The Story of a New Name, the second of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, starts its narrative in 1966 with Elena receiving a box of journals from Lila. Lila asks Elena to swear not to read the journals, but of course Elena reads them as soon as she gets a chance. The journals start in childhood so while Elena is reviewing them, she is also giving the reader a small recap as to what happened in the first book of the series, My Brilliant Friend. This narrative device works to the reader’s advantage because it jogs their memory if they have forgotten what happened in the first book. The journals are also a gateway into Lila’s mind. The reader now knows that when Elena is writing this story in future, she actually has a clear idea of what was going on in Lila’s mind as well. It helps fill in narrative gaps and shows the reader Lila’s feelings.

This start also pulls us back into the turbulent relationship between Elena and Lila. After Lila gives her the journals, Elena says, “At that time our relationship was terrible, but it seemed that only I considered it that way” (15). There is a contrast between the way Elena sees the relationship and the way Lila sees the relationship. This has been constant throughout the first book, even though the reader might not have known it, with Elena being the dominant point of view character. Now that we know what Lila is thinking through the introduction of her journals, I wonder if her view of the relationship will become more prevalent or if we still only know what Elena knows. The narrative device of the journal reflects the complex relationship between Elena and Lila. It shows that you can have a tight knit relationship and still not really know what’s going on in the other’s mind.