[In the following essay, Centuori analyzes Jovine 's first novel, Un uomo provvisorio, concluding that the book served as a vehicle of self-discovery and moral development for Jovine,]

Giulio Sabò is the central character of Jovine's first novel, Un uomo provvisorio. He is described as a handsome young man of elegant bearing, well mannered, sensitive and intelligent. "La sua presenza," comments the author, always elicited "quell'istintivo ossequio che suscitano le nature superiori." Sabò's existence unfolds with monotonous ease not unlike "un fiume grigiastro che scorreva nel suo alveo senza piene e senza magre ed anche senza rumore." However, beneath this unruffled surface lies a personality in disarray.

Giulio is an introspective character in constant dialogue with himself: "Faceva fluire i suoi pensieri senza freno, dialogava con se stesso secondo una sua antica abitudine che era divenuta il fondo della sua natura." In his social interaction, he is unable to establish with others "un rapporto veramente intrinseco." Communication, Sabò maintains, is impossible since "le parole non sono che un mezzo estrinseco per avere l'illusione d'intendersi." He confesses to a state of intellectual impotence and psychological aridity; "io per me non penso veramente nulla," he states, "sono vuoto," and procedes to characterize the dynamics of his existence as the farcical role playing of a clownish self; "sono nato per fare il pagliaccio," he exclaims, "recito perfettamente." From his engulfment in psychological emptiness and agonizing solitude, Sabò experiences life in terms of moods of futility and meaninglessness.

Assessing his predicament, Sabò realizes that at the basis of his estrangement lies a slef structure that is disembodied or devoid of what he terms the "senso corposo delle cose." Giulio views his condition as the consequence of a selfhood that is vitalized exclusively by his subjectivity, lacking an "armonia di fusione" with the outside world.

The circumstances related to the genesis of his estrangement are highlighted by Sabò in conjunction with the sale of the family farm, Macchia Cappella. Giulio goes to Macchia to oversee the sale of the farm and the moving of its tenants, Marco Lomma and his family. During the course of the proceedings, the refulgence in the sunlight of a hayfork triggers in Sabò's consciousness the memory of a childhood experience. It happened at Macchia, Giulio recalls, in the month of July, during the threshing season. He remembers Marco Lomma complaining about the lack of wind:

Un lontano giorno di luglio, a Macchia Cappella, Marco sull'aia, nell'afa meridiana, attendeva dall'aria immobile un fiato di vento per liberare i chicchi dalla paglia, "Non spira, don Giulio," gli aveva detto [Marco], "da tre giorni la bora s'è acquietata."

Marco's apprehension had a traumatic effect on the child, undermining his sense of ontological security. Before this experience, Sabò felt himself as part of a harmonious and stable Universe, existing in a state of wholeness or oneness with Nature. The incident at Macchia Cappella led the young Sabò to fear that the presumed harmony and stability of the Universe "potesse infrangersi." Giulio had discovered the precariousness of Nature, and consequently, his personal vulnerability. "Mi sono accorto," he states, "di avere un corpo che poteva essere devastato e ne ho avuto ripugnanza." This startling discovery precipitated, in Giulio's terms, a "scissione tra lui e le cose." Overwhelmed by insecurity, Giulio coped by recoiling from life. His defense consisted of retrenching from the outer world and turning to his inwardness as the predominant setting and source of his being. "Ora non aveva pi paura," he states, "il cervello se l'era fatto lui, e ubbidiva, andava a suo talento: perfetto." With his sense of ontological security refurbished, Giulio procedes to exist in a condition of self-imposed exile from life. With time, he begins to question the viability of this existential setting as a source of authentic being and starts yearning for a meaningful change.

The illness of Marco Lomma's child provides the impetus for this change. The need for his medical intervention on behalf of a fellow human being forces Giulio to emerge from his cacoon while the saving of the child's life enables him to realize that he is endowed with a limited yet reassuring degree of control over the insidiousness of Nature. Indeed, Sabò's success in affecting the "interruzione del processo mortale," leaves him with a comforting sense of "orgoglio per la deviazione del fato." By saving Carletto, Giulio is able to neutralize his insecurity and thereby transcend his solipsism.

