Books, Books, and Books
December 15, 2012 3 Comments
The giveaway for Without Mercy by Renate Dorrestein has now ended. A winner has been chosen using random.org.
And the winner is….
Mystica
of
CONGRATULATIONS, Mystica!!!
I’ve send Mystica an email to ask for her address.
Thank you to everyone else who entered.
December 4, 2012 31 Comments
A few days ago I reviewed this book and I loved it! Now is your chance to win a copy of this well-written book.
The author is Dutch so the book is translated into English. I got a copy from the author’s secretary to give away to one of my blog readers.
From amazon.com: “Reminiscent of Andre Dubus’s critically acclaimed In the Bedroom and Joyce Carol Oates’s We Were the Mulvaneys, Renate Dorrestein’s new novel explores the undercurrents of married life and the world of today’s teenagers.
“Perfect” was the word both for Phinus and Franka Vermeer’s marriage and their teenage son, Jem, but in the wake of his senseless murder, grief drives a wedge between them. Determined to resurrect the joy they once knew, the couple embarks on a weekend in the country to mend their fraying relationship. Their marital troubles, however, run deeper than they realize. Suspenseful, tragic, and strangely touching, Without Mercy portrays the preciousness of everyday happiness.”
You can read my whole review HERE.
Good luck!
December 2, 2012 16 Comments
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very good!)
Number of pages: 256
First published: 2001
Genre: contemporary fiction
I got this book: from the library (Dutch)
Renate Dorrestein is a Dutch author, one of my favorites. Without Mercy has been translated into English which is why you can find my review of it below. And there’s another reason… (see further below).
This author has written almost 20 novels since 1983 and I’ve read at least half of them. This one was new for me (although it’s from 2001).
From amazon.com: “Reminiscent of Andre Dubus’s critically acclaimed In the Bedroom and Joyce Carol Oates’s We Were the Mulvaneys, Renate Dorrestein’s new novel explores the undercurrents of married life and the world of today’s teenagers.
“Perfect” was the word both for Phinus and Franka Vermeer’s marriage and their teenage son, Jem, but in the wake of his senseless murder, grief drives a wedge between them. Determined to resurrect the joy they once knew, the couple embarks on a weekend in the country to mend their fraying relationship. Their marital troubles, however, run deeper than they realize. Suspenseful, tragic, and strangely touching, Without Mercy portrays the preciousness of everyday happiness.”
When Phinus (a very un-Dutch name, I’ve never heard of it before) and Franka go away for a quiet weekend to work on their marriage, their past comes along with them. There is a lot left unsaid that they should have discussed years ago, and on this trip they start to realise this.
The story is built up really well. Intermixed with the “adventures” on their weekend out (they run into some troublesome teenagers) are the events that happened in the past. It becomes clear how their marriage has run into trouble and why Phinus feels guilty about the death of their son. The different ways Franka and Phinus mourn means they cannot share their grief.
The book is about marriage, delinquent teenagers, violence by and towards teenagers, grief. It sounds awful! But it’s really well-written and there isn’t a great deal of actual blood. 
The ending is… hopeful.
Extra: In a few days’ time you can win your own copy of this book! I’ve got an English translation to give away.
July 3, 2011 4 Comments
I’m joining in Iris on Books’ read-a-long of The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulish (1992), a book by a Dutch writer. I’m Dutch myself (as Iris is) and so it’s great fun to do a read-a-long of a countryman’s big tome. Big it is, over 900 pages.
I’m a little late reading the fourth and final part, which is The End of the End. Watch out, spoilers!
Well, I started skimming a few pages! This was Onno talking politics and philosophy. No thanks!
After that, the story turns back to Quinten, who is in Rome and coincidentally meets his father there. Onno is hardly recognisable, he looks very shabby and doesn’t seem to have looked after himself well. Quinten moves in with Onno, who has been living in Rome for a long time.
They go on touristic trips and in one particular chapel, Quinten feels there is something special. The chapel is called the holiest place on earth. Quinten and Onno go to the library to do research. Lots of religious discussion ensues and eventually Quinten is convinced the tablets with the ten commandments are hidden in the chapel.
