MJ CAMILLERI’s debut book Strangers I’ll Never Forget recounts his interaction with memorable characters he met over the span of three decades. The author speaks with Lara Zammit about his work. 

The author MJ Camilleri introduces his collection of stories Strangers I’ll Never Forget as an exercise in attention and an attempt to preserve memory. Speaking to Times of Malta about his book, Camilleri notes that preserving memories has always been something he devoted much time and effort towards – “be it taking many photos (and organising them), or making video montages of trips and events, or writing things down”.

“Now, with mobile phones and unlimited cloud storage, the challenge has become not just capturing the memory, but making it stand out and presenting it in an interesting way, both for myself and for a potential audience. So, I try to be selective and also try to make something new out of these thousands of mini memories,” he explains.

The cover of ‘Strangers I’ll Never Forget’. Photo: Zvezdan Reljic and MJ Camilleri

“Similarly, if someone feels strongly about a particular photo (maybe because of where it was taken, or when) they might frame it to give it a prominent place in their home, and thus ensure that they and others can appreciate it better. That is what I am trying to do here.

“These stories I have written are snapshots from my life which I have carried around with me – some for three decades, some for just a few months – and which I wished to preserve and share in a different format, and one that will not fade or get swallowed up by everything else online.”

Camilleri also noted that when selecting which stories were worth writing down and then editing for the book, he would also have to keep the eventual reader in mind, trying to include memories that work as a stand-alone story or memoir-type narratives he hoped readers would identify with or find interesting.

“The focus of each story is on a particular stranger, or group of strangers, but in the telling of the story there is of course my viewpoint, my role in the story (be it observer or participant), and my reaction to the strangers,” he continued.

Memory has been construed as ephemeral from time immemorial. Only recently have we learnt that it is nowhere as immutable as we hoped, and indeed it might be correct to think of memory as a kind of fiction. Oliver Sacks once wrote that “our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other, and ourselves – the stories we continually recategorise and refine. Such subjectivity is built into the very nature of memory…”.

MJ Camilleri. Photo: Monika Kasica

“Memory can be tricky, and slippery,” confirmed Camilleri. “I find it fascinating as a subject. I look at my five-year-old niece as she (apparently) goes through experiences with great intensity and excitement, and I wonder how many of them she will remember by the time she’s my age.

“And in my work as a GP I meet many people at the other end of life’s journey, and often have to try and help them assess whether indeed their memory has started to fail them. But even as we start to forget the cooker on and get lost in our own neighbourhood, certain memories remain firmly embedded and intact.”

The stories are all true, and despite the temptation to fictionalise them, Camilleri decided to stick to the facts

The author recounted that when he set out to write this book, he listed truth as his main objective. The stories are all true, and despite the temptation to fictionalise them (and thus grant himself more freedom), Camilleri decided to stick to the facts.

“Allowing for small artistic flourishes and for changing some details to preserve the anonymity of strangers, I made sure everything is as close to the truth as memory allows.

“For some of the older stories this involved research, since tales we have told around dinner tables over the decades can get altered with time, so facts needed checking. The main factor allowing me to be accurate was that, ever since conceiving the idea for this book in 2012, I have developed the habit of taking notes. Whether on paper or my phone, I have been jotting down details and ideas as soon as they happen or come to me, and therefore I had a solid foundation ready when I finally sat down in 2020 to flesh these stories out.

“Possibly my favourite of the stories, ‘The Girl in Greece’, is the one where the memory was freshest. It happened on a summer day in 2020, and the next morning I sat down at my laptop and wrote it over the course of three days. So all the details were fresh, and all the feelings were still strong.” Camilleri expressed that one of the most striking things he learnt during the writing process was that the feeling of things and events is what lasts the longest.

“Even if writing about an incident that happened over a decade ago, and even if some of the details have become hazy and need to be rescued from old photos or e-mails, the feelings – the excitement, the dread, the despair – are still instantly recallable, and easy to describe despite not being found in any old photo.”

Strangers I’ll Never Forget considers a string of encounters with strangers across three decades. When asked about his experience of strangers, Camilleri said that this is another facet of life that he sometimes grapples with.

“I generally enjoy peace and quiet and am perfectly comfortable in my own company. Maybe because my doctor job involves constant, often emotionally-charged interactions with strangers or acquaintances, or maybe it’s just my character, but when evening comes, or when on holiday, I seek solitude.

“The shift of urban society towards everybody keeping their head down and minding their own business is something that I find myself playing along with. It matches up with my comfort zone.

The author MJ Camilleri (right) in conversation with Thomas Camilleri during the launch of his book at the National Book Festival in November 2021. Photo: Teri Spiteri

As a result of this, a few of the stories are pure observation, and the strangers are described and hypothesised about from a distance. But what I have come to realise deep down, and what some of the stories in this book clearly show, is that bridging that chasm between strangers is often beneficial, and that human interaction is something we are built for and thrive upon.”

The author went on to maintain that the pandemic has made it even easier for people to remain locked up at home or to keep a literal distance from others, even in a busy shop queue, but that we sometimes need to return to the old-fashioned way of greeting strangers and maybe having several small “useless” interactions as we go about our day.

“They might not be so useless after all. And even if they seem pointless, the human contact will probably make us feel better, and, more importantly, make others feel better too.”

Strangers I’ll Never Forget by MJ Camilleri was launched on November 5, 2021 at the Malta Book Festival. It is available in most local bookshops, or online at EdeBooks.eu or BDLBooks.com.