An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona (An Evergreen book) [Paperback]

Tim Parks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2006 | Series: An Evergreen book

Tim Parks’s best seller, Italian Neighbors, offered a sparkling, witty, and acutely observed account of an expatriate’s life in a small village outside of Verona. Now in An Italian Education, Parks continues his chronicle of adapting to Italian society and culture, while raising his Italian-born children. With the exquisite eye for detail, character, and intrigue that has brought him acclaim as a novelist, Parks creates an enchanting portrait of Italian parenthood and family life at home, in the classroom, and at church. Shifting from hilarity to despair in the time it takes to sing a lullaby, Parks learns that to be a true Italian, one must live by the motto “All days are one.”

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; First Trade Paper Edition edition (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802142850
• ISBN-13: 978-0802142856
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raising kids in Italy from a father's point of view, June 25, 2008

By 

krebsman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona (An Evergreen book) (Paperback)

This book was required reading for an Italian Culture course I'm taking. What wisdom my professor has shown in assigning this book! In addition to gaining valuable insight into contemporary Italian culture, I was also very moved by this story of an Englishman raising his half-Italian children in Italy. He observes how Italian his children are and how early they recognize that he is not one of them. He explores such features of Italian culture as Mother Worship (Mammismo) and the curious fact that this most Catholic country of Europe also has Western Europe's lowest birth rate. All Italians talk about the "sacrifice" of having children. To have more than one child is madness from their point of view because Italian children must have the best everything for the entire lives of their parents. The parents "sacrifice" so that their children can have the best schools, the best toys, the best clothing. The parents pretty much support them their entire lives, even buying their houses for them when they finally leave home and marry. He sees the blatant sexism of the Italian culture wherein gender roles are inculcated into the children from the cradle. The Italians see something wrong with his giving his son piano lessons and letting his daughter participate in "boys'" activities. (There is also a certain schadenfreude at a someone's having no male offspring, especially if that someone is your landlord.) But he endures it all good-humoredly and takes great delight in watching his children grow up "Italian." He takes them on walks and bike rides where they discover shrines to forgotten saints in the middle of the wilderness. He takes them to the beach where the kids get an unexpected introduction to the facts of life when they come upon the lifeguard and his girlfriend in flagrante delicto behind some rocks. The book is very funny as well as insightful. I laughed many times throughout the book and was unexpectedly moved in the oddest places, such as when their children find out that it's really their parents who bring their Christmas presents and not "Santa Lucia," the local version of Santa Claus.

But the real star of the book is gloriously beautiful and ageless Italy, so gorgeous you just want to gasp. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is a parent and/or loves Italy. Four and a half stars rounded up to five.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Italian Education, January 20, 2008

By 

Anita Mitchell "Nita" (Sugar Grove, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona (An Evergreen book) (Paperback)

This is the second time I've purchased this book. I enjoyed it so much (along with the sequel, Italian Neighbors) that I loaned it to my friends and it was never returned. An entertaining account of the experience of marrying into an Italian family, with all its internecine conflicts and quirks, and moving to Italy with all its governmental and religious idiosyncrasies. Well written and funny. It doesn't take an Italian to recognize the eternal struggle to find a place in a strange society....and the Italians can be very strange.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive and funny, March 29, 2011

By 

Carno Polo "adventure traveler" (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona (An Evergreen book) (Paperback)

Tim Parks has written a highly readable and perceptive account of his life in Italy. Unlike many English authors who write about the country he does not display any sense of smugness and has no complex of superiority! In fact he has so much integrated into Italian society that one might as well say he is Italian by now! He grasps the nouances of life in Italy from the point of view of a normal person living there, not a traveler, not a tourist, not a scholar. He can even make fun of Italians without being offensive. He also appreciates much that most foreigners miss. While the book was written in the nineties pretty much everything he says is still very much true ten years on. An open window into contemporary Italy. Highly recommended.