Unfortunately I was unable to attend the lecture by Professor Lombardi on Thursday night due to a medical procedure. Instead, I will write on another topic that has fascinated me, Nino Sarratore. Nino plays a significant role throughout the Neapolitan novels. Just when the reader thinks they have seen the last of him, Nino reappears. The second and third books both end on cliffhangers involving Nino. In The Story of a New Name the book ends with Elena seeing Nino at a reading of her book. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay ends with Elena and Nino on a plane together after Elena leaves her husband. Why is Nino given such importance? It seems to me that Elena finally realizes that Nino was just a “player” when she learns of the child he fathered with Silvia. Elena notes, “Nino was not fleeing his father out of fear of becoming like him: Nino already was his father and didn’t want to admit it” (88). Nino’s father is the gross, forty year old man that Elena lost her virginity to when she was a teenager. Nino’s father cheats on his wife constantly and does not care about the women he sleeps with. It is not a compliment to say that Nino is like his father. I was happy when Elena finally made this realization because I had been building a steady hatred for Nino and wanted Elena to hate him as well. Elena’s feelings change at the end of the book when she starts an affair with Nino. In the end, though, after a lifetime of Elena loving him, Nino admits his love for Elena and they start sleeping together.

There are many reasons that Elena could have started this affair with Nino, but my biggest question is whether this affair is really about Elena, or if it is secretly about Lila. Before the affair starts, but after Nino had become present in Elena’s life again, Nino says to Elena, “What I had seen in you, I then stupidly seemed to find in her [Lila]” (371). In essence Lila has become this omnipresent figure lurking above their relationship. Is Elena with Nino because she really loves him? Is it because Pietro does not pay enough attention to Elena and Nino does? Maybe it’s because Elena is finally fulfilling her childhood dream of being with Nino. I think it is much deeper than that. I think being with Nino is just part of Elena’s competition with Lila. Lila may have won Nino in the past, but now Elena has him. Especially when you look at the above quote, it seems that Lila is playing a much bigger role in the relationship between Nino and Elena than Elena even realizes. I’d be interested to hear what others think on this topic.