The Cut out Girl Covered in Mementos

01 02 03 04 05 06 The 07 08 09 Cut Out 10 11 Girl 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 S30 N31 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd i 11/23/17 12:47 AM 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd ii 11/23/17 12:47 AM 01 02 03 A L S O B Y B A R T VA N E S 04 05 Shakespeare’s Comedies 06 Shakespeare in Company 07 A Critical Companion to Spenser Studies 08 Spenser’s Forms of History 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 S30 N31 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd iii 11/23/17 12:47 AM 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd iv 11/23/17 12:47 AM 01 02 03 04 05 06 The 07 08 09 Cut Out 10 11 12 Girl 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 B A R T VA N E S 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 p e n g u i n p r e s s 29 New York S30 N31 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd v 11/23/17 12:47 AM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 PENGUIN PRESS 10 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 11 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 12 penguin.com 13 Copyright © 2018 by Bart van Es Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, 14 promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized 15 edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers 16 and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. 17 PERMISSIONS CREDIT TK 18 library of congress cataloging‑in‑publication data [CIP DATA TK] 19 Printed in the United States of America 20 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 21 Set in Adobe Caslon 22 Designed by Gretchen Achil es 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30S 31N 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd vi 11/23/17 12:47 AM 01 02 03 04 05 06 for 07 Charles de Jong and Catherine Spiero‑de Jong 08 and 09 10 Henk van Es and Jannigje van Es‑de Jong 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 S30 N31 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd vii 11/23/17 12:47 AM 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd viii 11/23/17 12:47 AM 01 p r o l o g u e : 02 03 December 2014 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 Without families you don’t get stories.” 12 The woman who tells me this stands making coffee in her 13 apartment in Amsterdam. Her name is Hesseline, Lien for short. She 14 is over eighty and there is still a simple beauty about her: a clear com‑ 15 plexion without noticeable makeup; a little silver watch but no other 16 jewelry; and shiny, unpainted nails. She is brisk in manner but also 17 somehow bohemian, dressed in a long dark gray cardigan with a flow‑ 18 ing claret paisley scarf. Before today I have no memory of ever having 19 met her. All the same, I know that this woman grew up with my fa‑ 20 ther, who was born in the Netherlands immediately after the War. She 21 was once part of my family, but this is no longer the case. A letter was 22 sent and a connection was broken. Even now, nearly thirty years later, 23 it still hurts Lien to speak of these things. 24 From her white open‑ plan kitchen we move to the seating area, 25 which is full of winter sunlight, filtered partly through stained glass 26 artworks that are fitted against the panes. There are books, museum 27 catalogs, and cultural supplements spread beneath a low glass coffee 28 table. The furniture is modern, as are the pictures on the walls. 29 We speak in Dutch. S30 “You wrote in your e‑mail about being interested in the family N31 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd 1 11/23/17 12:47 AM Bart van Es 01 history and about maybe writing a book,” she says. “Well, the family 02 thing doesn’t really play for me. The Van Esses were important in my 03 life for a long time, but not now. So what kind of writing do you do?” 04 Her tone is friendly but also business‑ like. I tell her a little about 05 my work as a Professor of English Literature at Oxford University— 06 writing scholarly books and articles on Shakespeare and Renaissance 07 poetry— but she knows most of this already from the internet. 08 “So what is your motivation?” she asks. 09 My motivation? I’m not sure. I think hers could be a complex and 10 interesting story. Recording these things is important, especially now, 11 given the state of the world, with extremism again on the rise. There’s 12 an untold story here that I don’t want to lose. 13 On this bright December morning we talk of world affairs, of Is‑ 14 rael, of Dutch politics, and about the situation in Britain, where David 15 Cameron’s coalition government is nearing the end of its five‑ year 16 term. We move quickly from subject to subject, almost as in an inter‑ 17 view for a job. 18 After perhaps an hour she pushes away her empty cup and speaks 19 definitively: 20 “Yes, I have faith in this. Shall we sit at the table? Do you have a 21 notebook and pen?” 22 I had not wanted to arrive like a reporter, so I need to ask her for 23 paper and something to write with, but we are soon seated at the din‑ 24 ing table, which is made of pale laminate wood. I can ask anything I 25 want about what she remembers: what people said and did; what she 26 wore and what she ate; the houses she lived in; and what she dreamed. 27 We sit in the bright, warm modernity of the apartment and our 28 first meeting stretches on for hours. The documents— photographs, 29 letters, various objects— appear only gradually as she thinks of them, 30S but by midafternoon, with the light outside already fading, the table is 31N 2 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd 2 11/23/17 12:47 AM the cut out girl covered in mementos. These include a children’s novel with a bright 01 yellow cover featuring a steamboat, and a ceramic tile with a cartoon 02 on it of a drowning man. There is also a photo album of red imitation 03 leather that has a well‑ worn spine. On the first page of the album 04 there is a picture of a handsome couple with the words “Mamma” and 05 “Pappa” written beneath in blue pen. 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 The woman in the photograph is Lien’s mother, whose name is 24 Catharine Spiero‑de Jong. She is perched on the edge of a rattan chair, 25 the curved back of which envelops her. The sun is full in her face and 26 she is smiling a little shyly. Her husband, Charles, Lien’s father, sits on 27 the ground in front of her in his shirtsleeves, his large hands resting 28 comfortably on his knees. He leans back against his wife, who has one 29 of her hands on his shoulder, and he looks up with a confident, S30 N31 3 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd 3 11/23/17 12:47 AM Bart van Es 01 ironical gaze. There is an air of nonchalance about him, laughing at 02 the idea of a posed photograph in a way that his wife, with her fixed 03 smile, finds harder to do. 04 The man’s confidence is also there in a few more photographs 05 pasted on the first page of the album. One shows him in the back of a 06 motorcar, surrounded by a group of dapper young men. In secret he 07 holds his fingers, like bunny ears, behind the head of the friend who 08 poses in front of him with a pair of gloves and a cane. 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 In another he stands, hat in hand, in front of a large black door‑ 24 way, his leg with its polished shoe thrust to the fore. There are about a 25 dozen of these early pictures. The most crumpled of them— torn, 26 folded, and restuck with yellowing glue— is of a beach party of twenty 27 young men and women in bathing suits, smiling and embracing. A 28 woman in white at the center holds up what looks like a volleyball. 29 “Mamma, Pappa, Auntie Ro, Auntie Riek, and Uncle Manie” reads 30S the handwritten text beneath. 31N 4 9780735222243_CutOutGirl_TX.indd 4 11/23/17 12:47 AM the cut out girl ironical gaze. There is an air of nonchalance about him, laughing at 01 the idea of a posed photograph in a way that his wife, with her fixed 02 smile, finds harder to do. 03 The man’s confidence is also there in a few more photographs 04 pasted on the first page of the album.

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