Ebook Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks

In some cases, individuals could believe that reading will certainly be so awesome and also incredible. In addition, people who read are thought about as a very clever individuals. Is that right? Maybe! One that can be kept in mind is that reading habit does not just do by the clever people. A number of creative individuals also feel lazy to review, in addition to read Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks It's seemly that individuals that have analysis behavior have different individuality.

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks

Ebook Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks

What do you do to begin reviewing Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks Searching the publication that you enjoy to review initial or discover an appealing book Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks that will make you intend to read? Everybody has difference with their factor of reviewing a book Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks Actuary, reviewing practice has to be from earlier. Lots of people could be love to check out, however not a publication. It's not fault. A person will certainly be burnt out to open up the thick publication with little words to check out. In even more, this is the actual condition. So do occur possibly with this Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks

It is additionally just what you could receive from the web connection. You are very easy to obtain whatever there, specifically for looking the book. Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks as one of the referred publication to read when holidays is additionally offered in the site. We are the site that has lots of finished book types as well as styles. Several publications from numerous countries are offered. So, you will not be difficult to seek for greater than a book.

Reserve, an one of the tricks to get in the new globe constantly is cooperated a great way. Even you truly appreciate of this publication, you could not obtain anything from here. One means is just by taking the soft documents of Italian Ways: On And Off The Rails From Milan To Palermo, By Tim Parks to read and also read guide to complete. Comprehending just what the author utter could assist you to know as well as get the advantages of this publication. So, it doesn't need the magic means to obtain inspirations. It does not should take more times as well as much cash to obtain this book as your collection.

Why should believe much more? Reading a publication will not spend or lose your time, will you? You could really establish your time to handle when and also where you can enjoy reading this book. Even you still have the other obligations or publications to read, you can likewise make inter-spaced to try analysis this publication. It will truly enrich your mind and also idea. So, if there is a better book to read, why don't try it? Allow enhance your idea and experience of reviewing many books from the broads.

Review

“This mix of piercing social observation and undying affection for Italy is classic Parks.” - Rachel Donadio, New York Times“[A] treat equivalent to a ride on the Orient Express… Italian Ways is no Ferrari on rails but instead something much better: a slow train so thoughtfully appointed that one never thinks to look out the window or care about the destination.” - Ben Downing, Wall Street Journal“Fascinating [and] droll…. Parks [is] perhaps the most faithful foreign inamorato Italy has ever had.” - Andrea Lee, newyorker.com“Parks really shines. He gives us a country that is as frustrating as it is endlessly fascinating.” - Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor“[Parks is] a perfect guide―an outsider, but one with a deep familiarity and respect (plus a dash of exasperated skepticism)―to the country’s celebrated eccentricities. Parks has a charming voice and a novelist’s eye.” - Chloë Schama, Smithsonian“Incisive [and] hilarious.” - Alexander Aciman, The Daily Beast“Relaxed, humorous, meandering [and] charming.” - Brigitte Frase, Minneapolis Star Tribune“A movable feast to say the least.” - Richard Eder, Boston Globe“Presents a picture of Italy you won’t get from any tourist board… sympathetic and lively.” - Micahel Upchurch, Seattle Times“Tim Parks has reinvented the narrative of the train journey with an epic voyage into the essence of Italy itself. With a novelist’s keen eye he mines absurdity and deep meaning from small, overlooked moments and gestures.” - Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic

Read more

About the Author

Tim Parks was born in Manchester, England, in 1954, grew up in London, and has lived in Italy since 1981. His novels include Europa, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and he is the author of several nonfiction accounts of life in Italy, including Italian Neighbors and An Italian Education. During his years in Italy, Parks has translated works by Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, Alberto Moravia, and Machiavelli. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, for which he blogs.

Read more

Product details

Paperback: 261 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (May 5, 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0393348822

ISBN-13: 978-0393348828

Product Dimensions:

5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.0 out of 5 stars

129 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#374,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Tim Parks does a fun job of getting us all around Italy. It is a shame he is such a sourpuss. One would love for him to take delight in what is around him, but he mostly finds fault with the Italian Rail system. Well, not even exactly the Italian rail system---more egregiously, with Italians, which has a way of seeming a bit racist, or at least elitist. He makes little effort to understand the emotional life of the people around him. A dry sort, at times you wish he had co-written this book with someone with blood in their veins who was actually happy to be alive.I gave this book four stars instead of three, which is what it really deserves, because in spite of the bitter old man routine, Italian Ways is very well written and somehow, a page turner. What also aided my read was I had just returned from Positano (one of the most wonderful towns on earth...for pleasure) and Ariano Irpino (In Campania, where I met eight Italian cousins...for the first time). I had wanted to read this book before I visited Southern Italy but did Not Get to it until after I returned. It was a weird, but satisfying way to savor Italy again. Read this book if you like trains and Italy. If you like trains and Italy and an odd, cool narrator, you'll have the time of your life.

