Summary

The place where Enzo takes Lila is near the sausage factory owned by Nino's friend Bruno. This causes Elena to recall the summer on Ischia, with great repugnance, particularly her night with Donato Saratorre. She is in Pisa, finishing her thesis and struggling. She is at the same time happy and angry with Pietro, who is basically already been given a job as a teacher, but not her. She feels that he is brilliant but boring, and it angers her that his family name gets him in the door. Her advisor suggests that she teach at a teaching college, as if being a professor was an alien proposition. She goes through a few months of dissatisfaction at everything. Finally, she buys a notebook and writes down the story of her life in third-person, herself as a protagonist--the story of Naples and the neighborhood...