Europa

Open Book on BBC Radio 4 often adds to the ever-expanding list of books-I-haven't-read. On this week's edition, Mariella Frostrup was talking to Tim Parks about his new novel Cleaver, which sounds interesting (so that's another one on the to-be-read list) but she also mentioned one of his previous books: one which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997 and which I haven't read because I found it unreadable...

Europa

by Tim Parks

I started reading it, but didn't get very far because a few pages in there is one of the longest and most convoluted sentences I have ever read. I say read, I recognised all the words as they passed in front of my eyes but it was like being given a long, winding set of directions: subclause after subclause, it twisted and turned, deviated and digressed - in the end I completely lost track of what had been going on when the sentence started. But then maybe my memory is playing tricks on me; maybe I gave up too easily. Maybe I will give Europa another try one day...or maybe not. To be honest I would much rather re-read Once In Europa by one of my favourite writers: John Berger. Perhaps I will give Tim Parks another chance and read his new book - although, come to think of it, I said that about his last one (Judge Savage) and I never got round to reading that either.