Dissolving Margins from My BRILLIANT FRIEND

 “Every second of that night of celebration horrified her, she had the impression that, as Rino moved, as he expanded around himself, every margin collapsed and her own margins, too, became softer and more yielding. She struggled to maintain control and succeeded: on the outside her anguish hardly showed.”

Lila’s episode of dissolving margins during the New Year’s celebration marks the unexpected climax of several threads that had been tangling throughout the story, such as Stefano’s pointed effort to end the ongoing feud between families involved in Don Achilles’ murder (which only succeeds briefly before the explosions turn from fireworks to gunfire).

The sharpest and most prevalent is the deterioration of Lila’s brother Rino, a character whose significance was hinted front the very beginning, as we readers know that her future son will carry the same name. We see Lila’s adoration of her brother peak when they start a new dream together in making a pair of shoes by her design, and quickly unravel as their ambitions become increasingly difficult and improbable. The night of the celebration, Lila’s admiration is shown to be replaced with fright.

It also marks Lila’s shifting role in the story. She took the part of the leader in her and Elena’s childhood; the boldest, smartest, the supplier of advice and tutorship, the object of envy and desire for everyone in the town. She manages to keep this attention for some time, even after Elena starts middle school and high school without her. However, as her interests begin to shift, so does her overwhelming influence. That night, the world instead overwhelms her. She witnesses her beloved brother in his most manic state, combined with the sound of explosions, some colorful some lethal. No attention is on her, and while we know that, according to Elena, she will eventually talk about this phenomenon, at that moment she keeps her face neutral as she experiences this terror. No one notices.

Lila’s confidence falters. She enters a cocktail of guilt for having contributed to her brother’s transformation, fear, unfulfillment at her failed aspirations, and reluctant jealousy of the friend who used to follow her word like doctrine. It manifests in the dissolving margins both of Lila and her surroundings. It at first seemed to be part of the fictional aspect of the novel, with the frightening descriptions and almost supernatural feeling to the event. But much like Don Achilles’ monstrous features, Lila’s traumatic experience is easily rooted in reality, as, unfortunately, what is can be just as frightening as what could be.

Works Cited

Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Europa Editions, 2019.