Well-Tempered Panic - by Giovanni Tommasini - Review by Maria Teresa De Donato

 Well-Tempered Panic by Giovanni Tommasini

Review by Maria Teresa De Donato

 

Feelings, perceptions, sensations... memories that flow at the speed of light, just as acute is the suffering experienced, accumulated, and that has gripped for decades.

The style is flowing, poetic, and equally intense. Every word and expression are carefully researched, just like a painter would have done to find the most suitable tonality to represent every detail of the painting that he would have created: a sad picture, even if, paradoxically, of a poignant beauty.

The language, as in every literary production by Giovanni Tommasini, author of Well-Tempered Panic, is harmonious and, at the same time, accompanied by a depth of thought, ability to analyze, and as much emotionality that he sometimes tries to keep at bay and other times he leaves the banks overflowing while his mind immerses itself entirely in memories: everything and nothingness, perfection and hell, joy and the most atrocious suffering, everything, and its opposite is the cocktail he fed on and which represented his childhood and adolescence – terrifying and extraordinarily attractive... a toxic drug to get rid of and without which he could not, however, live.

Is there an answer to all our questions and, above all, to the one linked to the 'Why' of so much sorrow, of the many beatings and violence suffered by those who should have protected, defended, and loved us?

Probably not. Everyone did what they were capable of doing. Had they been able to do better, to love themselves and project as much love on their children, to keep their inner demons at bay, they would have done so.

Love, dreams, disappointments, the search for oneself, and, above all, the recovery of oneself that leads to living a life worthy of being defined as such are the predominant themes of this memoir by Giovanni Tommasini. At the same time, awareness and dealing with one's emotionality and sensitivity become an instrument of liberation and healing from a painful past that did not allow one to 'take flight' and fully enjoy the beauties of life.

Well-Tempered Panic is a wonderful book that I recommend to everyone. It is written by an Author and Educator able to relate to the reading public and with each of his interlocutors, thanks to a depth of thought, extreme sensitivity, and immense empathy for the suffering of others.