Onno can’t believe that, but gets himself and his son locked inside the chapel at night and steal some stone slabs, which may or may not be the ten commandments. They travel to Jerusalem (by accident) where they don’t know what to do but again visit touristic attractions and learn more about the religious background of the locations they visit.
Then Quinten gets a kind of dream in which he drops the tablets on a marble floor and the letters, all the text of the ten commandments fly in the air, up into the sky. This way the ten commandments return to heaven.
Discussion
I know I missed many references and symbolism here! I didn’t read it all and I certainly didn’t understand it all.
I did get the feeling this final part of the book was a Dan Brown novel avant la lettre. It was fun to see whether Quinten really had found those very old tablets but I could have done with much of the religious discussion.
The book ended in confusion for me. What had actually happened? How was this important for the angels in heaven that had manipulated Quinten and Onno? I’m not sure, I will check other people’s write-ups to see if they can make sense of it!
Read also Iris’ post about this last part. Here.
What do you think of this final part?
June 26, 2011 7 Comments
This book has received so much blogging hype that I had to see for myself. Is it worth the hype? No, it’s just a nice book of which there are so many. It was a good read, in a way.
I think this book may be typically Dutch, or at least, we have many more books like this. Many of the younger generation of writers have a similar understated writing style. And the number of pages is in the range of many literary fiction books in the Netherlands, too.
Boxer Danny is running away from his last fight. When he can get a lift from a man on his way to the Spanish town of Pamplona, he decides to come along with him. They travel all night to get to Pamplona the next day so they can join in the yearly bull run, where a number of bulls are let loose in the streets and brave people run ahead of them in a kind of death-defying exercise.
Danny isn’t very talkative but it is clear that something bad has happened recently. Robert, the driver of the car, attempts to find out whether it was a fight he lost, or something to do with a woman, maybe.
Danny doesn’t explain much but clearly has a lot of anger inside him. Will he be able to contain this anger, or take it out on Robert? And what happened anyway?
The book switches from the now to the recent past, so the reader gets more insight in what happened with Danny to make him so angry.
The writing style was great. A very understated book, not a word too many. Generally short paragraphs and a lot of dialogue.
Still, if it wasn’t for that, I would have given the book 3 stars. My problem: I don’t care one bit about boxers. In fact, I prefer not to read about them and their (often shady) world. Furthermore, I don’t like men with an abundance of muscle or men that may explode into a rage for no obvious reason at all.
I don’t like the Pamplona bull stuff either. Bulls in Pamplona are scary, dangerous and even deadly animals. I wish everyone luck who thinks they should participate in an event like that, but I don’t need to know about it, or read about it.
So, there was very little for me in this book to like. But the story was well-set up and the reader slowly starts to understand what happened to Danny. That was well done, and if I had liked the locations and situations of the book better, it would have been a really good book for me. The only thing I could sort-of associate with in a positive way, was the drive to Spain – which I’ve done, albeit a different route.
Rating: 4/5
I got this book: from the library
I read this in: Dutch (Morgen zijn we in Pamplona), the original language
Number of pages: 192
First published: 2007
Genre: contemporary fiction, literary fiction
June 22, 2011 13 Comments
A few years ago I enjoyed reading Joe Speedboat by the Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa so when I saw that a new book had come out in 2009, I was keen to read it. Still, it took me until now to pick it up from the library.
Both Joe Speedboat and Caesarion are translated into English.
The story starts with Ludwig Unger travelling back to England to attend the funeral of a former neighbour. In his younger years he lived in an English sea-side town with his mother. The house stood near a crumbling cliff and there was the danger that the house would disappear into the sea.
While in England, he decides to take a temporary job as pianist in a hotel to finance his stay, as he is planning to stay for a while. We find out that he has been travelling for years from hotel to hotel as a bar pianist.
Ludwig’s parents (father an Austrian artist living somewhere far away, his mother is Dutch) separated quite soon after Ludwig was born. He and his mother spent their years travelling around and staying in different countries for a few years at a time before moving on.
