Catchy title, eh? Tim Parks again delivers his dry humor and wry observations on the human condition. This was not always an easy read for me, likely due to my own Buddhist-vipassana-fatigue, combined with the structure of the book. It's likely that you do not suffer from my affliction, so this well written novel might be quite enjoyable for you. The story is told by a wild rocker, Beth, whose life is in crisis. She goes to a meditation retreat in Britain and stays as a server in the kitchen for 9 months. It happens to be a Buddhist center teaching vipassana meditation. So, much of the book is the stream of consciousness observing and thinking in Beth's head: about her boyfriend in the band, her older married boyfriend, her family, her life of excess, meditation, the teachers & servers at the retreat, and the tragic incident that led her there. Beth is a very entertaining character, who by the way, breaks most of the rules at the Dasgupta Institute. She wanders into the men's dorm, forbidden, and reads the diary of troubled man, reading & writing forbidden. On her next trip into the dorm she writes in the man's diary, "You love your pain too much." ! I loved thinking about his reaction to finding these words in his diary. While their lives don't intersect, their stories do begin to intertwine via Beth's reflections. A nice conceit. If you meditate, Buddhist or not, you might enjoy Beth's questions and observations as she pushes herself deeper into her practice.
Tim Parks' journey as an author is an interesting one. He has written 16 novels, and also became well known for his memoirs as an ex-pat Brit living in "domani domani" Italia. He has lived near Verona since 1981. The first of his books that I read was Italian Neighbours, 1992, quite humorous. In 2010, he published another memoir, Teach us to Sit Still, A Skeptics Search for Health and Healing. Here Park describes his struggle with long-term chronic pain and his frustrating encounter with the medical machine. In the second half of the book he begins to consider meditation to help himself heal. I'm guessing that his latest book grew out of that experience.
Don't just do something, sit there....and read this book.
