no. 13-2 10 Bookautumns 2004 from Holland and Flanders Annelies Verbeke Arnon Grunberg Kristien Hemmerechts Robert Anker Thomas Rosenboom Marja Brouwers Leo Pleysier Christine Otten Manon Uphoff Willem Jan Otten Foundation for the Production and Translation of 10Dutch Literature 2 A strikingly insightful vision of life Annelies Verbeke Sleep! aya is an insomniac whom M2nothing and nobody can help. She wanders the city at night envying those who can take a good photo Stephan Vanfleteren night’s rest for granted. When her boyfriend walks out on her, she meets Annelies Verbeke (b. 1976) studied Germanic the equally insomniac, much older languages and literature and scenario writing. Her Benoit, and they feel an immediate scenario Dogdreaming was selected as ‘European mutual sympathy. She reminds him of Pitch Point’ at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003. his mother, with whom he had a deep This, her first novel was greeted with great enthu- but ambiguous bond6–6unknown to siasm in Flanders and the Netherlands, and him she was a prostitute which made glowing reviews and numerous interviews have him a vulnerable outsider even in his attracted interest from outside the usual literary childhood. Maya recognises in him a circuit. Within months, the novel has been fellow-sufferer, and he helps to make her existence a little more bear- reprinted several times and it is currently being able. Thanks to their clumsy expressions of despair, Maya ends up in considered for a film adaptation. ‘My stories are hospital and Benoit in a psychiatric institution where they each usually about the underdog,’ says Verbeke, encounter other unfortunate loners. Back outside again, the bewil- ‘because to my mind, he is closer to the essence of dered couple is wafted back into each other’s vicinity, two outcasts life, and is therefore more interesting in his quest tending each other’s wounds. Verbeke relates Maya’s story with for his own truth. I want to move people, make Benoit’s, alternating their own interpretation and version of events, them laugh and give them a feeling of solidarity, chapter by chapter. This device allows Verbeke to bring their back- in the hope that this6–6even if only briefly6–6will grounds fully to the fore as well as the dramatic confrontation of both draw them a little closer together.’ their lives. Annelies Verbeke writes about people one cannot help but feel sym- pathy for, so poignant is their yearning for a normal life. At the same Slaap! is the most impressive debut in Dutch literature time they realise that, with their expectations and longings, the since Arnon Grunberg’s Blue Mondays. Read it! superficial outside world will not satisfy them. Annelies Verbeke uses nrc handelsblad powerful, well-chosen metaphors to underpin her story and she is penetrating in rendering her characters’ loneliness, impotence and A literary phenomenon. feelings of insignificance. Most surprising of all is the tone of the trouw book: simultaneously laconic, spare and poetic, with a dash of irony, and nevertheless brimming with genuine sympathy. Slaap! is a con- Funny, singular and moving (…) Insomniacs will feel less vincing novel in which the author uses the complex personalities of alone for at least one night with Annelies Verbeke’s her characters to pen a strikingly insightful vision of life and its expe- debut. riences. de morgen publishing details rights Slaap! (2004) De Geus 160 pp Oude Vest 6 nl6–64811 hr Breda tel. + 31 76 522 81 51 fax + 31 76 522 25 99 e-mail [email protected] website www.degeus.nl 3 Jetblack triumph of folly Arnon Grunberg The Jewish Messiah ecause his grandfather had served ‘B7the ss with genuine enthusiasm and an abiding belief in progress, the grandson also wanted to serve a movement with enthusiasm and belief in progress.’ This is the kick-off to a slapstick story with a grim twist. The move- ment that 16-year old Xavier Radek decides to serve is Zionism. More specifically, his goal is to photo Klaas Koppe console the Jews. Initially, he thinks he has to accomplish this Arnon Grunberg (b. 1971) has been a by writing the Great Yiddish Novel. Later on, he phenomenon ever since his debut, Blauwe shifts his vision to politics. The first practical maandagen (Blue Mondays, 1994). His step towards Judaism is becoming a Jew among books are read all over the world. He the Jewish. He joins the Jewish youth move- writes as if the devil is at his back. Last year ment in his home town of Basel, visits the synagogue, becomes a regular at the he published the novel, De asielzoeker (The home of the Rabbi’s large family, and develops a special friendship with Asylum Seeker) this year the novella Awromele, the eldest son. The big consolation has started, and the big suffer- Monkey Grabbing Hold of