BOOK 9. LOST ON ME BY VERONICA RAIMO, Tr. LEAH JANECZKO, LONGLISTED FOR #INTERNATIONALBOOKER2024 

A bildungsroman, autofiction, with a dash of humour, narrated by the author in a nonlinear format.  An overprotective, anxious mother and germophobic father, a brother, apparently with a very high IQ; overall an odd family with a strange makeshift house.

“THANKS TO OUR STRICT UPBRINGING, NEITHER MY BROTHER NOR I EVER LEARNED TO DO SUCH HAZARDOUS THINGS AS SWIMMING, RIDING A BIKE, SKATING, OR JUMPING ROPE (IN A FLASH WE MIGHT HAVE DROWNED, CRACKED OUR SKULLS, BROKEN A LEG, STRANGLED OURSELVES).”

Her eagerness to run away from home when she was fifteen, her failed attempts, her constipation, boredom, (inventing games), flashers, her friends, her boyfriends, her grandpa, parenting flaws (as in mistakes made by her parents bringing them up), her love for her grandpa, her problems as a woman, be it menstrual, or pregnancy.

“YOU KNOW WHAT’S THE WORST FOR A DICTIONARY?” “NO.” “NOT HAVING THE LAST WORD.”

She feels her mother's favourite is her brother. Probably, she suffered from low self-esteem as her mother favoured her brother more than her.

“MEMORY, FOR ME, IS LIKE THE GAME OF DICE I USED TO PLAY WHEN I WAS LITTLE. IT’S JUST A MATTER OF DECIDING WHETHER THE GAME IS POINTLESS OR RIGGED.”

One senses a disconnected undertone. Probably, the author wanted the reader to feel the same. Many of the incidents that she narrates, she is not very sure of.

QOTD: How many hours do you read in a day? Preferably when?

I appreciate the author's effort and the unique narrative style but couldn’t connect somewhere. The translation is perfect. It’s an easy, fast-paced read, which is the tale of the fictional life of the author. Her life is packed into a 200+ page novel!

“A STORY IS AN AMBIGUOUS CONCEPT”