Long resident in Italy, Tim Parks decided to travel the length of the country by rail to discover what his adopted home and its people were really like. The result is an epic journey on which he meets conductors and ticket collectors, priests and prostitutes, lovers and scholars, gypsies and immigrants, in a series of vivid, insightful and often humorous encounters that capture the essence of the country in all its beauty, absurdity, frustration and joy. Slightly off-mint with American-cut pages.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
This is the best book I've ever read about Italy. Never have I encountered a more insightful and hilarious insider/outsider portrait of the country at the center of Western civilization. Tim Parks should be given a villa in Rome and the title of English ambassador. --Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All
There is no way that Italian Ways should work--but somehow it does work. How? Partly because the book is, as Tim Parks says, a search for the Italian character, which he evokes in dozens of gorgeously written scenes; but beyond that Parks is exploring the dynamic between tradition and innovation...Underneath everything, Parks is trying to come to a point of loving the world in all its confusion and frustration, and by book's end he does, he does. Bravo. --David Shields, author of How Literature Saved My Life
Enchanting travels with the good-natured Parks.
Fascinating [and] droll.... Parks [is] perhaps the most faithful foreign inamorato Italy has ever had. --Andrea Lee
Starred review. Delightful [and] hilarious.... Combining wonderfully evocative prose with a wry analysis, Parks provides local color while continually seeking hidden social meaning.... The result is a fascinating portrait of a society that seems rooted in place no matter how fast it goes.
This reverie is so inviting you might find yourself tempted to give the experience a whirl and ride the Italian trains yourself, book in hand. --Liesl Schillinger
[Parks is] a perfect guide--an outsider, but one with a deep familiarity and respect (plus a dash of exasperated skepticism)--to the country's celebrated eccentricities. Parks has a charming voice and a novelist's eye. --Chloe Schama
This is not a "railway book" in any conventional sense. It is sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued about the absurdities of 'Italian ways.' --John Lloyd
Incisive [and] hilarious. --Alexander Aciman
A movable feast to say the least. --Richard Eder
Book Description:
A journey around Italy by train, full of humorous and insightful observations on what the railways and their travellers reveal about the country
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 0393239322
- ISBN 13 9780393239324
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages288
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Rating