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Tim Parks
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Europa Paperback – Import, January 1, 1998

by Tim Parks (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars 67 ratings
A brilliantly comic, dark and dyspeptic novel about an obsessive love gone sour. Jealousy and revenge, passion and dread intertwine in one man's soul as he's trapped in the awful claustrophobia of a three-day coach journey across Europe with a group of people he loathes - and the woman who broke his heart.
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  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Arcade Publishing
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.67 x 7.8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0099268094
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0099268093
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Arcade Publishing
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 1998
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ New edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099268094
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099268093
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.67 x 7.8 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #89,169 in Literary Fiction (Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.2 out of 5 stars 67 ratings

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Tim Parks

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3.2 out of 5 stars
67 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Guido
    4.0 out of 5 stars EuropA: a cynical myth
    Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    In this book we look through the eyes of pessimistic and neurotic Jerry (Jeremiah). It wil not be an easy read for everyone: it is written in quite a style of its own. Lines are repeated often, many will find the main character to be an arse and you have to be able to stand dwelling in his mind.

    If you open yourself up to the book however, it is quite the reward, especially those interested in different concepts of Europe and are willing to consider different layers. And for me: if you consider how the mind works, not always as rational as we would like it be, I find the first person narrative the most convincing character portrayal I have seen.

    In short: the story is about a group of foreign language professors in italy, who travel by means of a modern coach to
    Strassbourg to plee for equal treatment and pay by their University (loosely based on a true story). Many will find Her to be a
    symbol for Europe, but I feel this is an understatement as she only represents a kind of positive side of Europe, where the book is hardly positive at all which those of you familiar with the name Jeremiah can imagine, so keep an open mind. Also don't think the book will be boring or only about Europe: mainly you will follow an amusing quest for conquering beautifull young women on the surface, as the bus is full with students.
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  • "gosibro"
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book by a remarkable writer.
    Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2001
    I read this rather lenghty book in two consecutive days, immersed in Park's looping, breathtaking, inner monologue, stream of conscience writing. This novel is about an obsessive love afair, a troubled, alienated, at times self-loathing academic with his heart not in the academic game show at all, a tale about the "other" as another reviewer succintly put it, about the complexities of life and the self, and more. A tour de force for this remarkable but underrated writer, with a writing style unlike anything you 've read recently, managing to be literary without being tedius and artificial(see m. amis, pynchon, barth et al.for that), and a striking, powerful ending. Park's musings on life and philosophy, european history and themes are never out of place or turgid, and they make very good reading material, adding a texture to the words.
    Caught up in an unsatisfying marriage, a dead-end lifeless job, a failed yet once passionate and potentialy life-changing love affair, conflicting feelings and instability, Jerry the protagonist somehow agrees to take a trip to the European parliament to express his disagreement with the wage cuts on his job, which he does not particularly like, with a few fellow academics and a number of female students at his Italian university, and, of course, the french woman who is the cause (or is she just the pretext) for his recent worries. Riding on a bus through Europe and at the same time travelling intensely in his thoughts and memories, Jerry Marlow finds himself thinking more and living less in the present. While all too human interaction takes place, he stays a shadowy figure for the most part of the book for any outsiders to his consciousness. Memory mingles with outer reality, obsession takes hold of him, until they finally arrive to their destination (to his destination possibly) where the last act is played.
    The mental images from the various settings of the book come back to me very vividly as I write these lines. This is a really good book and I am not going to spoil it any more for you with my mediocre analysis. I hope I made clear that this is not your average type of novel.
    Do read it.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Duncan Palmatier
    1.0 out of 5 stars Stream of Conceit
    Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Hated it. Took me a year to get through. Read "Crime and Punishment" in between, just for fun, which was a breeze by comparison.

    Anyway, "Europa" is a musing on the intellectual superiority of the narrator, Jerry Marlow, a contract lecturer at the university in Milan, and the stupidness of everybody else. At first, his criticism is directed at his wife and just-turning-18-years-old daughter, whom he regards as stupid. Then, he mulls over his affair with a younger, also married, lecturer, and the wild sex they had while discussing Great Philosophy. Marlow regards himself as the daddy figure to this younger woman, guiding her reading and thinking, and providing her a chance to cogitate at his higher level. Then, he discovers, because he has been so clever in giving her a naughty turn of phrase from a historical quotation, that she has been unfaithful to him sexually, as well as intellectually, by passing on the quotation, which he discovers, to a stupider, also married, but less sexually proficient, colleague; so, he hits her; on different occasions; repeatedly. He feels bad about this, but blames his "incorrigible" romanticism. His conscience diverts from examination of hitting the woman he loves and turns to a rumination on the word "incorrigible" and the consolation that she told him he was better in bed. He learnt nothing, except that he feels sorry for himself, because the pattern of abuse is "irremediable", meaning he can no longer enjoy various sexual perversions while lecturing, which is just as well, because, in the end, when he must give a speech to a committee of the European Parliament, despite his hungover and drugged haze, he steals his mistress' idea, which he thinks is stupid, and gives a humdinger of a speech, and the committee members fail to appreciate how stupid the idea is, because they are stupid and he has argued so well, and yet, through this experience, he comes to appreciate that his mistress is stupid, too. Unbelievably, at the end, the mistress throws herself at him again. He is, it turns out, irresistible.

