An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona (An Evergreen book)

A “marvelous” Mediterranean memoir of an expatriate father raising his children in Italy—from the author of Italian Neighbors (The Washington Post). Tim Parks offers another lively firsthand account of Italian society and culture—this time focusing on all the little things that turn an ordinary newborn infant into a true Italian. When British-born Tim Parks heard a mother at the beach in Pescara shout to her son, “Alberto, don't sweat! No you can't go in the sea till eleven, it's still too cold, go and see your cousin in row three number fifty-two,” he was inspired to write about parenting in Italy—which he was doing himself at the time after adopting the country as his own. In this humorous memoir, Parks offers an enchanting portrait of Italian childhood that shifts from comedy to despair in the time it takes to sing a lullaby. The result is “a wry, thoughtful, and often hilarious book... a parable of how our children, no matter what, are other than ourselves” (The New Yorker). “Glimpses of Italy that are fond, critical, pithy and penetrating.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Motown Was Part Of Growing Up In The 1960's And 70's. An Amazing Number Of Well-known Stars Worked For Motown: Diana Ross And The Supremes, Martha Reeves And The Vandellas, Gladys Knight And The Pips, Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, Jr Walker And The All Stars, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Edwin Starr, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Lamont Dozier, Shorty Long, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Fifth Dimension, The Marvelettes, The Contours, The Isley Brothers, The Spinners, The Originals, The Jackson Five, The Commodores, Rare Earth, Rick James, And Many Others. Most Were Motown Stars. Many Started And Ended With Motown. Motown Is Important For Other Reasons. A Black Company, Motown Made Black Music Popular Among Americans Of All Ages. Introduction -- Prologue -- Gordys -- Gordy In The Ring -- Gordy In Transition -- Gordy Family Sets Up Shop -- Many Times -- Motown Sound -- Starmaking Machinery -- Motown Pushes Forward -- Motortown Revues -- Success -- Recruiting Gets Easier -- Motown Creates A Machine -- Motown Becomes A Conglamorate -- Gordy Arrives -- Gordy And Ross -- Motown Moves And Changes -- Motown Goes Hollywood -- Motown Plot -- Ups And Downs : Motown Branches Out -- Artists And Money -- Exodus -- Motown Matures -- Motown : The Seventies And Beyond -- Afterword -- Motown Top Twenty Hits : 1961-1971 -- Index. By Peter Benjaminson. Includes Index. Discography: P. 171-176. Parks's Italian Neighbors chronicled his arrival in Italy and his initiation into the byzantine complexities of Italian social and cultural life. Never a tourist, no longer a "transient," he focuses, this time, on his children, born and bred in Italy, and on the other children in the small village near Verona where he lives. Parks builds a fascinating portrait of Italian family life: its often bizarre foibles and its extraordinary solidity, the moral contradictions, the rituals and rites of passage. With the eye for detail, intrigue, quirky connections, and character that has brought him so much acclaim as a novelist, Parks brings out the splendidly, sometimes dangerously, theatrical nature of Italian relationships, finding the roots of that explosive Latin cocktail of sentiment and calculation in his children's adventures at school, at home, in church, on the playing fields, in the countryside, in the shops and museums. And the whole panoramic journey winds up with a deliciously seductive evocation of an Italian beach holiday that epitomizes everything that's best about life in Italy and everything that makes it so different from our own. "Tim Parks examines what it will be like for his bilingual children to learn to become Italian - how Italians teach their little Italians how to be Italian ... Parks discusses the facets of Italian society with a practiced novelist's eye for the nuances of character, emotion, and plot."