De uitvreter / druk 1: met tekeningen van Joost Swarte
I only knew Nescio from his famous work Titaantjes, but apparently he has written several short stories, of which "De uitvreter" is the oldest. Although I wasn't really amazed by the quality of the text, it was amusing to read for as long as it lasted (a mere 46 pages). The outdated language didn't really help, either, but made it possible to imagine myself living in the beginning of the 20th century.
Congo Een Geschiedenis
For someone like me, who knew virtually nothing about Congo, this book is a goldmine. Van Reybrouck manages to take the reader on a journey through more than 120 years of history, not only by giving information and numbers, but also, and mainly, by telling stories and describing personal experiences. He understands the art to summarize his thoughts whenever necessary, so that you never lose track of what's happening, despite the myriad of protagonists and places.Unfortunately, when reaching the end of Mobutu's reign, the quality of the book drops significantly when Van Reybrouck tries to describe everything that's happened during the traumatic years 1990-2006. He sometimes gets lost in the acronyms of all the different rebel alliances, and the names of all the different rebel leaders. Maybe this should have been kept for a different book entirely. Although I must add, the final chapters, about the years following 2006, are captivating again. In all, a very mind-broadening experience from the first until the very last page!
Bezoek van de knokploeg / druk 1
A story of many different people, in or around the music bussiness, who meet and lose each other, and who all live their own very different lives, searching for happiness in their lives. They wonder where everything went wrong where others went right. They wonder how time could have passed so quickly and unnoticed. They wonder if they could ever feel again like they felt so many years ago.Based on its appearance in many best-of-2011 reading list, I expected a lot more from this book. It's ok, it's amusing to read, and the experiments of the author with a ton of viewing perspectives is very interesting. But the story, the plot, and the characters fail to spark my imagination.
Gedichten voor gelukkige mensen / druk 1
A small collection of poems written by Bart Moeyaert, containing also the ones he wrote while he was city poet for Antwerp. Very nice play with words and feelings, however, moments of pure love or bonding were scarce. As if the emotional spectrum is a bit narrow, and the power of expressing these emotions is not explored to the fullest extent...
We moeten het even over Kevin hebben / druk 3
Eva, a woman from New York with Armenian roots, writes letters to her ex-husband Franklin, about their love life, about how they grow apart from each other, and most of all about their son Kevin who murdered nine people in his school on a Thursday afternoon. She tries to reconstruct where everything went wrong. Is it her fault, is she a bad mother? Could it even be avoided?A book that rips your soul apart. That forces you to stop for a while and take a look at ourself. As Eva is telling us her side of the story, including every tiny and seemingly irrelevant detail of her pregnancy, Kevin's birth, her fights with her husband, it is impossible not to start judging her behaviour. Was she really a bad mother? How would we react in her situation? Does she try to influence us by giving only her side of the story? Does she or does she not love her son? Should she even love him? What could have saved her son from destruction? It is quite possible the answer to that last question is the only sentence which was never spoken out loud in their marriage, "we need to talk about Kevin".If I am obliged to point out a downside: the dialogues are not seldom unrealistic. That could be the product of a poor translation, I'm not sure. Also, a large part of Kevin's childhood, roughly from age 6 to 14, feels 'skipped', even though it could be highly relevant for the development of his character. But still a must read, definitely if you enjoy being emotionally jolted.
Grootste spektakel ter wereld / druk 4: bewijs voor evolutie
The philosphy behind this book is nice but rather awkward: a biologist trying to bring up as much 'proofs' for evolution as possible to give other 'evolution believers' some solid ground when they find themselves in a discussion on the subject with 'non-believers' (creationists or believers of intelligent design). I do not believe Dawkins really achieves this goal, but that doesn't take away that the text is an elegant, well-written, amusing and often astounding bunch of stories and anecdotes on wonderful creatures, intelligent research and original chains of thought.The word 'bunch' indicates the main downside of the book (in my opinion). It lacks some form of story grouping everything together, other than the simple sentence 'evolution is true'. The chapters are often arbitrarely chosen and some more summaries would be welcome. Sometimes Dawkins doesn't know when to stop telling a story, and other times he repeats the same phrase over and over again, but that hardly influences the reading pleasure. It might not 'convert' many non-believers, but it's an amusing read and offers a great view on the wonderful and amazing world we live in.
The Catcher in the Rye
It doesn't happen so often that a book is truly multilayered. This is one of those books. The surface layer is simply a description of a few days in New York, as seen from the viewpoint of 16-year old Holden Caulfield, who just got kicked out of yet another school. His language is typical for a teenager, with lots of repetitions, swear words, and shallow thinking patterns.However, beneath this top layer of misanthropy and finding everything annoying, dull and phony, lies much more. Holden is struggling with growing up, getting to know the world. He is aware that he himself is also annoying, dull and phony quite often. Many grown-up ideas can be distinguished if you scratch through this 16-year old surface layer. As if Holden is coming of age without realizing it himself.In any case, it is amazing how Salinger manages to put all this in an amusing and easily readable story about nothing more than three lousy days in New York. A very good job indeed, and a book worth rereading several times. The older you get, the more there is to discover inside.
Ten zuiden van de grens / druk 15
While reading the book, I planned to rate it three out of five stars, as I was a bit dissapointed after reading other works by Murakami. It felt much more difficult to connect to the main characters as in, for example, Norwegian Wood. However, the two final chapters are so magnificently written, turned the story up side down, and contain so many delicious metaphors that I had to show some mercy and award it with four stars.Not my all-time Murakami favourite, but a strange and captivating (short) story that is hard to put down.
Drama op de jacht / druk 1
I have never felt a real passion for Russian literature, with it's typical cold descriptions of emotions, lots of characters (often with multiple complicated names), and the tendency to describe boring and unimportant matters in full detail. I am, of course, exaggerating, and there are exceptions (personally I am a fan of Dostoyevsky's work). But this book is not.The real action only begins around three quarters into the book, and consists of a rather simple murder story. The announced 'surprising ending' is not as surprising as I had hoped, and is quite abrupt.The main advantage of this book is that it is not too long, and probably a nice introduction to Tsjechov's larger works if you have a few hours of spare time. But you will have to struggle through the dull first 120 pages before things get interesting.
Mira, Mirror
Although the book starts out quite okay and ends with a reasonably interesting chapter, the middle chapters are either too long or too short, constantly switch from narrative to semi-mathematical and back, and are often confusing. The author seems to have difficulties finding a balance between a mathematical and a general treatment of Newton's findings. He tries to avoid formulas as good as possible, but this makes the text often incomprehensible and fuzzy.The author should have made a choice between either writing a thorough physical and mathematical analysis of Newton's work, or a more general and entertaining text about his interesting life and personality. Now he just gets stuck in between.
Geheime kamers (Dutch Edition)
A book on secrets, lies, hidden parts of your life. The story revolves around a woman with the power to captivate every man she meets, twisting them around her little finger and locking them away - figuratively - in her 'secret rooms', where she hides her affairs from her gullible husband. But where the secrets of normal people (like the one her son is trying to hide) are simply uncovered, dealt with, and go away, hers explode like wounds bursting open and covering everyone around her in poisonous pus.The book deserves maybe 3.5 stars, but due to the plot being rather tenuous and some large parts of the text being quite boring, I decided to round it off downwards. The most impressive element is the mesmerizing and diverse vocabulary, the - often hidden - metaphores, the little details popping up once in a while like a musical motif. Beautifully written, but a pretty dull plot.
Monoloog van iemand die het gewoon werd tegen zichzelf te praten
Lightweight and not too unamusing story about a Senegalese prostitute whose customer, a famous Belgian cyclist, dies during a night they spent together. Based, of course, on the death of Frank Vandenbroucke (lack of inspiration, mister Verhulst?). I read this small book in just one night, it gave me a nice relaxed evening. But not much more than that.
Norwegian Wood / druk 20
Amazing. Captivating. This book had me hooked from page 1 until the very end. Murakami has the gift to describe simple, everyday acts and details in a fascinating and unique way. Page after page the emotions of the story are growing stronger and stronger, not in the words or sentences used, but inside your body and mind. The central chapter six, which is somewhat the crux of the story, lasts for 80 pages but doesn't bore a single moment. Simply a must-read for people who are not afraid of some melancholy or downheartedness. As a back-cover reviewer says: it makes you tingle with life.
Het masker van Dante / druk 1
"Niet geschoten is altijd mis." An amusing novel that reads away quite easily, the plot is easy to follow but not too shallow. Unfortunately, the characters (except maybe for Nic Costa and Maggie Flavier) miss any sign of depth and - most frustratingly - the ending is one big deus ex machina. The Dantesk references in the first chapter end abruptly and are not picked up again later, as if they are only there for distraction.All in all, a nice book for a summer holiday, but not the 'literary pageturner', nor the 'sinister combination of Dante's Divina Comedia and Hitchcock's Vertigo, as advertised on the back cover. Although I definitely want to see that movie now.
The Boston Stranglers
The book is structured like a course book, with lots of exercises at the end of each of the three chapters. However, I see very little practical use for it. Students have to be at an advanced level of Latin or Greek (large chunks of text are not translated), and at an advanced level of mathematics at the same time (some of the exercises are rather challenging). The question remains: in which class is this book useful, Latin or mathematics? Are teachers prepared to combine those two subjects? Not really for the average reader. I would only recommend it if you have a scientific background/education and are really interested in Latin or Greek as a language.
De naam van de roos / druk 56: & naschrift
The main plot is sometimes claimed to be a bit meagre, but I disagree, it is quite enjoyable. Besides that, some shorter and longer intermissions are added with theological discussions on heresy, description of visions and buildings, but these are, although a bit boring sometimes, vital to the story as a whole. Many of these things are explained in the enjoyable epilogues. A 'classic' worth reading, not on my top list, but very close! Makes me want to read a lot more of Eco's works!
