I’m not a professional book reviewer although it would be fascinating (and interesting) to be one. I sometimes write a movie review or two but it has become more of an exception than a regular assignment. It would be a long – and boring – story to tell, so I’d better leave it out. So I won’t review Tim Atkinson’s book “Writing Therapy” but just tell you my reader’s opinion. When I “bumped” into Tim’s blogs BRINGING UP CHARLIE and Writing Therapy and I found out about this book, I was at first fascinated by the title and very interested to find out how writing could be a therapy for a troublesome teenager. After reading a couple of reviews though, I feared it would be a bit too complicated for my lazy mind, as I don’t have time to read and I read just to relax. I thought it was something between “Sophie’s World” and the BBC TV drama “Waterloo Road”, a sort teenager journey through the world’s wisdom and secondary school’s semi-dramatic events. Don’t get me wrong, I liked “Sophie’s World”, although I thought the continuous philosophy lessons got a bit boring after the first hundred pages, and I like Waterloo Road, too, although on a different level. But I’m digressing again!
Writing Therapy is none of this. To put it very simply it’s the story of Sophie/Frances, a young woman who, because of her family background and life “accidents”, ends up in an adolescent psychiatric clinic who are trying to heal through different therapies and Sophie finds that writing is an excellent way to help herself to exorcise her own demons. She actually believes to be the central character of the books she’s writing! But I don’t want to tell you more and spoil the plot.
I was a bit worried that Tim’s book would have been too cerebral for me to read, especially at one o’clock in the morning after spending the whole day concentrating and translating other people’s words. Fortunately it wasn’t so. It’s a clever read but it flows easily and it’s terribly compelling as it’s beautifully written. I recommend you to read it but I won’t give you my copy as a free giveaway this time! It’s signed by the author and IT’S MINE!
