According to Maria Beatrice Alonzi books should not be the self-analysis of whoever writes them, but something that has useful feedback for those who buy and browse them. «I would never want to give the weight of my problems to others: the story must not be an arm of the author, but serve the reader. It would be rude of me to offer a self-analysis and even get paid to read it “, Alonzi tells on the phone, articulating the words with a machine gun without eating half of them. We talk to each other on the occasion of the release of We, a three-letter wordhis first novel published by Salani came after the success of The Book of Happiness And I don’t want to please everyone anymore. While in the latter he addressed the reader directly, this time Maria Beatrice Alonzi has decided to build a world with fictional characters in order, here too, to teach something to others, in particular to find the compass in a very particular age that, as she writes, it leads us to stop seeing individuals as a bet to try to understand if they will be a victory or a defeat: that of twenty years.
We, a three-letter word is, in fact, a story of more than a generation that starts with three boys, Teresa, Margherita and Carlo, describing a microcosm of bored rich people who try to become spokespersons for a platoon of young people who feel robbed of every possibility and crushed by responsibilities and faults that do not belong to them. We cannot tell you more for fear of spoilers, even if Maria Beatrice Alonzi – who in her life is, in addition to a writer, also a business strategist and, in the past, an actress and a director – tells us that, while we are talking, «« I am discussing this book with all the most important Italian production companies and two foreign scouts: they have all already read it. I’m very happy. While I was writing I chose to wink at the audiovisual “, adding that she would like, if the title were optioned for a TV series or a film, to be part of the creative team.
It is not for everyone, given that many writers such as Paolo Cognetti and Marco Missiroli have preferred to leave a free hand to the screenwriters.
“I come from that school there, having already dedicated myself to producing, directing, and acting. If I were part of it I would be happy, otherwise, if it doesn’t happen, it wouldn’t be a problem. I understand, however, that a pure writer wants to have a distance to avoid hurting his product ».
Curious that you use the adjective pure: does she feel hybrid?
“They are the outpost of hybridism. I have dealt with many things: at the age of 4 I started acting and programming with the computer. I’ve been a singer, an actress, a marketing director: I’ve done everything on both sides ».
What was the initial input?
«I have always known that I wanted to communicate and want to do good to people: my father is a high officer of the Carabinieri, this has meant a lot to me, in the distinction between right and injustice. Only over time did I understand that an absolute expression for me was the written form.
I went from video, to music, to digital. Today the incredible thing is that, when my readers meet me, they don’t ask me for the photo, they say ‘thank you’. It always moves me ».
Why, then, did the writing come relatively late in your case?
«I started writing very early, I have always continued, as a copywriter, as a creative director – for my clients – as a strategist, but first my social commitment and then my artistic form became known. The writing of novels, therefore, came later ».
My fetish for reviews led me to read some of his book on Amazon. A reader wrote: “It is a book that hurts, but it hurts that evil.”
“It is a very painful novel that slaps you, gives you a skull and also a” knee between the legs “(as happens to Baby, a character from the book, ed). Many parents tell me that it is beautiful, but that they would then like to shut themselves up in the bathroom crying for fear of making mistakes in the same way with their children. It is an evil that is good because it tells you that precisely because you have recognized yourself, you can now take your life in hand in a different way ».
You talk about facing the monsters that we normally hide under the bed.
«Convincing ourselves that we can change is nonsense: the only thing that changes us is the therapy which, however, does not really make you change, but helps you to read mechanisms that otherwise you would not be able to read. Taking the monsters hiding under the blanket of anxiety and looking them in the face is a good way to accept them. “
Do you think this exercise applies best to those in their 20s?
«It is the moment when the world has decided that you stop being a bet to be a win or a defeat. But the truth is that you made it up to the age of twenty, even if your family from that moment on is convinced that only now you will be responsible for what you do “.
Twenty years ago, however, adolescents seemed less exposed to psychic balance than they are today, don’t you think?
“Before, you didn’t give things the right name. The data, however, tell us that from 2000 to 2018 the number of children who self-report suicide attempts, self-harm, anxiety and depression increased by 48%. In this, social media and the pandemic have been an important accelerator from many points of view “.
Do you think monsters are born from the confrontation with the world or with themselves?
“From the family: the personality structure is formed there.”
Family, which is the one thing you don’t choose.
“That’s why no one should feel guilty, but the responsibility to be happy remains yours.”
What is your family like?
«Beautiful and difficult, it depends if you look at it from the inside or from the outside. My parents met in the seventies, both studying for law degrees at the university; my paternal grandfather was prefect, the other air marshal: he led the fighters during the second
world conflict. But the generational trauma starts from afar, it was never there and she betrayed my grandmother, she just needed to go home, the rest of her pretended not to see him. My mother is the fruit of a symbiotic and painful relationship with her as her mother; if they had diagnosed eating disorders
at the time, they most likely would have found one. The paternal grandmother was even left with a divorce for a woman he saw a hundred times more beautiful than her, my father and my uncle were young, she raised them alone and without money, but above all with a broken heart, for life. I went to therapy, I wanted to be happy ».
How long have you been in therapy?
“The first time as a child, for a year, and then in high school for another, and again at twenty-five the same: they were all cognitive-behavioral, they served to make me understand that it wasn’t enough for me, therefore, after yet another feeling wrong about a relationship that ended, four years ago, I am
went to psychoanalysis and stayed there for two years; everything has changed, I began to understand, to know myself, to recognize myself. When I was writing this book, however, I felt the need to resume, I can dig even deeper ».
It remains that for her literature must be placed at the service of others.
“I try to help people. I don’t put anything of mine into it, except the ability to carefully observe everything around me ».
Have you always had the urge to help others?
“All time”.
Do you remember the first time you did it?
“In kindergarten, I was 4 years old. A child with Down’s syndrome gave me a blow in the eye and knocked me backwards; then another kid came over and kicked him insulting him, which prompted me to get up and punch him. For me it was clear that the child with Down syndrome hadn’t done it on purpose ».
Has this mission to do good ever been a burden?
“You have an unconscious advantage when you do it: before the analysis I existed as a function of this concept, and I have always benefited from it.”
The risk is that if you are too open to others, she disappears and no one asks her how she is, don’t you think?
«I happen to be attracted to conversations with people who stimulate me: we have all had disappointments, and I have always considered it important to have people around. Feeling their support was more precious than trusting what I was feeling. “
She helps others, but who helps her?
“The psychoanalyst and myself.”
It seems to me that you disrupt the reactions of others a lot to try to justify them: isn’t it a bit heavy in the long run?
«The brain works like this, it looks for the most efficient solution: like a computer. And the solution is to start by putting the other in the condition of being listened to, this is what counts “.
How do you see the unexpected in all this?
«For me there is no concept of the unexpected. We are used to thinking about the present above our head, the future in front of our eyes and the past behind our head. If we thought the other way around, we would see that the future is what lies behind and the past in front: everything is unexpected, nothing is controllable ».
Is it better to resign oneself to this evidence, then?
“Accepting it for what it is is the reality of things. Even in the rules that govern our universe, we can foresee a lot but not everything, chance is an integral part of experience “.
I go back to the generation of the twenties: what was she like at that age?
«Unleashed, I was studying at university, I was a manager for a band, a marketing manager for a radio and much more: I was surrounded by hundreds of people and objectives, always; then I realized that I was hiding inside, so as not to feel I was not doing enough ».
Since it is hybrid, what would you like to have written under profession on your identity card?
“It depends on the period: today a writer and business strategist”.
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Source: Vanity Fair
