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Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo
Nino is Donato and Lidia Sarratore’s son and Marisa Sarratore’s brother. He is the aloof, unattainable object of Lenù’s affection from her elementary school days onward. From the time Lenù is small, she pines for Nino—yet when they are in primary school and Nino approaches Lenù one day to ask if they can get married when they grow up, Lenù panics and rejects him. When Nino and his family move out of the neighborhood after Donato and Melina Cappuccio’s affair becomes a public spectacle, Lenù fears that she’ll never see Nino again. Years later, she is surprised and delighted when she begins high school in Naples and realizes that the two of them are classmates once again. Nino, however, has grown skinny, shabby, and disaffected, while Lenù is too afraid of pursuing him to break through the walls between them. Nino and Lenù continue to orbit each other as the years go by—when Lenù goes to the island of Ischia for the summer and realizes that Nino and his family are staying at the same inn, she and Nino have their first real conversations and exchanging a brief but meaningful kiss. But Lenù’s feelings for Nino are complicated even further when Nino’s father gropes her and kisses her one evening; repulsed by Donato and yet full of love for Nino, Lenù flees the island and begins avoiding Nino at school. When Lenù gets in trouble with her religion teacher for speaking out against the church’s tenets, Nino urges Lenù to harness her discontent and contribute an article to a journal he writes for. Lenù is full of hope, believing that perhaps if Nino sees her as an intellectual equal, he might at last fall in love with her—but her hopes are dashed when Nino cruelly reports that the journal didn’t have “room” to publish Lenù’s essay. Lenù and Nino’s burgeoning relationship is complicated and tinged with resentment, competitiveness, and cruelty, foreshadowing the ways in which they will continue to seek to best one another throughout the remainder of the Neapolitan Novels.
Nino Sarratore Quotes in My Brilliant Friend
The My Brilliant Friend quotes below are all either spoken by Nino Sarratore or refer to Nino Sarratore. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Adolescence: Chapter 53
Quotes
When she gave me back the notebook, she said, "You're very clever, of course they always give you ten."
I felt that there was no irony, it was a real compliment. Then she added with sudden harshness:
"I don't want to read anything else that you write."
"Why?"
She thought about it.
"Because it hurts me," and she struck her forehead with her hand and burst out laughing.
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Adolescence: Chapter 62
Quotes
Nothing diminished the disappointment. […] I had considered the publication of those few lines […] as a sign that I really had a destiny, that the hard work of school would surely lead upward, somewhere, that Maestra Oliviero had been right to push me forward and to abandon Lila. "Do you know what the plebs are?" "Yes, Maestra." At that moment I knew what the plebs were… […] The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts.
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Nino Sarratore Quotes in My Brilliant Friend
The My Brilliant Friend quotes below are all either spoken by Nino Sarratore or refer to Nino Sarratore. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Adolescence: Chapter 53
Quotes
When she gave me back the notebook, she said, "You're very clever, of course they always give you ten."
I felt that there was no irony, it was a real compliment. Then she added with sudden harshness:
"I don't want to read anything else that you write."
"Why?"
She thought about it.
"Because it hurts me," and she struck her forehead with her hand and burst out laughing.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Adolescence: Chapter 62
Quotes
Nothing diminished the disappointment. […] I had considered the publication of those few lines […] as a sign that I really had a destiny, that the hard work of school would surely lead upward, somewhere, that Maestra Oliviero had been right to push me forward and to abandon Lila. "Do you know what the plebs are?" "Yes, Maestra." At that moment I knew what the plebs were… […] The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts.
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