Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo

 Thursday, May 30, 2024--San Antonio

Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo reads like a memoir, but is referenced as "auto-fiction" because the protagonist of the story has grown up her whole life making up stories about her life to the point that she has trouble distinguishing between what stories are true and which are false.  It was long-listed for the International Booker Prize (for books written in other languages and translated into English) and won several Italian (the original language) prizes.  It is easy to read.  It is often funny.  Unfortunately, there were aspects (which are likely true parts of her life story) that I couldn't enjoy: 1)  She is not a logical thinker and repeatedly makes bad decisions in her life while casually acting as if they were unimportant.  2)  She's got a nagging mother no one would ever want to be around, much less keep hearing from--a woman with no boundaries who just keeps going on and on like the Energizer bunny (except in a grating way without being funny at all).  It's a short book, but it took me about 5 days to read because I had to take the silliness (stupidity?) of the protagonist and the constant harassment by the mother in small doses.  The author is intelligent even though she constantly makes bad decisions in life; somehow she has blundered her way into making it as a prize-nominated and winning author.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.