Anne Giardini’s bestselling debut, The Sad Truth About Happiness, told the story of a young woman's quest to explore the idea of happiness in her life, and quickly became a bookclub favorite (read 100% of the book here). Now after four years, Anne returns with Advice for Italian Boys, a vivid portrayal of a colourful Italian family and the delicate relationships that bind them together. In this interview taken from the P.S. section of The Sad Truth About Happiness, Giardini talks about her writing process, her time in Rome, and her famous mother.
A Talent for Double Happiness
Louise Tucker talks to Anne Giardini
“We would make different choices from those our parents made, and have lives different from theirs in ways we were certain of but could not predict.” How does your life differ from your parents’?
Until I was ten years old and in grade five, I imagined that I would do exactly as my mother had done: have five children and do bits and pieces of work from home. I was ten at the end of the 1960s, a period of great change and disruption, a time when commonly accepted ideas were turned inside out and held up to critical scrutiny. Some of this percolated through even to children, and one day at school I had one of those moments of realization and clarity that I wish came more often: that I might well have to fend for myself and that I should have a career. I think, from then on, I never questioned that I would live differently from my parents. And in fact, I did marry later, have fewer children, and have things my mother didn’t have, at least when my sisters and brother and I were children: an office, a boss, a briefcase, a pay cheque, a secretary. Looking forward at ten years of age, all of this seemed marvelous and exotic and adventurous.
