No spoilers (please.)

I started reading Elena Ferrante's La vita bugiarda degli adulti as soon as it was published, I sort of preordered it, strangely from Germany, not Italy. But the original proved to be a tad bit more challenging than previously expected. And I couldn't get over the phrase "dollore arruffato" (tangled pain, I know, it's not the official translation). Later I bought the Hungarian translation, but I couldn't get into the story. I tried the English audiobook version too, but I couldn't really get into the story in this format either. But, now I've started the Netflix series and it bought me. In the book, I couldn't feel for the main character, but on screen this uglified adolescent lady actor with her cringy hair is very relatable. The creators also hit the jackpot with this gruff your-aunt-my-foot Vittoria and her mature beauty. One of my favourite Italian actors is Alessandro Preziosi, and his faded handsomeness as the father is really something. I mean it requires a genuine talent to act less glamorous than you actually are. And the creators took a lesson on glamour indeed. The other great Ferrante show, My Brilliant Friend has been criticized for glamorising poverty, meaning the poor didn't quite look poor. Now, here, in Lying Life , they do. They do look scruffy. The other Naples seems an absurd place as well, with a horse and a female equestrian in sandals ! on the street, with carts pushed by rag-and-bone men and of course with cussing beggars. I haven't expected to be surprised by Netflix, but I am now.