History Literature / TheNeapolitanNovels

* ForWantOfANail: Lila's shoes end up being a catalyst for a lot of important plot points, having repercussions all throughout the books.

* UnreliableNarrator: Elena's narration seems to leave a lot of people feeling like Lila is the worse friend and the worse person between the two main characters. This is despite the fact that, once you look past her more outwardly bitter and confrontational personality, Lila does very little that is objectively bad, especially once she grows fully into an adult. When you look into it a lot of Lila's "worst moments" come from Elena's representation of herself as a wronged and/or neglected friend, but her perspective is clearly subjective. We usually don't have a direct entry point into Lila's feelings and motivations the way we do with Elena, and Elena often seems to read malicious intent into Lila's actions/words, especially considering 1. Lila goes through three lifetimes' worth of trauma and bullshit just in the first twenty years of her life alone, definitely explaining some of her attitude and her tendency to occasionally withdraw, as well as some of her more questionable actions as a teenager, and 2. she's actually sometimes sort of right with her criticism and her "lack of support"? (e.g. in the Nino affair.)

* UnreliableNarrator: Elena's narration seems to leave a lot of people feeling like Lila is the worse friend and the worse person between the two main characters. This is despite the fact that, once you look past her more outwardly bitter and confrontational personality, Lila does very little that is objectively bad, especially once she grows fully into an adult. When you look into it a lot of Lila's "worst moments" come from Elena's representation of herself as a wronged and/or neglected friend, but her perspective is clearly subjective. We usually don't have a direct entry point into Lila's feelings and motivations the way we do with Elena, and Elena often seems to read malicious intent into Lila's actions/words, especially considering 1. Lila goes through three lifetimes' worth of trauma and bullshit just in the first twenty years of her life alone, definitely explaining some of her attitude and her tendency to occasionally withdraw, and 2. she's actually sometimes sort of right with her criticism and her "lack of support"? (e.g. in the Nino affair.)

* WorldOfJerkass: Almost all the characters, regardless of their wealth, gender, background, education, or political opinions, are shown to be selfish and immoral people to some degree (including the two protagonists [[SecretlySelfish Elena]] and especially [[{{Jerkass}} Lila]]). One of the rare exceptions is [[NiceGuy Enzo]].

* BrattyTeenageDaughter:
** [[spoiler: Elena's]] two older daughters with Pietro definitely have shades of this as teenagers. They come from quite a privileged background and have a pretty decent life by the standards of "the neighborhood", but often act entitled and disrespectful, fight each other, and eventually fight over a man.

** [[spoiler: Elena's]] two older daughters with Pietro come from quite a privileged background and have a pretty decent life by Naples standards, but turn their noses up at their mother for not being "cool", fight each other, and fight over a man.

** Lila, with her stubborn and disobedient personality, gets on the nerves of her father and brother as a teenager.
** [[spoiler: Elena's]] two older daughters with Pietro definitely have shades of this as teenagers. Even their mother can see how disrespectful they are, both to each and other people.

** Lila is also a voracious reader during her childhood and early teens, and later intermittently throughout her life. In the first novel Elena finds out that Lila has secretly been reading every single book in the library even after she wasn't allowed to attend middle school. Lila starts professing disinterest in books and reading once she [[spoiler: marries Stefano]] at sixteen, but she picks the habit back up several times throughout her life such as when [[spoiler: she has an affair with Nino]] and when she develops an interest in the history of Naples after [[spoiler: her daughter's disappearance]]. It is also implied at different points in the novel that she's better-read and better-informed than she's willing to let on even as an adult.

** Lila is also a voracious reader during her childhood and early teens, and later intermittently throughout her life. In the first novel Elena finds out that Lila has secretly been reading every single book in the library even after she wasn't allowed to attend middle school. Lila starts professing disinterest in books and reading once she [[spoiler: marries Stefano]] at sixteen, but she picks the habit pick up several times throughout her life such as when [[spoiler: she has an affair with Nino]] and when she develops an interest in the history of Naples after [[spoiler: her daughter's disappearance]]. It is also implied at different points in the novel that she's better-read and better-informed than she's willing to let on even as an adult.

** Lila was this in her pre-teen years. As Elena finds out, Lila was secretly reading every single book in the library, even if she wasn't allowed to attend middle school. She stops reading after marrying Stefano, although she briefly restarted to read again during her short relationship with Nino.

* WorldOfJerkass: Almost all the characters, regardless of their wealth, gender, background, education, or political opinions, are shown to be selfish, immoral, or morally ambiguous people to some degree. [[NiceGuy Enzo]] is one of the rare exceptions.

* WorkingClassHero: What Lila ends up unwillingly becoming during her time at the factory.

* ChildhoodFriends: The two protagonist are friend since elementary school. The four novels revolve around their growing into womanhood.

** [[spoiler: Elena and Pietro's s first daughter is named after Pietro's mother Adele, though little Adele is OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Dede. Elena's third daughter is named after Elena's mother Immacolata, but she's also OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Imma.]]

* AwfulWeddedLife: [[spoiler: Lila's marriage with Stefano is a complete disaster, as she despises him and he beats her. They are also both unfaithful.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Timid Elena being the Betty, and fiery, unpredictable Lila being the Veronica to Nino's Archie.

* TheCasanova: [[spoiler: Nino]], bordering on SexAddiction. [[spoiler: In the last book, he cheats on Elena with multiple different women, including the middle-aged cleaning lady.]]

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Resident bad boys Marcello and Michele Solara are considered attractive by girls. The problem is that both want Lila (at different times) but she hates them.

* TheCasanova: [[spoiler: Nino]], bordering on SexAddiction.

* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler: Enzo]] is the very first to guy shown to have special feelings for [[spoiler: Lila]] while they're still in grade school. He becomes her final and longest-lasting romantic companion in the end.

* KavorkaMan: Donato Sarratore is by no means a handsome man, but with his facade of a gallant and cultured gentleman, he manages to seduce many women.