The Lying Life of Adults

Giovanna likens her adolescence to a slow procession of colorful moments moving around drab gray ones. Her relationship with her parents improves when she successfully makes up her “lost” year. Though she’s happy that her parents are proud of her, she considers them both boring outliers in her life. Her father, especially, is a “small” and “frail” (242) man compared to Roberto’s colorful presence.

Roberto and Giovanna become friends quickly. Though she’s often afraid that she’s not smart enough, both Roberto and Giuliana disagree. Giovanna’s friendship with Angela and Giuliana increases—she mainly uses them as sounding boards when she doubts her intellect and how Roberto perceives her. Giuliana, who continues wearing Aunt Vittoria’s bracelet, grows even more beautiful to Giovanna during this time. Despite the relative calm of this period, however, Giovanna still remembers her aunt accusing her of coming between Roberto and Giuliana, and she also notices that Giuliana is constantly anxious regarding Roberto. Giovanna’s ultimately afraid that Giuliana will end their friendship due to mistrust. Giuliana’s anger increases around Angela, who constantly talks bad about Tonino and idly makes fun of her friends. Angela also upsets Giovanna with this behavior, especially when Angela reveals that Roberto and Giuliana sleep together and that Giovanna can’t comprehend them making out because she has no real experience with sex.