When even Michele Obama publicly declared her obsession with My Brilliant Friend and Elena Ferrante’s other books, known as the Neopolitan Novels, as did Hillary Clinton, Jonathan Franzen, James Franco, Elizabeth Strout, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ethan Hawk, James Wood, Stoya, and many others – a collection of characters ranging from the first lady to a famous porn star, including sophisticated writers, actors (and what a group of actors!), influential journalists, all of them posting images on Facebook and talking about the books with enthusiasm and admiration – at this point it was clear that the Ferrante Fever was not a passing trend, that it was not just about one good book (or, rather, the four books that constitute Elena and Lila’s saga), but that, rather, here in the United States, the books mean much, much more.