My Fill of Happiness
At thirty you are supposed to have your life sorted out: a job,
a stable identity, an income. But what if none of this seems to happen, due to the specific personal choices you made and the precarious
state of contemporary economy?
Cecilia is about thirty years old. She loved to study, so she got an MA and
even a PhD from that Italian University that prides itself on being the oldest
in the world. In Literature, of course. She read all the right books, she
attended as many movie festivals as she could and took part in theatre
workshops. According to an inherited narrative she trusted, the sum of
these experiences was supposed to result into something. Not a
prize, more some kind of reasonable reward. She was wrong.
Hoping to pursue an academic career, Cecilia and her partner move from Bologna to Coventry, but after some attempts, she instead ends up spending her time temping at the Library or at a publishing house. Moving to Coventry is anything but permanent, and Cecilia easily finds reasons to go elsewhere, albeit temporarily. Low-cost flights take her back to Bologna, or to her hometown in the North of Italy, a place that she long rejected but that at a distance has become desirable again. Or somewhere else, visiting friends in Lyon, attending her beloved Primavera Festival in Barcelona or an academic conference in St. Petersburg, places that represent the promise of a happier, fuller, more accomplished existence than the one she faces in an England on the verge of Brexit.
The very core of all this spinning around is a quest for her ‘fill of happiness’, as per a line of an old song from a kids’ talent show in Italy that she watched when she was five. A happiness that she believed could be reached.
Through the pages of this book, Cecilia starts to come to terms with the idea that her fill of happiness is simply not available, and her original, innocent desire must be downsized and adapted to her everyday reality. This process requires a painful, everyday struggle that she narrates with sarcasm, irony and tenderness.
Thanks to her unique ability to read the world, she provides a precious book: personal like a memoir, sharp like an essay, stubborn and honest like a generational novel.
Press reviews
Christian Raimo - TuttoLibri - La stampa
Un bildungsroman senza Bildung sulla generazione Erasmus.Leggi
Giacomo Giossi - il manifesto
Il ritratto di una generazione, ma anche del suo stesso birignao che assume i toni sia del lamento che della condanna.Leggi
Lorenzo Mari - PULP Libri
Cecilia Ghidotti non rinuncia mai alla lucidità dell’analisi e all’emersione di una coscienza che non è mai falsa.Leggi
Carlotta Mingardi - BresciaOggi
Un racconto che va oltre le speranze disattese: intervista a Cecilia Ghidotti.Leggi
Elena Marinelli - Il Libraio
Un libro in cui la parola futuro compare puntuale e problematica.Leggi
Giulia Panza - SALT Editions
Ogni generazione ha i propri memoir di viaggio, uno di quelli che preferisco credo parli attualmente al buon 80% di tutti noi, ovvero “Il pieno di felicità”.Leggi
Federica Guglietta - Il lunedì dei libri
Si parla di futuro prossimo, ossia come fare di tutto per barcamenarsi alla meglio tra sogni e aspirazioni e quello che passa il convento.Leggi
Lucia Cominoli - Buone Notizie Bologna
Una tensione priva di rancore, volta a spingerci verso una rigenerazione, qualsiasi essa sia.Leggi
Adria Bonanno - Dude Mag
Non sono partita con il desiderio di scrivere un romanzo generazionale. La storia che ho raccontato io è una delle tante possibili - Intervista a Cecilia GhidottiLeggi
Mariangela Taccogna - Mangialibri
Con un tono ironico e una interessante dose di autocoscienza, Cecilia Ghidotti pubblica la sua opera prima raccontando di sé e della sua generazione.Leggi
Florencia Di Stefano-Abichain - Bionda Radio - Radio Popolare
Cecilia Ghidotti è ospite della rubrica di Florencia Di Stefano-Abichain "ordinary Girls".Listen