Veronica Raimo (Rome, 1978) did not fully understand that her cousin called her somewhat upset for not having appeared in her latest novel, Nothing is true (Libros del Asteroid / Edicions de 1984). Her family was the main source of inspiration for her pages, and the fact that she was not mentioned in any line was something that she did not like too much. “I think the rest would have preferred not to go out. Some people don't come out particularly well, but it never rains to everyone's liking,” responds the author during her visit to Barcelona.
The Italian writer focuses the plot on her eccentric family and her life with them in a neighborhood of Rome during her childhood and adolescence. She presents, with great humor, what it is like to grow up with an omnipresent mother who is permanently distressed, a father full of bizarre obsessions and an older brother, almost perfect, who is the center of all the attention. “I just needed to add the cousin to this cocktail,” laughs Raimo, who confesses that his is a self-fictional story, in which, as the title says, not everything is true, “but a good part is.”
Far from what it may seem, this is not a memoir. “In the Italian narrative, either we talk about perfect families or we go to unstructured and dysfunctional families. I raise problems. We all have them. But I find it more interesting to treat them with humor, even if it is acidic. Sometimes, it is more efficient to address certain issues in a fun tone,” she reflects.
The book was awarded the Strega Giovani award, voted for by readers between 16 and 18 years old. “It made me very happy to receive it, since it is at those ages when one lives with true passion. Also, if anyone is going to be honest, they are a teenager, so I really appreciate that you liked my book. Perhaps, more than one felt identified.”
What no one imagined, not even the author herself, is that this text was not originally conceived to be a novel. “It was going to be a theatrical monologue. I decided to write it knowing that it was not going to be me who was going to go on stage, but rather an actress with whom I often collaborate, who could shout things from the rooftops that perhaps I did not dare or would not feel comfortable saying in person. voice aloud. “It was a way of speaking out loud but doing it in a protected way.”
Then confinement arrived, and the project, for this and other reasons, stopped. “It didn't seem right to me at the time to write anything ironic or hilarious. I felt an overwhelming need to consume only scientific articles to try to understand what was happening. So I put aside theater, literature and my daily life in general to focus on that. As an author, I was expected to give an opinion of the facts and I was embarrassed not to have a formed idea. I didn't want to give it either. "Who was I to do it? But I did have an interest in answering questions for myself," she recalls.
When some time passed, he returned to his notes. But, by then, the actress who was going to interpret the text was already immersed in other works. As Raimo is not a fan of working in vain and she believed in the potential of what she was writing, she decided to convert it into a book, without expecting the great success it would have among Italian readers and much of the world. “This has encouraged me to also write a film script. Who knows if one day these adventures, actually everyday, will make the leap to the big screen.”
If Raimo has achieved anything with this work, it is to make everyday life something extraordinary. “The story continues to show the life of a European middle-class family that has nothing special about it. Neither do their children, beyond the fact that they have learned to read and write early, perhaps because they were so bored. Writing something with this material is not only worthwhile, but also necessary for readers to realize that no family is perfect or like the ones in the movies. That generates frustration and it is likely that they are more similar to what I propose. And, believe me, the best thing is to laugh.”
Adversity is precisely what motivates the Italian most. "If my life were calm and peaceful and I had no other concern than being able to put my sun lounger in the front row of a Greek beach, I wouldn't write. There are authors who need peace to carry out a project, but I don't. It's not that I like it. "I live in constant turmoil, but we have to take advantage of adversity. I certainly plan to continue doing so. And the day I don't, it will be because they will be able to find me on that desired beach," he concludes.
