Cleaver

Cleaver comes out of my love of the South Tyrol and a growing awareness/ irritation/ anxiety about the invasive nature of the public voice, the spoken media, in our minds and lives. Then, of course, there is Cleaver himself, this charismatic, chaotic, destructive, hatefully likable man who seemed just right for bringing out all the tensions between the seductive fizz of public life, various family nightmares and the magnificent emptiness of the mountains.

 

I have now read Cleaver three times and each time has left me with a greater respect for Parks’s abilities.

The Guardian

Yet again Parks has atomised the complexities of the heart with a skill which few of his contemporaries match.

Daily Telegraph

Scintillating and subtly nuanced … The secret of its success? Masterful prose… Parks deserves to take a bow.

New Statesman