Culturally, Giulio Sabò shows psychological affinities with a number of characters from Des Esseintes of Huysman's A Rebours to Rubè of Bogese's homonymous novel. Not unlike them, he is a decadent who creates "fittiziamente il proprio ambiente e il proprio habitat," with a personality "senza tessuto, per eccesso di psicologismo," existing in a world that is the mirror image of "la sua mente: gremita di erudizione e di stanchezza, di preziosismi ostentati." Yet, Sabò is never truly indifferent to nor comfortable with his predicament. "Indifferente non era," observes the author, "perché a volte sentiva dentro . . . un dolore sordo, un cocente fastidio del suo vuoto intimo." He implores for relief from an existence recognized as the consequence of a "gioco della fantasia [ or ] vita di riflesso." Giulio rejects suicide as a solution, and more importantly, realizes that if man is disposed to give of himself to the fullest, or "profondarsi nelle cose, lasciarsi assorbire dalle radici," existence can be meaningful. This realization establishes Sabò's role as the herald of a redemptive message. As aptly observed by Ragni, Jovine casts Sabò not only as the dramatic "simbolo d'un costume da condannare, ma nel contempo gli affida la parte dell'eroe positivo in quanto latore di un messaggio di rigenerazione."

Additional modes of retrenchment are projected in the novel. Dalia Irti, disconcerted at the outset of her puberty by the sexual advances of a man many years her senior, refuses to view life as anything other than an interplay of light and shadow on a backdrop of stars. "Lo sai," she confesses to Sabò, "che vedo solo le luci e poi ombre e nient'altro; è come se anche in terra ci fossero le stelle." For Dalia's mother, retrenchment takes the form of a stultifying preoccupation with social propriety. The poet DeGiarmeli, physically frail and ugly, views himself as the victim of an unsympathetic fate, condemned to an existence of immobility. "Ho pensato talvolta," he confesses to Sabò, "a quello che avrei fatto se avessi avuto due spalle come quelle di Camera o un riso come quello di Rodolfo Valentino, avrei fatto l'esploratore e non avrei avuto niente da dire ma tutto da fare." DeGiarmeli resigns himself to a life of words, venting his acrimony through cynical verses.

Marta, psychologically shallow, is exclusively propelled by social conventions. "Le concezioni convenzionali," Sabò remarks, "erano lo strato profondo della sua anima." Retrenchment is also highlighted by don Emilio's adherence to "reason" as the sole compass to life. Sabò scorns this rationalistic narrow-mindedness in his uncle and the "presuntuosa sicurezza" which derives from it.

Iolanda is the only character who is existentially whole. Indeed, unlike the others, her experience and behavior are governed by a disposition of openness to life. Iolanda believes in teleology as a governing principle of being. In her view, Nature is governed by laws; each being "obbedisce la sua legge." From Iolanda's perspective, it would behoove one to live in a state of unconditional surrender to life's purposeful dynamics. Rejecting egocentricity, Iolanda believes in the exercise of love as the primary purpose of human existence. "L'amore," she states, "è lo scopo della vita." Iolanda helps Sabò free himself from the stifling web of his inwardness. She rebukes him for his immobility, encourages him to intervene on behalf of Marco Lomma's child and stirs in him feelings of renewal. "Vedeva nell'incerta luce gli occhi di Iolanda rilucere teneri e carezzevoli e gli entrava nelle vene un trepido languore che non conosceva." Most importantly, her altruism and contagious faith in the power of love guide Giulio to discover his path to a meaningful existence. Echoing Iolanda, Sabò concludes: "forse la nostra vita ha un senso se ci stringiamo in un abbraccio stretto."

Jovine's first novel, not unlike Papini's Un uomo finito, is the dramatic document of a search toward clear ideas, toward truth. Fourteen years after its publication, the author identified the immediate cause of the novel as a need to sfogarsi, "sentivo che dovevo . . . sfogarmi," he confessed, "dovevo esprimere qualcosa di molto soggettivo, di intimo, prima di poter obbiettivare." Thus, Un uomo provvisorio emerges as the cathartic distillate of a psychological thrashing triggered by the author's need to clarify to himself what he truly believes, what he truly esteems and what he truly detests. Indeed, through the vicissitudes of his fictional alter ego, the author realizes that the experience of meaningfulness in life is integrally related to existential openness or involvement. As discovered by Giulio Sabò, withdrawal from life generates psychological aridity and solitude. Through his protagonist, the author also shows that neither the intellect nor the imagination per se can be positive surrogates to a life of integral selfhood with the outer world.

These realizations serve to underscore the role of Jovine's first novel as a polemical vehicle in dramatic form through which the author, as Giardini has aptly observed, "continua e a suo modo conclude la polemica contro gli assertori di una letteratura intellettualistica, sofistizzante e ermetica." Furthermore, from the perspective of the author's moral and artistic development, Un uomo provvisorio triggers the gestation of an ethical outlook and the adoption of an expressive mode whose fruitful results are respectively evidenced by the humanitarian bravery of Luca Marano and the dramatic prose of Le terre del Sacramento.