without cell phones went out decades ago. The telephones in the novel are either the home land line or the municipal payphones. Additionally, there is no answering machine on the home phone (these became available in the 1960s), and no way to know who is calling before answering the phone. There are many phone calls in the story, and the context is clearly that of the pre-1960s basic land line with no way to screen or playback a call.

All the English-language and Italian news sources I can find, be it The New York Times or la Repubblica, describe the novel as being set in the 1990s. They do agree though that it does not have a contemporary feel and feels more similar to the 1950s. The English translation is not as revealing though. The original Italian text spells the setting out more clearly. In fact, it describes the protagonist Giovanna and her date of birth as 3 June 1979.

La gravidanza era stata difficile, il parto – 3 giugno 1979 – un tormento infinito, i miei primi due anni di vita la dimostrazione pratica che, dal momento in cui ero venuta al mondo, la loro vita si era complicata.

I hope this helps. Οἶδα (talk) 20:24, 13 November 2020 (UTC)