This was an odd little book. The (British) author loves living in Montecchio, Italy (outside Verona, below the Alps) where he and his wife have been for over 10 years. He writes endearingly about his neighbors who are mostly eccentric and difficult but colorful, and often about the wonderful scenery and food. But so much of the book is about the dirty little secrets that most of us would HATE about living there! Chained, barking hunting dogs in every backyard? The "stench" of factory pig farms? More...

JC gave me this book a few years ago and it is the only thing I have read about Italian life that comes close to my experiences during my semester abroad in Florence. Ok, so I was 21 and in college, not an English man married to an Italian lady, setting up housekeeping in Italy. BUT still. I found his observations of Italian life from someone trying to just live there--not vacation, not find themselves, not looking to have an "experience"--funny, insightful and from a mindset similar to mine. Yo More...

This book wasn't as flowery and romantic as Frances Mayes' accounts of her life in Italy, but it was still enjoyable and highlighted a who other side of the culture. The book is really about the neighbors of an English couple who move to Montecchio. One becomes attached to the real-life characters in the small world they live in. I love reading boks on Italy because the culture seems so old-world simplistic, and at the same time very furstratingly complicated in ways that make absolutely no sens More...

Some interesting tidbits, but altogether I felt that it lacked a real plot line. It presents a very limited Italy, one from his own concrete apartment building, as the title suggests, it is almost uniquely about the quirks of his neighbors. There are a few humorous passages. I do not disapprove of his more negative approach towards the country, in comparison to say Frances Mayes' over zealous reaction to the country's sensory aspects (food, color, antiquity, etc.). Negative can be good. All in a More...

I read this many years ago and thought it was an enjoyable read. The author description of living in Italy is quite interesting. The Italian way of life, culture, tradition even superstitious thinking. The hardships some people had to endure. The author uses Italian phrases frequently throughout the memoir. As, I am not conversant in Italian, it is somewhat difficult to understand. But, of course this made the book even more interesting. Worth reading if you plan to visit or thinking of living i More...

Tim Parks has an engaging, sometimes humorous writing style, but I can hold no respect for this book. Aside from the pointless and meandering egotism the reader is forced to endure, the reader must also read about Parks and his wife actually attempting to poison a dog, because it is barking at night. Because it is supposed to be funny. They go so far as to buy rat poison and make a few tests about what the dog will eat. Thankfully, they decide not to go through with it.[return][return]What Tim P More...

There are a great deal of people giving this book praise. I can't be one of them. It was a good deal for the money that I paid, since I found it remaindered at Crown Books (Remember Crown?) for 2.99, instead of 19.95, which was indication then that too many of these books had been printed even then.

The problem that the telling is two fold. One of theme and one of technique. Reading Tim Parks was tiring. Short chapters that string together if you lead an existential life, but within these 5 and 1 More...

This was an interesting memoir of living in Italy - usually they're all romantic about the sunset and the flowers and the wine and restoring some villa - but this is the down and dirty nitty gritty of living in Italy as a foreigner, trying to earn enough income to survive by tutoring English and translating, and attempting to navigate the hardened traditions and prejudices of small-town locals, as well as the insane bureaucracy of Italy. Tim Parks is not at all bitter or frustrated, mind you. He More...

Aankomst en eerste jaar van verblijf van de auteur en zijn vrouw in Montecchio, een klein voorstadje van Verona. Huren een appartement in de Via Colombare. Wat volgt is een kennismaking met buren en dorpbewoners, maar vooral met de typisch Italiaanse eigenaardigheden, hebbelijkheden en onhebbelijkheden. Geschreven met bijzondere verwondering, verbazing, soms ergernis, maar vooral met toenemende erkenning en warmte. Een aanrader voor een dieptezicht in de Italiaanse psyche.

It's kind of a toughie to get into... I developed a 'narration voice' with a British accent, spoken with dry wit. That's helping.

This is a compilation of essays about an ex-pat's life in the small town of Montecchio. I would have appreciated a bit more descriptive language about the surroundings, the weather, the food, but his anecdotes about his neighbors are the theme, after all. Most chapters leave me smiling about the peculiarities people have, no matter what country they live in.

It was just More...

I picked this book up at B&N, and fell in love with the people and the country as described by Tim Parks. Being of Italian heritage myself, and from the very region and town where the book focuses on, I see a lot of my family in this book. I love the line: if an Englishman's home is his castle, then an Italian's home is his bunker. Fun, entertaining read!

A Brit's view of living in Italy with his Italian wife and children. It's an amusing, insightful look at the similarities (not that many) and differences in our cultures (since we Americans are much more like the Brits than the Italians). Highly recommended if you're travelling to Italy, but I read it much before I ever thought I'd get there.

Great book. Written by a British ex pat living in the Veneto (where I am currently living). I was laughing out loud at many points, especially the chapter titled "Mamma". I think this would mainly be a book for people that have lived in the Veneto, if I hadn't been living here for a few months I don't think I would have liked it so much.

Ugh! This is perhaps only the second book in my life that I haven't finished. I got half way through the author's drivel about all of the ways his Italian neighbors make his life interesting/annoying/miserable and he does this without ever getting to each persons story, and how they interrelate. Maybe that is yet to come, but meanwhile he seeks to enthrall the reader with wordy descriptions of the smells (bad), the corruption, the small minds and very minimally, the food and wines which you migh More...

I enjoyed the book while reading it, but even more after my visit to Verona, when I stayed in a flat similar to the one Tim lives in in the book, and found that his descriptions were so accurate!

This book had no real direction but that is Italy. I was able understand my immediate and extended neighbors a little better after this read. I found it interesting and helpful.

Parks has a excellent way with words. Unfortunately he uses too many. I could not finish the book due to too much minutia. I still gave it two stars for "effort"

I realised on starting this that I had read it before , but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of this wry look at life in an Italian village. The 'neighbours' of the title are a lively, colourful bunch of characters and the whole thing has a warm heart..makes me want to up sticks and move..

Love books of people assimilating into a new culture, especially in a small village. This book is a taste of life in an Italian neighborhood.

I don't share all the author's particular prejudices, and I think he's a little cynical, but I do think he pins down something essential about what Italy is like. And it's helpful that he's funny.

My husband and I both read this book before we moved to Italy, and we have been surprised by how well Parks captured certain aspects of Italian life. It was probably a good thing that we read it ahead of time, because it has saved us a certain amount of utter disorientation. Most other books and movies More...

Amongst my favourites, this book almost made me feel like i lived in italy & made me long to after id finished, remarkable.

This isn't quite a memoir, not a travel book. So, I'm not really sure how to classify it. It's an enjoyable read, but not necessarily quick or particularly engrossing.

great personal narrative that offers insight into the world of true Italians, and what it's like to be an outsider among them.

I liked to hear about his quirky neighbours that they had in Italy, and all the goings-on, but I did not like all the Italian words that he took for granted we would know what they meant. Why do writers do this, he is writing in English, so the words should be in English, he could put the Italian in brackets if he wanted to.

Have good laugh reading it, having Italian roots made me remember some of the events at my own house.

Eh.

It was a slow book and I didn't care much for the writing style. Parks writes in fragments so it's more like you are reading a stream-of-consciousness narrative. I also wish he'd translated more of the Italian phrases.

Please see my review on my blog:
http://herdingcatsfour.blogspot.com/2...
Thanks

Very astute observations about Italy and Italians. Found his writing style a little hard to follow though.

Nonfiction. I just remembered loving this, though it was long time ago!

leuk om een beeld te krijgen van de Italiaanse slag.
Parks schrijft fijn.