All Italy is here, its history, its character, its flaws * Sunday Times *
A treat equivalent to a ride on the Orient Express * Wall Street Journal *
Like the best train journeys, you don't want it to end * New Statesman *
A very funny hosanna to Italian railroad locomotion in all its rackety glory * Evening Standard, Books of the Year *
Parks has the keenest of eyes for the telling of amusing detail ... He remains the best interpreter of Italian ways in Italy * Sunday Herald *
Tim Parks has written a book about Italian railways that is engrossing, entertaining, and wonderfully revealing about the country and its people. It makes perfect armchair travelling - a delight from beginning to end -- David Lodge
All Italy is here, its history, its character, its flaws, and some of the things that Parks loves about the place * Sunday Times *
The book is, as Tim Parks says, a search for the Italian character, which he evokes in dozens of gorgeously written scenes; but beyond that Parks is exploring the dynamic between tradition and innovation... Underneath everything, Parks is trying to come to a point of loving the world in all its confusion and frustration, and by the book's end he does, he does. Bravo -- David Shields
This latest peg on which to hang another ruminative book about the character of Italy provides Parks with a first-class ticket to ride as a lively, erudite raconteur in salty daily negotiation with what he calls a 'dystopian paradise' -- Iain Finlayson * The Times *
With Paul Theroux apparently winding down, there might be an opening for Parks as a new laureate of international railways -- Andrew Martin * Observer *
Parks is also a railway enthusiast and this delightful book is the story of his love-hate relationship with Italian trains * Literary Review *
This is not a railway book in any conventional sense. It is sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued about the absurdities of 'Italian ways' -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *
Over thirty years living among the Italians, [Parks] has developed an acute eye for their idiosyncrasies and, over the course of three previous books on Italy, he has created a style sharp and subtle enough to evoke them... As an inglese italianizatto insider-outsider he brings an ideal dual perspective... It is this double vision (along with his superb style) that elevates Parks's books way above other recent Anglo-Saxon portraits of Italy... [it] adds in turn to the long tradition of excellent English writing on Italy established by Hazlitt, Lawrence and Norman Lewis -- Thomas Wright * Daily Telegraph *
Compelling... Parks conveys a detailed, dense, oppressive sense of the inadequacies and idiosyncrasies of the national rail system...but Parks's railway system in the end links families, reuniting Italian mamas with prodigal sons, and provides a wonderful space for the earwigging of intimate arguments conducted, as ever, on the telefonino -- Emma Townshend * Independent on Sunday *
Tim Parks' detailed descriptions will leave you rocking to the thrum of the tracks, and come dotted with his often bizarre but always comical experiences en route -- Daisy Cropper * Wanderlust *
A hybrid of travel and cultural history...and very amusing it is too... Parks has done Lecce and all Italy proud in this eccentric hosanna to railroad locomotion -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard *
Italian Ways gracefully tells you an enormous amount about Italy and its trains. Parks is also very funny, a master of the dry aside -- Nick Rider * Sunday Express *
Closely observed and often amusing -- Thomas Jones * Guardian *