Sweet Closeness: A Journey Through Adolescence and Self-Discovery

Writing has always been a pleasure for her. Many novels started but never finished. Until one of them was decided to be completed: So Sweetly Close to You. At Corriere della Sera, Serena Bortone explains that she wanted to tell about "a season of life, adolescence, that none of us has gone through unscathed, where you don't feel accepted, you need the reflection of the other to understand whether you are worth it or not". The book also talks about Paolo, who will become Paola. A true story. A friend of hers. A novel set in the 80s where Serena is afraid of failure, of not being loved. Adolescence: "My 80s, like those in the book, were vain years in the school of the rich, a classist, fierce environment. There was the desire to appear, the music, the feeling that everything was possible and the fear that nothing would come true. Yet, I still cry thinking back to that lost enchantment. I cry because it will never return and because I came out stronger". Love: At Corsera, to Candida Morvillo, she also explains the dedication to her mother: "She always pushed me to be economically independent and free". Then there is a part dedicated to loves: "I promised myself that I would never cry over a man again". I did not keep the promise. The novel is also about the illusion of love: each of us has dealt with stories where you don't want to see what's wrong, because you're in love. This is the magic and the curse of love". What does it mean? "The curse is not discovering that the object of your love is not up to your expectations, but discovering that you do not know how to give and receive love". And over time, Serena has learned to love herself "also thanks to the men who were not able to love me". In the novel, Serena did not want to get married, in reality "it was not my goal and it did not happen. But the bourgeois marriage that is done to settle down suffocates me at the mere thought". But Serena Bortone has also had great loves. "I have had two cohabitations - she still tells Corriere della Sera - and now I am single, with a large extended family of friends. I am always surrounded by affection, I don't know what loneliness is. In recent years, I have also learned to travel alone. With irony, I say: it's never too late to have a happy childhood". And now her life is "made of travels, french fries in the sense of physical acceptance. Because perfection does not exist". And let it be clear "I have always eaten fries, only before I felt guilty and today I do not".