Book after Book

By Tim Parks Published by Vintage Books Earlier in the year I read and reviewed Tim Park’s Italian Neighbours , where the British author recounted with wit and humour the first steps of his new life in Italy. An Italian Education follows up on Park’s experiences in the land of la dolce vita and is as successful as its predecessor. The book opens with the writer and his wife in the process of buying a flat in the surroundings of Verona and having their first baby. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived in Italy or how long you’ve been paying taxes for: this is what makes you accepted! Buying a house and having a baby means that you’re not going to leave any time soon! As Parks demonstrates with his funny observations and sharp remarks, Italy is a country where kids rule. They are pampered and made to feel like they’re the only ones who count in the world – by parents, relatives and strangers alike! At the same time, having a family (the hilariously-described concept of tenere famigli...

By Tim Parks Published by Vintage Books As an Italian who has been living in the UK for several years I have developed an ambiguous relationship with my home country: I have little praise for Italy but will defend it with fervent national pride if foreigners say anything negative about it. Unless the negativity is aimed at the current leadership of the country… but that’s another story. So, when I decided to read Tim Parks’s Italian Neighbours – An Englishmen in Verona as part of the Italy in Books reading challenge 2011 , I thought that I’d have to sigh and tut frequently at all the clichés I was sure to find. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I grinned, I chuckled, I laughed out loud and not one single frown crossed my face. In Italian Neighbours we follow the writer and his wife during the difficult months of being the new people in town, which in this case is an Italian village nestled among the hills of the beautiful Veneto region. A witty and inquisitive observer, Parks’s descri...

By Tim Parks Published by Harvill Secker In Teach Us to Sit Still - A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing , British novelist, essayist and translator Tim Parks describes his difficult path to wellbeing – both physical and mental. Page by page, Parks details a long series of hospital tests and discussions with doctors and specialists both in Italy and in the UK, he takes us to India for a consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor and, after sleepless nights of Internet research, he shares his enthusiasm for finding a book that seems to promise an end to his pain. The authors of this book, two Californian doctors, suggest that the discomfort in the pelvic area might be caused by muscle tension. Having found nothing wrong with his bladder or prostate – but still in excruciating pain - Parks is willing to believe this new possibility and the more he thinks about it, the more he realises that he’s been thinking too much his whole life. He’s hardly ever felt thoroughly relaxed. He thus e...