Changes

|title=Sex is Forbidden

|author=Tim Parks

|publisher=Vintage

|date=May 2013

|website=http://tim-parks.com/

|summary=Set in a Buddhist retreat, this first person narrative manages to be introspective without being self-absorbed. Often funny, this is an intelligent and thoughtful look at meditation and self-forgiveness.

}}

Tim Parks's ''Sex is Forbidden'' is narrated by twenty-something, Beth. She's working as a volunteer server at a Buddhist retreat called the Dasgupta Institute where she has been for the last nine months although the book covers one ten day cycle of retreat. The Dasgupta Institute imposes bans on attendees, although the conditions are slightly less onerous on the servers who, nevertheless are expected to join in the meditations. There's no talking, no writing, no mingling of the sexes and no physical or even eye contact. One day Beth, still a rebel at heart, wanders into the men's side where she discoverers an attendee is keeping a diary where he is contemplating his moment of crisis and she is hooked. The revealing of the past that has driven both Beth and the mysterious diary keeper to such an austere retreat is part of the intrigue of the book, but while there is an inevitable focus on introspection and new age thinking, Beth's tone is delightfully sceptical and feels very authentic. It's almost impossible not to feel for her plight and to admire her approach.