Because of the Anglo-Italian connection and the fact that Tim Parks is about the same age as me, people tend to assume that I can identify with and admire his work as an author, translator and essayist.
However, I have never been particularly drawn to his fiction, and didn’t like his anecdotal accounts – An Italian Education and Italian Neighbours – based on his life as an ex-pat in Verona . These are supposed to be full of “anthropological wryness” but I found them to be smug and clichéd.
My low opinion is also swayed by accounts of a number of friends and colleagues who have met him. All describe him as an ego on legs who loves the sound of his own voice; good company only if your idea of fun is spending an evening listening to someone telling you ‘why I write such brilliant books’.
Big-hearted guy that I am, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt as I embarked on Teach Me To Sit Still which a friend bought me as a birthday gift.
I was relieved to find that it was not a novel and not ostensibly about an Englishman’s experiences in Italy. Its subtitle is ‘ A sceptic’s search for health and healing’. It is a book about illness, self-doubt and meditation – part autobiography, part self-help guide and ultimately what Parks says is his “transformation book”.
It documents how the onset of chronic pelvic pain had a major impact on how he sees his life and work. Continue reading
