Several reviewers queried the title of Tim Parks’s previous novel, Thomas and Mary: A Love Story, which actually described a wilting marriage almost entirely from the husband’s point of view. As if in riposte, In Extremis (curiously not billed as a sequel) doubles down to concentrate wholly on Thomas, who at one point says he “can’t know, can I, what’s in my wife’s head? It’s not my problem.” A linguistics professor with chronic urinary trouble, he’s forced to put his pan-European junketing on hold when his cancer-stricken mother suffers a fall in Hounslow. The morbid reckoning that follows is often blazingly funny, full of squirmy physical comedy and weaselly shilly-shallying as Thomas sweats over his obligations in a pinballing monologue addressed to a lover in Madrid. Less might have been more, though, with the narrator’s neuroses very nearly proving as exhausting as they are engaging.
• In Extremis by Tim Parks is published by Harvill Secker (£16.99). To order a copy for £14.44 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
