"I am not narrating nostalgia for an era, but for an illusion." This is what Laura Morante said at Pordenonelegge, presenting the national preview of "Dieci storie pop" (La nave di Teseo), a collection of short stories set in 1960s Rome.
"Beneath the appearance of the economic boom lay the horrors that would emerge just a few years later: property speculation, the suffering South, poverty, political tensions," she explained. "In the ten stories, a crescendo of small melancholies can be perceived, and you can sense that the illusion is beginning to crumble."
Morante chose Centocelle as the setting because of a paradox: "In a working-class neighbourhood it was harder to maintain the illusion, because problems were experienced first-hand, yet at the same time it was also easier to deceive oneself because people were less informed about the world."
The book is "a hybrid between a short story collection and a novel, with shared characters and a common narrator." Music is one of the central elements: "Pop songs become imbued with our memories, our experiences, our emotions," the author said. "Mozart remains himself — it is he who triumphs. Popular songs, on the other hand, become soaked in what we have lived through."
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