It soon becomes clear that Ludwig has a strong connection with his mother, even with her somewhat dark past. As an adult, he still follows her around, he still needs her, although later on the tables are turned.
Eventually he also goes to look for his father, whom he’s never met. But how badly does he still needs his parents, really?
Caesarion: What I thought
I loved the beginning of this story and I was thinking this was going to be as good as Joe Speedboat. It was well-written and about England, which I like. But then Ludwig follows his mother to the US and it all becomes a little less interesting.
The life that Ludwig leads becomes more insecure and I didn’t like that. I don’t necessarily need a positive story but the situation that Ludwig find himself in becomes rather pointless. I’d rather have a story where I expect things to end badly. In this story, I didn’t know what to think of it. It seemed Ludwig had reached an impasse in his life. Not really interesting to read about, I thought.
The relationships that Ludwig has with women weren’t always to pleasant to read about, either. Of course, that is related to how he relates to his mother, too.
Something I did enjoy a lot is that the readers slowly discovers that Ludwig isn’t all that different from his mother, even if he criticizes her often.
I liked the beginning much, much more than the final part. But the very end, the final page, was beautiful again. I enjoyed this book a little less than Joe Speeboat but will pick up other books by this writer in the future.
Rating: 4/5
I got this book: from the library
I read this in: Dutch, the original language. The English title is Caesarion.
Number of pages: 366 (Dutch edition)
First published: 2009, English edition June 2011
Genre: contemporary fiction
September 18, 2010 4 Comments
My blog readers have been telling me several times how they don’t mind if I post a review in Dutch every now and then. They won’t be able to understand it (unless Google translate does a good job) but they won’t press the “unsubscribe” button either. We’ll see.
This book is from 1981 and I used to enjoy reading books by this writer. Somehow I forgot all about him but when I saw this book in a secondhand sale, I went for it straight away. However, since there is no English translation, I may as well write the review in Dutch, to the benefit of Dutch readers that are not keen on English.
Al jaren had ik niets meer gelezen van Koolhaas terwijl ik zijn boeken in het verleden met plezier las. Vanwege een tere huid en vooral De laatste goendroen vond ik prachtig. Toen ik Een aanzienlijke vertraging tweedehands tegenkwam, was er een onmiddelijke “O ja, Koolhaas!” en ik kocht het boek dan ook meteen.
Het verhaal gaat over Frederick Verhoeven, een weduwnaar in goeden doen, die jaren na het overlijden van zijn vrouw nog een laatste bief van haar in handen krijgt. Zij verwijt hem niets gedaan te hebben om de executie van Caspar, hun zoon, in de 2e wereldoorlog te voorkomen.
Door de NSB een grote som geld te betalen had hij de exectuie mogelijk kunnen voorkomen, hoewel Caspar dan naar een concentratiekamp gestuurd zou zijn en dat waarschijnlijk ook niet zou hebben overleeft. Frederik wil alsnog weten hoe anderen over hem denken en of zij ook vinden dat hij over de brug had moeten komen.
Na zijn eigen familie en die van zijn vrouw te hebben bezocht, komt hij op het spoor van een oude studievriendin, Jos, die op haar sterfbed blijkt te liggen. Hij ontdekt dat ook zij heeft nagelaten iets te doen voor haar zoon, wat hem mogelijk het leven heeft gekost. Hij is al jaren vermist. Om nu eindelijk een goed te doen belooft Frederik op zoek de gaan naar deze zoon.
Het boek gaat over schuldgevoelens, slechte huwelijken en hoe gedrag in het verleden het hele leven gevolg blijkt te hebben. Best een mooi boek. Het begin was wat langzaam. Frederik is geen leuke man dus dat maatke het mij als lezer moeilijk om te willen dat het goed ging met hem in het verhaal. Het interesseerde me niet zo hoe het met hem af zou lopen. Toch was het een leuk boek om te lezen.
Rating: 4/5
I got this book: in a second-hand book sale
I read this in: the original language, Dutch.
