You raise a great issue with the translation. Very often it is an issue with books from overseas. But I haven't seen it raised elsewhere about Elena Ferrante, and I'd love to see a fuller discussion of it by a great Italian translator.

One reason why I think you might be on to something is that when I'm reading a book I plan to review, I'm always looking for and taking notes on beautifully written sentences to quote. This was the rare book in which I couldn't find one. Often I fill pages with great lines and struggle to pick the best (as with Claire Keegan's deservedly much honored novel Small Things Like These, which I wrote about here recently). So the lack of quotable lines in Elena Ferrante really struck me. Thanks so much for such a perceptive comment.