From man of words to man of action: Hotel Milano, by Tim Parks, reviewed

The global disruption of 2020-21 posed a special challenge to novelists. As a subject it seems irresistible; but how to find order and pattern in a series of seemingly blank, eventless days? Stuck in the pandemic doldrums, Tim Parks’s elderly narrator at least has memories of the past and a richly stocked mind to call upon when lockdown bites.

Frank Marriot embarks on an ill-advised trip to Italy at the very start of the pandemic, when he is begged to attend the funeral of an old friend, Dan Sandow. Oddly, Frank has heard nothing about a virus spreading from China. A former cultural commentator and magazine feature writer, he has long undertaken a print and TV detox, so is unaware that he is being flung into the rapidly heating cauldron of Covid. ‘Ben, I don’t do news. You know that,’ he blithely informs his anxious son from the airport.

Charismatic, forceful Dan was the trailblazing editor of an influential New Yorker-style literary magazine, and Frank was his go-to reviewer for hatchet jobs.