Reviews and Comments

RexLegendi

RexLegendi@bookwyrm.social

Joined 5 days, 16 hours ago

Dutch Parisian, thirtysomething, fanatic reader ever since I regained time. I write reviews for my own memory and critical development, but since they are public, I try to do so in a way others may appreciate them too. (I certainly enjoy reading other people's reviews, so thank you for writing them!)

Comparing books is like comparing apples and oranges, therefore stars are categories rather than rankings:

★ 😡 (Waste of time) ★★ 👎🏼 (Not my thing) ★★★ 👍🏼 (Worth reading) ★★★★ 👏🏼 (Highly recommended) ★★★★★ ❤️ (Coup de cœur)

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Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises (EBook, 2022, Penguin Group) 4 stars

It's the early 1920s in Paris, and Jake, a wounded World War I veteran working …

Endless days in Paris and Pamplona

3 stars

There is a particular charm to Ernest Hemingway’s debut novel, The Sun Also Rises. Of course, ‘we will always have Paris,’ as Humphrey Bogart said, but it’s not just because the characters live and feast near Jardin du Luxembourg and Montparnasse. (Yes, Jake, we were practically neighbours there, though I do not understand how you managed to afford La Closerie des Lilas without a proper salary. Did the place change that much?) Just as a party can be captivating when you lose track of time, this novel draws you in as it meanders through the day-to-day lives of five seemingly carefree American expats, who stroll from one bar to the next. Their activities and discussions hold no particular significance, merely unfolding against the backdrop of interwar Paris and the San Fermín festival in Pamplona.

What struck me most was the filmic atmosphere of the novel, as if …

Albert Camus: L'été (français language, 2023, Folio) 4 stars

Qu'il suive le fil d'Ariane sur les traces du Minotaure pour évoquer Oran et ses …

Reflections on the Mediterranean

3 stars

Albert Camus is an engaging author, whose novels L’Étranger and La Chute guided me into French literature. I had hoped to find more of his enigmatic writing in L’été, a collection of short essays (or essayistic stories) written in the 1940s, but I found them too brief to truly enjoy. There are good reasons to appreciate the essays, though. Camus’ musings on the Mediterranean, particularly his birthplace, French Algeria, are worthwhile and rich with classical references. A highlight is his reflection on Oran, a city ‘with its back against the sea’, characterised by both beauty and ennui, where the author reveals how grace can be found in even the smallest things.

Il semble que les Oranais soient comme cet ami de Flaubert qui, au moment de mourir, jetant un dernier regard sur cette terre irremplaçable, s’écriait : « Fermez la fenêtre, c’est trop beau. » Ils ont fermé …
Virginie Loveling: Een revolverschot (Nederlands language, 2021, De Geus) 4 stars

De zussen Marie en Georgine Santander wonen na de dood van hun vader en moeder …

Spectaculaire zussentwist

5 stars

Dit voorjaar was ik enthousiast over Tantes (1924) van Cyriel Buysse, dat zich afspeelt in een Vlaamse dorpsgemeenschap aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw. Een revolverschot van zijn tante Virginie Loveling (1836-1923) maakt nu zelfs nog meer indruk op me. Hoewel ik een pagina of vijftig nodig had om te wennen aan de wat ouderwetse stijl, komt het dorp Vroden – gebaseerd op Nevele in Oost-Vlaanderen – al vlug tot leven. In een wereld waarin meisjes ‘jong’ (lees: ongehuwd) blijven of ‘reuzelen’ (trouwlustig worden), beschrijft Loveling de tweespalt tussen de ongetrouwde notarisdochters Marie en Georgine over hun buurman en weduwnaar Luc Hancq, gezien vanuit Marie, de oudere en minst charmante van de twee. Uit het pistool dat in de eerste akte vergeven werd volgt dan – geheel conform de regel van Tsjechov – een schot.

