February 7, 2015
This Dutch novel is a few years old (some references to technology and President Bush show this), but was translated into English in the last couple of years. It's currently being hyped as Holland's Gone Girl, and while I wouldn't agree, I could see a couple of reasons for this. Mostly, nothing is as it seems at the beginning, and the twisted truth about the characters is revealed as the story progresses.
There was not one character that I sympathized with in this book, except maybe the mortified young waitress. Paul, the narrator, is certifiable. Hell, that's how he lost his teaching job. I don't think his wife works, either, so how are they middle class? Since Paul is "nonactive" and can't get another job without the consent of a psychologist, are they receiving Holland's version of Social Security? And if so, how can these sponges go around feeling so high and mighty?
At first I sympathized with Paul, before I even really knew anything about him. He and his wife were to have dinner with his brother Serge, a candidate for prime minister. My opinion about Serge never changed throughout the book. He comes off as smug and arrogant, and even though he's the only one of the group that wanted to do the right thing, it was for the wrong reasons. But at first, I imagined Paul suffering through yet another dinner with his pompous brother. Yet they must be close. Their respective sons hang out together, and together committed at least three separate unspeakable acts of violence.
Michel, Paul and Claire's boy, inherited his father's unnamed mental illness...maybe. Paul is a violent man, and has thoughts that are grotesque and beliefs about the value of human life that are questionable at best. How did he not go to jail for beating up Michel's principal? Why didn't Serge press charges against Paul for bashing his face with a skillet? I don't know much about the laws on assault in Holland, but that doesn't seem right to me somehow.
This book had some intriguing ideas, but I don't think Koch should have revolved it around a dinner in one evening. There was a lot of reflection on Paul's part. I think the tension would have worked better if it'd started the night that Paul and Claire each separately recognized their son on the news, on a fuzzy surveillance video showing Michel and his cousin Rick assaulting a homeless woman in an ATM vestibule before setting her on fire. The story could still be told the same way, but with less of these flashbacks needed. As is, that all important tension barely had time to build. The reader finds out what Claire really knew almost at the same time as you learn all that Paul knew. It's too rushed.
So again, this was a book that, while interesting and perhaps worth reading, wasn't as good as it could have been. Otherwise, I was intrigued by Claire and Paul's blind protectiveness of their son. Never mind that he's a remorseless killer. Never mind that he should face justice for what he's done. They not only plan an assault on Serge to keep the truth from being revealed, but also enable Michel to kill Rick's adopted brother Beau to keep him from revealing the truth. What the fuck?
I did find myself wondering what I'd do if I were in Claire or Babette's situation. I don't have kids and don't really want them, so I guess to some extent I can't really "get" these characters. At the same time, I'm a human being, and even though Michel and Rick are only teenagers, they still did monstrous things, then allowed their mamas to help them cover it up. Babette wasn't in on the "disappearance" of her son Beau, of course, but she did take Paul and Claire's side when Serge proposed turning them in. After his assault, Serge backed off on that, though he never did get elected Prime Minister.
See, the dinner itself, though it was meant to serve as the structure of the story, wasn't the point at all. I'm still glad I read this book, though, which won awards in its native country. I've already read books this year from Sweden, Russia, and now Holland. I should seek out a contemporary novel translated from an Asian country and really go around the world (with my reading) this year!
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