Hell and Back: Reflections On Writers and Writing From Dante to Rushdie
by Tim Parks
Category: Literary Criticism

The author of the New York Times Notable Book Italian Neighbors shares his insights on classic and modern literature. In this brilliant collection of essays, Tim Parks, a celebrated novelist and master of the essay form, offers a wide range of wonderfully challenging and always provocative reflections on literature and the art of writing. Parks turns his attention to classic authors such as Dante, Leopardi, Borges, Beckett, and Christina Stead; contemporary writers including Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie; and the late W. G. Sebald and José Saramago, along with a dozen others. The lead essay on Dante sets the tone for the entire collection: erudite, contemplative, witty, and meticulous, it constantly offers new insights into The Inferno, that most celebrated of all poems. In Hell and Back, Tim Parks reminds us just how exciting the essay form can be. “Parks is among the rare authors who reflect on other writers to savor their strangeness and appreciate their world . . . A travel guide to the joys rather than the limits of world fiction.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Food for thought and argument, invitations to widen the scope of one’s own reading. A fine addition to Parks’s rapidly growing oeuvre.” —Kirkus Reviews