Synopses & Reviews
Sex is forbidden at the Dasgupta Institute, the Buddhist retreat where Beth Marriot has taken refuge, and thats a big advantage. Beth has been working as a server, assisting in the kitchen and helping out—discreetly, so the meditators arent disturbed. The meditators are making big sacrifices to come here and change their lives. So the servers must observe the rules, and silence and separation of the sexes are chief among them.
But Beth is fighting demons. She came here at a crossroads in her life, caught between an older lover who wouldnt choose her and a young one who wants to marry her, and she may have caused another mans death when she risked her own life swimming out to sea in a gale. A singer in a band, vital and impulsive, fleshy and sexy, she has been a rebel and a provocateur. And now, conflicted and wandering, she stumbles on a diary in the mens dorm and cannot keep away from it, or the man who wrote it. At the same time, desiring—all too hard—to achieve the inner peace that Buddhist practice promises, she yearns for the example set by the slim, silent, white-clad teacher Mi Nu, and maybe yearns for something more.
Comic and poignant at the same time, swiftly paced and completely engaging, Sex Is Forbidden is an entertaining novel about two profoundly different attitudes to life, and Beth—our narrator—is a character to be savored.
Review
"“A wry and subtle story about what happens when the Western self tries to lose itself.”" Prospect
Review
"“Thought-provoking . . . Teases you to the last page, and possibly beyond.”" Spectator
Review
"“Excellent. At once comic and gently moving.”" Financial Times
Review
"Assured. Accomplished. Memorable. . . . Parks gives us a glimpse of the titanic struggle of meditation, of the minds fluctuations under restraint, observing itself."
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Its a crackerclever, funny, and insightful, with complicated, conflicted, and totally convincing Beth at its heart.”Daily Mail
Parks writes with detachment, wit, and intelligence, and the troubled voice in Beth is entirely convincing.”The Times
A wry and subtle story about what happens when the Western self tries to lose itself.”Prospect
An eminently readable and thought-provoking novel that teases you to the last page, and possibly beyond.”Spectator
Tim Parks is very good at rubbing beliefs up against each other, which leads to subtle, unsettling questions. . . . Full of observations that are quirky, witty, and deep.”Sunday Herald
Synopsis
A fast-paced novel set in a Buddhist retreat, acclaimed on its UK publication as “a cracker—clever, funny, and insightful, with complicated, conflicted, and totally convincing Beth at its heart” (Daily Mail).
About the Author
"Sex is Forbidden," the title of and first words in Tim Park's latest novel, is one of the many tenets at the Buddhist meditation center where Beth Marriot has taken refuge. She is young, provocative, rebellious, evading tragedy and making decisions - about life, two men, one woman, college and her career as a singer. Though the story takes place over a 10-day retreat, Beth arrived at the center 10 months earlier and never left. She is now a server, a resident who works in the kitchen, catering to those either less accustomed to meditation and self deprivation or back for a refresher course.
Beth is practiced in abstemiousness and insolence, which creates and alluring conflict, which wars (mostly) internally, manifesting in profound maxims; stubborn, far less profound, human truths; and her sneaking in and out of the men's dormitory. She keeps going back to read a diary she found in one of the rooms, despite no reading allowed , and to find the man who wrote it. The relationship is strangely intimate before they even meet. And as the book progresses, Beth's transgressions become increasingly strange.
There is a cadence to the chaos, which is quietly peripatetic on a gated property, and is at its loudest when Beth is in the lotus position. "I think what was interesting to me is that the action is, theoretically, extremely static, of people who are closed in this small space basically doing nothing," say Parks. "But actually, the mental activity is extremely rapid and ferocious, as mental activity tends to be. So there was a strong contrast there, which I enjoyed. I've done this is different ways in different books."
A college course in Parks' writing would require at least two semesters, since he's writeen more than 20 books. His June 2013 book is a memoir, Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo. The travelogue is a detailed portrait of life in Italy, the British author's longtime adopted home. It takes place over an extended amount of time, covers expansive landscapes and captures the din of daily life.
-by Tobin Levy, Kirkus Reviews