The Days of Abandonment is an Italian novel written by Elena Ferrante, published in 2002. The story follows Olga, an Italian woman, after her husband, Mario, comes home and calmly announces that he wants to leave her after 15 seemingly happy years of marriage. He explains that although he has nothing to reproach regarding their marriage or her, he wishes to break it off regardless. Olga does not understand and begins analyzing their relationship but cannot find any errors in their marriage. She frantically and desperately searches for answers but finds all their mutual friends, who may have any information, to be reticent regarding Mario. Olga begins spiraling as Mario leaves her abruptly, with two children, a dog, and a house to take care of. She finds her usual refined, delicate, and gracious choice in words as well as manner of tone become strident, vulgar, and coarse. She unwisely yells and lashes out her anger at everyone who happens to call. For this reason, she ends up pushing away any solicitous friends that were persistent in attempting to help her. The rest of the novel follows her as she continues her descent into a psychotic state after his departure. As Olga spirals further, becomes obsessive, and unhinged; you begin to worry for her children and begin to feel compassion for her.
Now, at thirty-eight, I was reduced to nothing, I couldn’t even act as I thought I should. No work, no husband, numbed, blunted. When the children were at school, I lay on the sofa, got up, sat down again, watched TV. But there was no program that could make me forget myself. (p.30)
I chose this quote because it captures well the emotional state that a person can feel once they are abandoned. How frail a person can really become once their system and daily routine is shattered. This quote shows how Olga’s life has been completely disrupted by her husband’s abandonment. When her routine was suddenly taken away, she was left feeling lost and without purpose. she couldn’t find anything to distract her from her despair.