by Annie Shapiro

After her three publications in Italy, two novels and one collection of stories, Elena presented for the first time in New York two of her works.

The unusual and interesting backdrop was of the event were a hundred and fifty early ink and graphite drawings by Andy Warhol exhibited for the first time ever at Anton Kern Gallery. Andy Warhol observed this country from the inside as a first-generation American. The characters in Elena Attala-Perazzini's books arrive to the United States at various points in their lives and offer another perspective: that of the modern immigrant.

Elena's own coming-to America is narrated in "The Writer's Assistant", her first book published in English, recounting in detail her job as the assistant to Oriana Fallaci, one of the most controversial interviewer and internationally acclaimed writer. She has been labeled as a radical, a feminist, and above all blatant and unafraid to tell the truth as she saw it, especially with regard to power-corrupted men. Throughout her career as a journalist and author she suffered attempts on her life and she was one of the few journalists capable of interviewing the most tamed world dictators.

When Elena retains the position as Fallaci's assistant she ends up learning as much about writing as she does about her severe and mysterious boss.

Why did you move to the States initially?

I was curious to know New York, but I wasn't that fond of America as many are. Ideologically and politically I thought it didn't correspond me. So I moved here with the intention of spending a few months, but I fell in love with the city and I did anything to stay. I found myself at home like I've never felt before. One of the people featured in my last book says that when she started walking in New York, she thought: this is the place I want to die in. I didn't say that to myself, but I lied. I kept promising myself I would have gone back to Italy the next year. And now it's almost eighteen years. But then, I discovered that I'm not the only one postponing the return since day one.

How did you get the assistant position?

It was a coincidence. It happened after two months from my second return to New York. I was at a dinner and I was looking for a job. This woman looked at me and said that I had the right personality for "Her". I didn't know what she was talking about, but I trusted her. People in New York are very open to help and they have and enthusiasm I had never met before. I went to the interview with other five candidates and it went very bad. Oriana Fallaci insulted me during that first short talk, saying that I shouldn't have said that I liked to write, so I thought she didn't pick me. But on the next morning, someone from Rizzoli called me and said that I was hired.

So as an aspiring young writer this must have felt like a dream come true?
It did, when I received that phone call, but when I started working things changed a lot. As any dream, it's always better until you sleep then when you wake up.

Oriana Fallaci was very secretive and very severe. What was it like to be insulted by someone you admire so much? And what do you think you learned from it?

I've learnt that I'm masochist, that's for sure. Because I cried on a number of occasions on my return home, but I would go back every morning, despite my boyfriend imploring me to quit. Being insulted felt horrible. She was able to touch the cords of my self esteem, but I had a goal. I was convinced that her sensitivity and her humanity were hidden behind a mask. I was waiting for the right moment to discover the real Oriana, the one I could only have a glimpse of. Sometimes, by observing her, I thought she was "acting" as the strong woman and the cruel journalist that everybody expected her to be. And I was right.

Why?

Because one day she changed. She invited me on the second floor of her townhouse where I wasn't usually allowed, and for the first time we talked as two friends. We drank champagne and ate raspberries, and we were just two women of different generations in an opposite stage of life. She wanted solitude, she had decided to retire from the world, from journalism. I wanted chaos, incitement, and needed to find my own path. We had intimate conversations where she opened up with me. Obviously, on the next day, calling me in the office, she would be rude and mean again.

Oriana Fallaci was known for her abrasiveness. She says to you at one point,
"Anger is valuable, it is the base of disobedience and disobedience is what makes us individuals." and toward the end of the book, She tells you that without a battle she doesn't feel alive. Did any of this rub off on you over the years? Especially living in New York?

It is not at all my way of seeing life. It was a totally new attitude to me. But that first harsh experience with such a strong personality, and the impact with a merciless New York changed me into a much more aggressive person. This helped me, though.

For anyone who may not be familiar with Oriana Fallaci as a public figure can you compare her to an American celebrity?

Barbara Walters. And for me, it was as if an aspiring young actress could be able to become assistant to Meryl Streep.

For "Via da Noi, Away from Us" Elena interviewed more than 30 Italians before deciding on seven for her book. She chronicled their journeys starting from their initial decision to leave Italy to their triumphs and frustrations once arrived on American soil. In addition to their fascinating and poignant tales, these characters bring another layer to the complex character of America – expectations and preconceptions.

Elena, how did you have the idea for VIA DA NOI, (Away From Us)?

It happened one day, answering the umpteenth question of a young American asking me why I had left my beautiful country, a country where he dreamt of moving to.

I wanted to give a voice to the new immigrants. There are plenty of books and movies about the first immigration at the beginning of the 20th century, whereas there's no literature on the people that migrated in the last decades. The first immigration was fueled by poverty and hanger, the new one by totally different reasons.

Furthermore I was curios to know who are the Italians that came to America but made a very different choice from mine.

Different in which way?

By deciding to go live in other places and not in New York. To me, America is New York. I landed here, fell in love with it, and this is what I know. But by traveling for interviewing the protagonists, I learnt that this huge country has strong cultural diversity.

How did you choose the main seven stories?

I wanted to portrait different stereotypes of escapes, and of choices. The stories are very different on many levels. The time when they arrive, the industry they work in, the motivations that drove them to leave, the age of the protagonists. I wanted to also narrate the story of who decides to revolutionize his life when he's close to forty years old, like Mario Fratti and Gino Angelini. Risks and consequences are more significant at that age. But I mainly chose the stories that intrigued me on a human and existential levels.

Should you ever return to Europe, what will you bring back from the United States?

I would bring back the idea of not expecting anything to happen from "above". Here, nobody takes care of your desires, of your dreams. Not the government, not the institutions. In Italy, due to a strong social welfare system, which I'm very appreciative of, we're used to think that somebody else will provide us with what we need. In America you learn how everything depends on you only. On your will, on your capability of pursuing your dreams.

If you had to chose some words that represent the themes of this book, which ones would they be?

Searching, desire, restlessness, change, challenge (challenging yourself sometimes it's a stronger motivation than proofing the world), freedom, abandonment, nostalgia, regret, meritocracy, love.

Another important issue is identity.

Yes, it is. By embracing a new culture, at the beginning you feel that your roots are even stronger. But after some time, you realized that you no longer belong to the culture where you come from, but you don't even belong to the new reality you live in. So sometimes you experience the sadness of loss, sometimes the richness of containing within yourself the best of two cultures. For all the people featured in the book it has been difficult managing and accepting this aspect. But I think that feeling lost, it might give you a new strength, and that the emptiness it can be a chance to reinvent yourself. And America is the right place to do it.