‘Met eefer Georgine is hij toch nog heel anders, heel anders,’ hield Trientje vol, …

reviewed De wetten by Connie Palmen

Connie Palmen: De wetten (Nederlands language, 2016, Prometheus) 2 stars

Het boek bestaat uit zeven hoofdstukken die de namen hebben van zeven manlijke personen: de …

Before mansplaining was a thing

3 stars

Whether you love or hate her, Dutch author Connie Palmen (1955) deserves some credit: more than three decades after its first publication, her debut novel The Laws continues to spark conversations. I must admit, I started with low expectations, as I was not eager for yet another Dutch psychological novel about sexuality. Fortunately, those expectations were off. Instead, Palmen offers a glimpse into a young woman’s search for… well, life, the universe, and everything, I suppose. Throughout seven chapters, she encounters seven men, each of whom shapes her in one way or another. Set in the 1980s, the term ‘mansplaining’ had not yet emerged, but it seems to amuse the protagonist. In any case, it was a relief that they weren’t all lovers.

Recognition played a significant role in my appreciation of the novel. Any story depicting student life in Amsterdam – especially around the Oudemanhuispoort – sparks my imagination. …

Nicolien Mizee: Dwaalgast (Nederlands language, Van Oorschot) 3 stars

Naakt in de vliet springen. Heel hard schreeuwen. Op de grond vallen en kermend door …

Volgens de etiketten

3 stars

Na De groef van Maartje Wortel was Dwaalgast het tweede boekje dat ik las in de Terloopsreeks van uitgeverij Van Oorschot. Hoewel het thema van de reeks – een schrijver neemt de lezer mee uit wandelen – en de beperkte omvang van de bijdragen me niet per se aanspreken, lees ik het werk van Nicolien Mizee (1965) graag sinds De kennismaking. Ik houd vooral van haar eigenzinnige en openhartige stijl, die vaak ontwapenend is.

Dwaalgast is een manifest om de ander serieus te nemen. Mizee schrijft over haar ontwikkelingsgerichte topografische desoriëntatie – ‘ruimtelijke dyslexie’, al leert ze die term pas op latere leeftijd kennen. Het betekent dat de schrijver zich niet kan oriënteren; zelfs in haar geboorteplaats Haarlem vindt ze met moeite het station of de V&D. Een geel plastic flesje siert de antenne op haar auto, opdat ze die herkent op de parkeerplaats bij IJmuiden. De beperking is …

reviewed De Effingers by Gabriele Tergit

Gabriele Tergit: De Effingers (Nederlands language, 2020) 4 stars

De Effingers volgt de levens van drie joodse families over vier generaties: de Berlijnse Oppners …

A follow-up of the Buddenbrooks

5 stars

While Thomas Mann covered four generations of a German bourgeois family from the 1830s to the 1870s in Buddenbrooks, Gabriele Tergit (1894-1982) did the same for a Jewish industrial family from the 1870s to the 1940s. After reading it, I find it hard to believe the novel receives so little attention nowadays: it is nothing short of a masterpiece.

The Effinger and Oppner families are set against the backdrop of German history, spanning from the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War to the rise of the Nazis and the Second World War. Mathias Effinger is the last in a line of watchmakers in a Bavarian village where time seems to stand still, despite the unification of the German Empire. His eldest son emigrates to England, fascinated by its industrialisation, while two others head to Berlin. An interesting scene depicts his son Paul attempting to invest his money in Bavaria, only …

Esther Kinsky: Kreupelhout (Nederlands language, 2019, Pluim) 4 stars

Na de dood van haar man vertrekt een vrouw naar Italië. Niet naar Rome, Florence …

Easy-paced contemplation

3 stars

Grove by German author Esther Kinsky (1956) is a contemplative, easy-paced narrative reminiscent of Everyday Madness by Lisa Appignanesi or Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. Perhaps worried readers wouldn’t recognise its genre, the publisher found it necessary to label it a ‘field novel’ – a marketing trick I am happy to disregard.

Centred on a woman retreating to the Italian countryside after her husband’s death, Kinsky structures the story into three parts. In the first, the narrator primarily observes the village of Olevano and its surroundings. I was particularly struck by her perception of immigrant communities integrated into traditional Italian life. The observations never lead to judgments, though they remain on the surface – an effect inherent to the outsider’s perspective. In the second part, the narrator reflects on memories from her youth with her father, especially their holidays in Italy. (Here, I couldn’t help but think of Strangers I Know …

Maarten Doorman: Een jager in het woud (Nederlands language, 2023) 4 stars

Na de Brexit en met oorlog aan de oostgrens richt het oog zich opnieuw op …

Cultuurhistorische blik op Duitsland en Frankrijk

4 stars

Sinds Brexit, de Russische inval in Oekraïne en de MAGA-beweging in de Verenigde Staten is de aandacht voor de Frans-Duitse as toegenomen. In de negentiende en eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw werden de betrekkingen tussen Duitsland en Frankrijk echter gekenmerkt door oorlogen en vijandschap, soms zelfs aangeduid als ‘erfvijandschap’. Filosoof Maarten Doorman (1957) interesseert zich in de wijze waarop deze betrekkingen in de afgelopen anderhalve eeuw vorm hebben gekregen in de collectieve beleving van beide naties. In Een jager in het woud (2023) tracht hij de discussie hierover vanuit cultuurhistorisch perspectief te ontdoen van ‘halfbewuste stereotypen en onbewuste clichés’. Daarbij lardeert hij zijn betoog met de namen van een groot aantal filosofen en kunstenaars.

Hoewel Doorman zijn hoofdstukken ogenschijnlijk indeelt op basis van kunstvorm, houdt hij vast aan de chronologische volgorde die hem van de Frans-Duitse (of Frans-Pruisische) Oorlog in 1870 naar de Europese Unie leidt, met zo nu …

Louis-Sébastien Mercier: Niemand ontbijt meer met een glas wijn (Nederlands language, De Arbeiderspers) 4 stars

Meisjes in Parijs die geen vermogen hadden en niet van goede komaf waren moesten al …

Glimpse of pre-Revolutionary France

4 stars

Reading this Dutch translation of Le tableau de Paris by Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814) was like stepping into a time capsule. The collection features a series of short, column-style pieces portraying Parisian life between 1781 and 1788, the years just before the French Revolution. The ancien régime (Louis XVI) was still in power, Rousseau and Voltaire had died only a few years earlier, and Baron Haussmann hadn’t even been born yet.

The chronicler offers a glimpse into everyday life in late 18th-century Paris, when duels were falling out of fashion, baptism served as civil registration (and the Tuileries as a public toilet), the Code noir was still in effect, and people were discussing vaccination while still believing the Seine’s water was drinkable. Mercier has a keen eye for society’s margins and critiques social injustice. In our time, he would undoubtedly have commented on the number of immigrants sleeping in the streets …

Chief Seattle: Hoe kun je de lucht bezitten? (Nederlands language, 1983, Aktie Strohalm/Ekologische Uitgeverij) 3 stars

Chief Seattle's 1854 speech

3 stars

Even 170 years later, Chief Seattle’s Speech remains a powerful testament to Indigenous American culture and manifesto against the exploitation of the earth. Chief Seattle (1780s-1866) was the leader of the Duwamish people, an Indigenous Americans tribe in the area around Seattle, the city named in his honour. In the 1850s, the United States government pressured the Duwamish to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott, forcing them to cede their lands and relocate to reservation territories. Aware of the threat, Chief Seattle visited the U.S. governor in 1854 to deliver his speech. (Over the years, several versions have been published. I read a 1983 Dutch translation, which I believe is based on Henry A. Smith’s contested 1887 version.)

Het grote opperhoofd in Washington heeft gesproken: hij wenst ons land te kopen. Het grote opperhoofd heeft ook woorden gesproken van vriendschap en vrede. Dat is zeer goed van hem omdat we …

reviewed De Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard (De Thibaults, #1)

Roger Martin du Gard: De Thibaults (Nederlands language, 2014, Meulenhoff) 5 stars

De broers Antoine en Jacques groeien op in Parijs in de roerige jaren na de …

Shifting values in early 20th-century Paris

4 stars

The French 1937 Nobel laureate Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958) no longer draws a large audience. A Dutch translation of his diary (Kijken door een sleutelgat) piqued my interest in reading the first volume of his novel cycle The Thibaults (1922). Set in the years leading up to the First World War, the novel offers a rich perspective on a society in motion, symbolised by two Parisian families: the Catholic Thibaults and the Protestant De Fontanins.

I devoured the opening chapters of the novel, which begin with the intimate friendship between two adolescents, Jacques and Daniel, who run away to Marseille. Throughout the story, their motives remain largely hidden, leaving the reader to ponder their intentions. After that, attention shifts to Jacques’ older brother, Antoine, once the pride of his father, but gradually developing his own worldview. This journey culminates in a superb finale, where he confronts Abbé …

Nicolas Mathieu: De uitzichtlozen (Nederlands language, 2019, Meulenhoff) 4 stars

Augustus 1992. Op een landerige middag tijdens een hittegolf in een vergeten vallei in Oost-Frankrijk …

French countryside story

2 stars

My reading notes are remarkably critical for this Prix Goncourt-winning novel by Nicolas Mathieu (1978). Set in the French Grand Est region, between Luxembourg and Metz, And Their Children After Them is a portrayal of life in the French countryside during the 1990s. This theme recurs frequently in French art, from Émile Zola’s Germinal to this year’s box office hit L’amour ouf. Édouard Louis (The End of Eddy) was the first to introduce me to the concept of a ‘discarded’ society defined by poverty, pessimism, and pride.

Unfortunately, Mathieu does not reach that level; his ‘social’ novel drowns in his own ambitions. The author’s choice to write from the perspective of adolescents is not coherently executed: language is sometimes very slick or contrived, then suddenly strangely formal. (I fear that the Dutch translator might be partly responsible.) What’s worse, he tends to tell rather than show, leaving …

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Ondergrondse notities (Nederlands language, 2020, Van Oorschot) 4 stars

Ondergrondse notities bevat een deel van de memoires van een bittere en geïsoleerde man. Vervreemd …

Wryly humorous

4 stars

It has become a pleasant tradition to close the year with Russian literature. This year, I have Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilyich) and Anton Chekhov (Verhalen, 1889-1894) on my list, but I began with Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, which I plan to follow with The Brothers Karamazov.

Notes from the Underground is the kind of novel that speaks to me. Literally at first, as the narrator addresses the reader directly in the first part. His words seem cynical yet strangely enigmatic: what exactly does he want? Is he reliable? Why does he contradict himself? Could he be indignant or angry? Perhaps at mankind’s hypocrisy? Why does he claim that a rational or reasonable person cannot have a shred of self-respect? In an odd way, I felt affection for this self-punishing narrator, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

Ik kan u …
Fyodor Dostoevsky: De broers Karamazov (Nederlands language, 2020, Van Oorschot) 4 stars

Tien redenen om dit meesterwerk te lezen:

  1. Het hoofdthema van het boek, de verhouding tussen …

19th-century Russia on the move

4 stars

A century and a half after its first publication, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) could hardly receive more praise. Deemed ‘the greatest novel of all time’ by many, first-time readers are bound to have high expectations. It was no different for me, and despite a slump halfway through, I was not disappointed. Dostoevsky pulls out all the stops in his search for the human soul, culminating in one of the most spectacular court cases in literary history.

Set in Russia between August and November 1866, father Fyodor Karamazov and his sons Dmitri (Mitya), Ivan, and Alexei (Alyosha) form a fractured and deeply dysfunctional family. (It is said that their surname originates from ‘karamaz’, a term associated with corruption and sin.) Fyodor is a particularly compelling character; his complaints, curses, and lies are only surpassed by his relentless habit of seeking forgiveness. Mitya mirrors him in his …

reviewed Verhalen 1889-1894 by Anton Chekhov (Verzamelde verhalen, #4)

Anton Chekhov: Verhalen 1889-1894 (Nederlands language, 2008, Van Oorschot) 4 stars

Dit vierde deel bevat een aantal van Tsjechovs langere het beroemde 'Een vervelende geschiedenis' (over …

Excellent Dutch translation of Chekhov's stories (part 4)

4 stars

At present, Anton Chekhov is the only author whose oeuvre I am reading in its entirety. As I mentioned in my last review (1887-1888), I find that his stories improve over time. While his focus on daily life in Russia seems similar to that of earlier writers like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, I see how Chekhov plays with perspectives, while steering clear of an overly dramatic or moralistic tone. This makes the author more accessible to me, even though I was still challenged by some of the unsympathetic characters and exaggerated gestures.

The fourth collection (1889-1894), translated into Dutch, contains some sharp and witty short stories and novellas. I particularly liked The Bet (a man voluntarily agrees to be imprisoned), The Princess (a doctor loses himself in a rant against a noblewoman), Ward No. 6 (a doctor discovers that the only intelligent person around him is a patient in …