«SI’m an anemic, red-haired academic. I’m on my way to becoming a vegetarian, at least on weekends. Technically speaking, I’m an average sized woman, however I find it very difficult to buy pants. I’m not sure I’m bisexual enough to deserve this to “count” for anything. I have poor posture and good blood pressure. I have a broken heart». Maggie describes herself like this. If anyone asks her, she replies that she is fine, or rather she has never been better. Yet, her career is at a dead end, she has no money and her husband Jon, in addition to asking for a divorce, has also taken their cat. Maggie is 28 years old and her marriage lasted only 608 days.
Never been better, Monica Heisey’s debut novel, 35 years old, Canadian, screenwriter ( Smothered, Workin’ Moms ), is the tragicomic and sharp chronicle of a year as a Surprisingly Young Divorcee (yes, with capital letters), spent compulsively online. Making unnecessary purchases and ordering burgers at four in the morningto download and delete Tinder, with the counterpoint of the essential group chat with friends.
Maggie could be one of the Girls by Lena Dunham but also a Bridget Jones of the digital age. With a long and almost uninterrupted interior monologue of her protagonist, Heisey aims at social satire, tackling themes dear to Millennials such as mental health, loneliness, fluid sexuality. But also the friendship, love and disillusionment of a generation, victim of social media, which tries to emancipate itself with considerable difficulty.
Monica Heisey is a writer and comedian from Toronto. She’s been published in The New Yorker, she’s written for TV shows like Workin’ Moms.
She also divorced at 28. Is Maggie her alter ego?
No, I created the character to explore all the slightly crazy emotions and thoughts I had during that time. I imagined what would happen if you called your ex as often as you felt like it or gave in to all the urges you have when you get dumped. Here Maggie gives in, always. I, on the other hand, was obsessed with not letting myself go, with behaving well. Inventing Maggie was liberating. And I succeeded also thanks to years of therapy.
After the separation did you feel supported or alone like your heroine?
I felt embarrassed. I promised in front of many people that it would be forever and instead we ended up like this. I felt like I had failed. Women blame themselves for a divorce much more than men. I spent a lot, too much time wondering what I did wrong.
Jon, the ex-husband, is a non-character. His voice is never heard. Why did he decide to exclude it?
Because the novel is precisely about his absence. In all couples crisis stories there are two protagonists and the possibilities of getting back together and rebuilding are explored. I wanted to describe what happens when these possibilities do not exist. It is the story of a woman who tries to re-establish a good relationship with herself to love herself again.”
“Never Been Better” by Monica Heisey, HarperCollins384 pages, €18
One critic noted that the protagonist is passive, her persona defined only by her love story. What does he answer?
My intention was not to describe the ideal woman, the hard and pure feminist. But a woman in the worst of her crisis. Maggie runs away from her emotions, she doesn’t want to manage her pain, she throws herself into a thousand situations just to not feel it. But then she comes back with her tail between her legs and deals with it.
Is Maggie the symbol of a generation?
Without a doubt we can easily relate to her, each of us has been heartbroken. But Maggie also reflects the uncertainties and concerns of women her age.
Which ones are they?
Trying to grow up, behaving like adults, not succumbing to the social and social media pressures that always want us to be perfect and in control of our lives. They invite us to reinvent ourselves, to be better. But it’s all difficult. Buying a house is impossible, wages are low, jobs are precarious. Marriage, after all, is the only prerogative of adulthood that has remained accessible to twenty- and thirty-year-olds.
She also addresses the topic of eating and body image disorders, Maggie often feels inadequate. What happened to body positivity?
It was born as a radical, revolutionary movement, but then became commercialized. It is adopted by anyone to sell anything and so it has been diluted to the point of representing, today, further pressure: you have to love yourself at all costs, even if you don’t like yourself.
The protagonist has an obsessive relationship with the internet. How is yours?
Is getting better. My friends and I often have conversations about keeping our noses out of our smartphones. Everyone has their own technique. Some lock it in a drawer, some put it in airplane mode, like I often do. Yesterday I deleted my X (Twitter) profile and I feel very proud.
The book will become a TV movie. Who would you like to play Maggie?
She is a size 18 and there aren’t many actresses of that size (so much for body positivity). We’ll have to find a rookie.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED