2010/39
Harry Mulisch: De Aanslag (254p.)
He died October-30 this year, and so it is the late Harry Mulisch now, one of the three Dutch post-war literature greats, Reve and Hermans being the other two (for you all non-Lowlanders out there). I keep being surprised by the regalia bestowed upon great writers at the time of their deaths.
I had only done (and not liked) his De Procedure (The Procedure in English) before.
Again, I’m not blown away by De Aanslag (The Assault in English), although starting with WWII and spanning 40 years of quintessential (Dutch) history since, it isn’t hard to see how De Aanslag was bound to resonate with the psyche of the Dutch people, where it became the first book to sell more than 1 million copies.
A good to very good read nevertheless.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 11, 2010 at 9:06 pm
tbd
Mulisch is like the Rolling Stones. Occassionally they have made lesser albums. You might consider “Siegfried” to be his “Bridges to Babylon”.
But bear two things in mind
1) when overlooking their backcatalogue… you’re in awe
2) when hearing a chord, you know: “this can only be the Stones.”
I have read about all of Mulisch’ novels. Each one contains magnificent sentences. Some are discretely tucked in, but most are obvious and blatant (modest he was not
. And when overlooking his oeuvre, I’m in awe too. After him, Dutch litterature has never been the same again.
PS Yes, I’m a Mulisch fan, so my opinion is biased
PPS Try “Het Stenen Bruidsbed”!
November 11, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Hardie
Rest assured – I’m not done with Harry yet, and I did like ‘De Aanslag’!