Happiness, and a ing. Xavier loses a testicle while being circumcised by a nearly blind circum- anthology of travel columns. Arnon Grun- ciser. The testicle ends up in a jar with nitrous acid and is baptized King David. berg lives and works in New York. That moment marks the beginning of a roller-coaster ride, from Xavier Radek’s tumultuous progress as consoler of the Jewish people, with King David –6the Messiah reincarnate6–6at his side, to the absurdities the writer has in store the press on the asylum seeker: for us. In Israel, Radek develops into a formidable political leader at the level of he-whose-name-we-cannot-speak. Having retreated to his bunker after The Asylum Seeker is an exceptionally nuclear weapons have been put on engage, he comes to the final conclusion oppressive book … Meanwhile we readers are that the only consolation is total destruction. In all its craziness, The Jewish exceptionally lucky. Thank God. Arnon Messiah is a jet-black novel. Grunberg writes about a hopeless war in the only Grunberg is only 32. sensible way; namely, through the triumph of folly. Nothing is sacred, noth- de groene amsterdammer ing is spared, all so-called identities are mocked, whether Jewish, the sexual or masculine. Paedophiles, the autistic, anti-Semitics, rabbis, Arabs and We are lucky that this writer has been Kierkegaard-supporters: whores and whoremongers, all of them. Xavier tells enriching the landscape of our literature for the his beloved Awromele ‘Do not compete with mediocrity’ and ‘I want to baffle past six years. the people.’ pzc In terms of tempo and intrigue, Grunberg has reverted in The Jewish Messiah to the more satirical style of his early novels, Blue Mondays and Silent Extras. No less than a masterpiece. Considering the merciless view of the world he unfolds, one wonders whether het parool this ‘Great Yiddish Novel’ is not his version of the Satanic Verses. publishing details rights other titles in translation De joodse messias (2004) Vassallucci Blue Mondays (Blauwe maandagen). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. Herengracht 505 Also in German (Diogenes, 1997), in French (Plon, 1999), in Spanish (Mondadori, nl6–61017 bv Amsterdam 1998), and in many other languages. tel. +31 20 623 02 70 Phantom pain (Fantoompijn). London: Secker & Warburg 2003. Also in French fax +31 20 623 67 61 (Plon, 2003), in German (Diogenes, in prep.), in Swedish (Brombergs Bokförlag, e-mail [email protected] 2002) and in Hungarian (Gondolat, 2002). website www.vassallucci.nl Silent extras (Figuranten). London: Secker & Warburg, 2000. Also in German (Diogenes, 1999), in Italian (Mondadori, 2000), and in Spanish (Grijalbo Mondadori, 2000). 4 The difference between film and reality Kristien Hemmerechts The Last Time n The Last Time the reader I2sees through the eyes of Yoko Debondt, who has survived a seri- ous accident the previous year in photo Klaas Koppe which she lost her husband. Since then, Yoko has been in ‘a no-man’s Emotional relationships are often the central theme of land’, ‘a shadowy, grey waiting Kristien Hemmerechts’s (b. 1955) work, imperfect rela- room’. She finds support in a good tionships between men and women, or between friend of the family, David, who is parents and children. Her characters’ longing for secu- amiable, well mannered and loyal, rity and the fulfilment of profound but ill-defined but also a bit dull. One day, Yoko desires, lands them in an emotional labyrinth. Her picks up a scruffy hitchhiker, best known novels are Brede heupen (Wide Hips, 1989), Hichi, who’s completely different Zonder grenzen (No Boundaries 1991), Wit zand (White from David. She takes him home Sand, 1993), Veel vrouwen, af en toe een man (Lots of with her, feeds and clothes him and goes to bed with him, but Women, a Man Now and Then, 1995), Margot en de neither he nor David, will do as a replacement for her dead hus- engelen (Margot and the Angels, 1997) and Donderdag- band. Besides, Yoko has meanwhile embarked on another phase middag. Halfvier. (Thursday Afternoon: Three Thirty, in life. As a young girl, she used to let men pick her up and take 2002). her to a hotel for casual sex. Now she returns to this way of life, although it is not always clear where her fantasy takes over from reality. In this sex without tenderness or caress, she fathoms the An agreeably readable mix of satire and relational comedy, depths of her lust and libido, unencumbered by moral considera- a deconstruction of eroticism in a light-hearted packaging. tions or fear of risks. de standaard The story takes place in Antwerp, where an unbearable stench is creeping across the city and making people physically ill. The The Last Time is an ode to fantasy, where real life doesn’t cause is sought down the drains, where Yoko, too, is heading.