Dealing with Coronus: Self-help notes for a pandemic
by Dr Paulann Grech, published by Kite Group, 2020. Available from www.kitegroup.com.mt & leading bookstores.
I myself have been intrigued by memoir entries and particularly charmed by Anne Frank’s diary since I was young. In my own little way (unparalleled with Frank’s writings obviously), and like most young people I would plummet into my fantasies, jotting down what I probably could not express out loud. Possibly at that age of countless transitions, it was one of the opulent ways of coming to terms with oneself.
I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank with this keen sense of inquisitiveness. The writings kept by this Dutch girl, Annelies Marie ‘Anne’ Frank, documenting her life, written while she was in hiding for two years between 1942 and 1944, were captivating, showing richness of emotional intelligence and reflection second to none.
Her writings were embedded within a social context gravitating on horror and dismay. The only way Anne had to survive was by trying to distance herself from the tragedies that compressed around her, yet still reflect on them.
We know as a fact that her family lived in fear that the brunt of the violent Nazi regime would catch up on them (which unfortunately it did later on). In actual fact, after two whole years essentially buried alive she and her family were apprehended. Anne later died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
In the time she was living in furtiveness, she retained her compos mentis because she managed to transfer her thoughts on paper, entrenching the story and the sentiments. On the other hand, the distances constructed by a command of revulsion and odium were overawed through the art of dialogue.
And, this is what is fascinating with Grech’s writing.
I have for the first time read a medley of emotions that evoked Anne Frank. The centrality of the writing rests on this phenomenon of the Achterhuis (secret annex) which is best represented in each and every one of us. For some gifted people, like the aforementioned, they manage to merry-make these thoughts rooted within them and share them with such clarity and composure, notwithstanding the soreness and the sting.
Diary entries filled with comfort and an empathy fit for a therapist with a sensible dose of wit
What Grech also manages to do in her craft is unpack this whole notion of diarising in this work.
The book, Dealing with Coronus: Self-Help Notes for a Pandemic, in my belief is testimony of Grech’s passion for mental health and humanity in general, and her extraordinary emotional astuteness and kindliness. Her tongue-in-cheek humour at the same time is weighty, insightful and erudite (a combination you don’t quite easily find).
This book, which is shrewd, scholarly and entertaining, all at once, surfaces Grech’s passion for the field of mental health, and at the same time is able to read into the complex ordeals, sometimes pain and often sufferings, that COVID-19 has created on all or most of us.
While Grech’s writings are located in the pandemic (a different social condition than Nazi Germany but equally abysmal) they also serve as a collection of reflections one can reminisce on, and remain apt and judicious. People go through their own moments of desolation and someone needs to recite this uneasiness.
Her work is indeed a fine example of a person who values community relevance. She trawled into this world of apprehension and fretfulness, and the distress of not knowing what is going to happen next ‒ the preoccupation of what lies in the future. Yet somehow she manages to galvanise the authenticities that are so pungent, sharp-tasting and powerful.
Grech’s work finds its solace in the vividness and vibrancy of her style. It is easy to glide into these diary entries filled with comfort and an empathy fit for a therapist with a sensible dose of wit. Her desire to offer this safe space to help people replenish their reservoirs of energy is brilliant.
She draws you into her world of make-believe with the characterisation of the most abstruse characters, and converges this narrative into a construct people can choose to create in their own imagination. This text is ingenious, a quality at the very foundations of good art.
Indeed a good read, a must-read.
Prof. Andrew Azzopardi is Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing