Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is recommended as a good book to read for the look at Italians and Italy from the viewpoint of an expatriate married to an Italian woman. Good writer.

I recently reread this delightful book and enjoyed it all over again. It was one of the first memoirs about Italy I read, but it has held its appeal. It is unique in that it is from an involved father's perspective--less romantic than others and more realistic. While it's lovely to swoon over the glowing descriptions of Tuscany from the patio of the finally restored abode, drinking homemade wine, it's also great to get the nitty-gritty of day-to-day life in the city. Tim Parks's slightly acerbic view is funny and down to earth and gives a crystal clear eyed interpretation of Italian life from an Englishman's perspective that makes you feel right at home there. Well worth the read, and reread.

I agree with the other reviewers - Tim Parks is a good writer and provides interesting glimpses into daily life in Italy. But I found myself continually disappointed by his lack of sensitivity for the Christian (and especially Catholic) readership of his novel. The author is an atheist by conviction and frequently resorts to making snide comments about religion in Italy. There were many times as I read the book that I would find myself lost in the narrative, only to be snapped back into the present by one of these unnecessary remarks.

Here are just a few examples (page numbers correspond to the "First Grove Press Edition"):

- Regarding a statue of Jesus he happens upon with his daughter while out on a walk, he relates his and his daughter's reactions: ""How ugly he is!" Stefi says of the haggard Christ. But then if you'd been crucified..." (p.159)

- He describes his town's version of Santa Claus (Santa Lucia) as "hardly more far-fetched" than "God and hell" and "visions of the Madonna and the Secrets of Fatima" (p. 237)

- He refers to the country as "Priest-ridden Italy." (p.229)

- Regarding a note his daughter wrote saying that she loves her mother even when she misbehaves, he says that she has "...become accustomed to these contradictory notions, enshrined for other children in the confessional." (p.235)

- Concerning extramarital affairs during summer vacations, he writes that "Nobody takes the moral line. Miraculously, the Pope knows to keep quiet for once." (p. 275) Note here that the Pope he refers to is the late John Paul II, who gave a noted series of 129 short talks on sexual morality prior to the release of this book. These talks have been dubbed the "Theology of the Body", and many books on the subject can be found here at amazon.com.

- Describing a painting of the Madonna, he writes "From the wall above me... a heart-shaped canvas of the Virgin (but would she ever have got her [virginity] certificate?) looks on with motherly patience." (p. 303)

These types of comments aside, the book does have merit, but ultimately I cannot recommend it. So I am giving it two stars.