In Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 adaptation of Elena Ferrante's 'The Lost Daughter,' the last sentence of the book ("I am dead, but I'm fine") changes as Leda says, "I'm alive." By changing the death that Leda's experience motherhood entails, Gyllenhaal creates her own Leda, a woman who is different from that in the Ferrante's text.

Ferrante's run-on sentences are the mechanism for producing a distinctive reality effect. They deny, at the micro-level, any logical cohesion or narrative arc or life story, even as they are part of a retrospective narration whose end is never really in doubt.

Her run-on sentences are the mechanism for producing a distinctive reality effect. They deny, at the micro-level, any logical cohesion or narrative arc or life story, even as they are part of a retrospective narration whose end is never really in doubt.