    Another reviewer mentioned one of the book's better moments, a dinner party on a hot night with Marlow, his wife and daughter, the alcoholic, womanizing Welsh lecturer with mutton chops, Vikram Griffiths, and Griffith's young son. Marlow is trying to call his mistress to arrange their next assignation, but cannot get through. Griffiths is chatting up Marlow's daughter. Marlow's wife and the boy play Legos together on the floor. The wife is annoyed by the awful Griffiths and is kind to the boy. Marlow has sex with her afterward. Was that her reward? The author believes that Marlow's sexuality, like his professed smarts, is a gift to womankind, Europa.

    I read this awful book, because I thought there was a good sex scene in it, somewhere. Boy, was I disappointed. In future, I will stick to supermarket romances or Dostoevsky.

    I finished this book, because I could not believe the author meant to take Marlow seriously. I kept expecting a twist that would undermine the hero's conceit. It never came. Instead, in the last chapter, the author allowed that the "perversities of the mind are best not discussed". Too late.

    Having written this, I read David Gates' New York Times review. He agrees with me. He must not be stupid.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Dave M.
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not very interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2017
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    I am a big fan of Park's nonfiction. His books about his experiences in Italy are outstanding. His fiction, while well-written, is just not very interesting. In this respect he reminds me of Tim McGuane, whose sporting stories are some of the best ever written but whose fiction shows a lack of imagination.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • American Corner Trieste -US
    5.0 out of 5 stars Europea: A Novel
    Reviewed in Italy on March 28, 2014
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    Tim Parks Style! We purchased if for the American Corner Trieste library along along with several other Tim Parks books.
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  • Eileen Shaw
    4.0 out of 5 stars "...never an equilibrio interiore..."
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Twice short-listed for prizes such as the Booker in 1997 and 2003, Parks has been overlooked too often to be fair to his literary talents. His book Judge Savage and his Italian murder mystery series Cara Massimina and Mimi's Ghost are my favourites of his work so far, but I have lots of other titles to try. This one has the background of the European Parliament and takes place over four days of a trip to Brussels to deliver a petition to put foreign language translaters on the same salary as Italian nationals doing the same job. We see everything from Jerry's consciousness. He is one of the delegates, and though he is an intelligent and attractive protagonist, he alternates between a brusquely non communicative and vaguely hostile attitude, and being one of the lads. The sexism is shockingly endemic; the girl students are "tottie," (a sneeringly abusive term for a group of girl students brought along to add their support to the project. Or alternatively, to provide the male teachers with entertainment). Jerry's friend, Vikram Griffiths and his dog Dafydd - a mongrel that Jerry dislikes on sight, the enigmatic and too-smooth Georg, and the creepily sexist, Colin are a few of the other tutors on the trip. What saves it from a bad Carry-On up The Alps sequence is the sad, witty, and sometimes excoriating freize of impressions, thoughts and memories that run through Jerry's mind.

    Even though this is brilliantly rendered and reads with perfect and timely pitch, it can feel overwhelming. Many of his books use this relentless internal consciousness and do succeed in pulling off what must be a bit of a writing nightmare (to turn oneself into someone else in successive books!) Parks does it brilliantly - in at least two other fictions I can think of off-hand - the above named Judge Savage, and in Shear (also one of my favourite books).

    Also aboard the Eurocoach is the woman with whom Jerry had a recent and torrid affair. (to some extent this relationship balances the sexism since she's largely been the one in charge here) But it's not over for her, and it's not over for him, however hard he tries to fight it. A tragedy lies in wait at the heart of this book. It is deeply involving, unexpectedly sad, discursive, sometimes sharply erotic, at other moments challenging and moving.
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  • Vishal
    4.0 out of 5 stars Better than GoST
    Reviewed in India on August 25, 2019
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    Shouldve won Booker
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  • JR
    1.0 out of 5 stars Odious
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2022
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    I can not decide which of the characters is more repulsive. What made you write this, Tim Parks?
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  • lailaahmed49
    5.0 out of 5 stars Finally.. an author whose books I can bulk ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Finally .. an author whose books I can bulk order and always deliver ..well written, entertaining and informative ..
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