Understanding Tim Parks

Abstract

Described by late poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky as the best British author writing today, Tim Parks is as prolific a journalist, critic and translator as he is a novelist. In this book, Gillian Fenwick explores Parks' body of work and maintains that Parks is epitome of modern man of letters. The novels that Parks set in his English homeland - such as Loving Roger, Home Thoughts, and Family Planning - are complex texts treading between tragedy and comedy. Fenwick asserts that Parks' heroes and heroines are real people who make readers empathize with them and their indecision. Parks' writing crosses genres as well as international boundaries. Fenwick argues that Parks' sojourn brought a richness to his work. Wanting no part of saccharine treatments of la dolce vita, Parks has in Italian Neighbours and An Education described ordinary, at times frustrating, life in Italy with a touch of cynicism. Parks establishes himself as an Englishman in Verona - he sees his home country with an increased objectivity but is not quite fully assimilated into his new country. At same time, his time in Italy has allowed him a much broader, European perspective: his novels Shear and Europa, which are set on Continent and feature characters of several European nationalities, capture his enlarged European scope. From Parks's novels and nonfiction books to his translations and journalism, Fenwick reckons with Parks's full literary range and sheds light on work of a versatile English writer whose international recognition is steadily growing.