The title is brilliant as it conveys two aspects of the book written by Tim Parks. It tells us how the Italian railways run by Trenitalia operates and also how the Italian psyche can be seen from this angle. Hence the name chosen for the novel has duality associated with it. Tim Parks has lived in Italy for a great part of his life. He was not born an Italian but he is Italian now after adopted the country as his home. Given his writing style, he is the right person to educate us about the Italian ways.If you live in Europe, public transport plays an important part in your daily life. In the category of public transports, the trains are a major player - be it traveling inside the city or to adjoining cities or even to far flung places. Tim Parks details this important utility in life from the point of view of a frequent traveler. He has spent a considerable amount of his life in trains. But how does this all work? Is anyone making profit out of this enterprise? How are the fares structured if a virtual break-journey can take you to point A to point B in lesser price than taking a direct ticket? Why does ticket inspectors act authoritatively and then turn a blind eye to people traveling without a valid ticket? How is it that you end up with no seat even when you have a reservation? Why does train stations resemble a shopping mall after renovation? Why do you have to travel endlessly before you can get to platform serving inter-city service from a intra-city service?Tim Parks provide a lot of insights with respect to Italian railways. Like I mentioned earlier, if you live in Europe, these questions might have crossed your mind. The best part is the answers to these questions. Some of the answers might have been obvious ones which we have overlooked. What makes these answers more interesting is the commonality of this with other countries where trains play a major role. In the developing countries, this will soon catch up.I have a lot of Italian friends. That is one of the reasons to pick this book up. It ended up a thoroughly enjoyable read. If you do not have Italian friends, you can still pick it up if you love trains or train journeys.

How do others see us? What makes that question so interesting? Perhaps it's the fact that strangers are willing to take an objective look at the character flaws we tend to ignore on the theory that it's best to let well enough alone. When the stains build up to the point where it's time to take our national persona to the cleaner, along comes a book that does just that. Francesco Liberti's "An Italian in America (2001) did just that in a friendly, tongue in cheek way. Now Tim Parks, an Englishman who has lived the last 30 years of his life in Italy, has done much the same for that country. Call it a travel book, cultural anthropology, or memoir -- it's more than a little of each - "Italian Ways Off and On the Rails from Milan to Palermo" belongs on every first time traveler's to Italy reading list, particularly if the trip involves train travel. As one whose Italian travel came before "Italian Ways" was published, reading it, I often wished that I had had the benefit of it as we tried to find the right platform for the 4:10 to Verona, and similar puzzles in other stations.Parks, who has written other accounts of Italian ways, knows the country and its people as well as anyone from away could hope to. He brings all his experience to bear in this pleasantly readable, highly knowledgeable book. Structured as a before and after account, dealing both with the pre-modern train travel that endeared Parks to rail travel, and then the streamlined, far less personal, assigned seat version that replaced (most of) it beginning in the late 2000's, that found him wishing for the old days.The account is generously sprinkled with the ups and downs of his experiences on Trenitalia. He does not hesitate to tell stories on himself including "my last and greatest bust-up with a "capotreno" (conductor/ticket checker/ ultimate authority). As you might guess, it involved the fine print that pulled the rug out from under the validity of his internet-issued ticket. The outcome convinced him that such arguments weren't worth it. He explains: "this whole culture of ambiguous rules, then heated argument about them without any clear-cut result, seems to serve to draw you into a mind-set of vendetta and resentment that saps energy from every other area of life."Parks' epilogue sets forth his affectionate ode to Treinitalia and all the men and women who serve it and offers a bouquet to "any passenger with a book in his hand, any man or woman following the lines on a page, perhaps these very lines, as the wheels follow the rails across the landscape, hurrying forward through the world yet not quite part of it. What a beautiful respite a train journey is and a good book too, and best of all the book on the train, in life and out of it at the same time . . ."Epilogue. "Italian Ways" is very much in the tradition of "Village in the Vaucluse", the book by Harvard professor Laurence Wylie who took his wife and two small children to live in the small Provencal village of Roussillon (which he calls Peyrane) in 1950. The book about their experiences is haunting, sympathetic, and revelatory of a way of life that is all but gone, if not completely so. We owe Parks for making sure that there is a similarly fine and richly detailed account of an aspect of Italian life that now exists only at the edges.

I read this book in preparation for my next trip to Italy. Not an adventure story, not a travelogue. The writing is thoughtful, intelligent, even poetic. The book is part history, part anthropologie part sociology but mostly a love story to trains and the people who ride them. Grazie, Tim Parks, bravo.

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks PDF
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks EPub
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks Doc
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks iBooks
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks rtf
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks Mobipocket
Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks Kindle

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks PDF

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks PDF

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks PDF

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo, by Tim Parks PDF