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Reading Update January 2025
Mar. 14th, 2025 10:44 pmIn January of this year I read
Kindred (transl.) by Octavia E Butler
Tramhalte Beethovenstraat (transl.) by Grete Weil
Croix de cendre (transl.) by Antoine Senanque
De weduwe van de kolonie, by Marja Visscher (audiobook)
I often find it hard to say anything sensible about the books I've read but I would like to practice that, hence this first dingy little monthly review.
I've seen Octavia Butler's books around and I would like to read the Parable of the Sower as well. I just don't have any intelligent thoughts on Kindred, it was just fascinating to read about this main character being pulled into time to save the life of the slave owner of her ancestors, who was also an ancestor of her. The conflicting thoughts and complicated emotions about being dragged through time were interesting to read and I do recommend the book.
Tramhalte Beethovenstraat was also a fascinating read. My family didn't experience persecution during the Shoah, but the war was a topic on any family gathering on my maternal side as my grandfather had living memory of the war. My grandmother was a few years younger and never speaks on her experiences, but all through my childhood she has given me books about the Shoah in particular. In my life I've read quite a lot of (older) fiction on WWII, but never from a German perspective like this. The main character boards in a house that is near the tram stop at the Beethovenstraat, where Jewish people are gathered to be sent away in the night. The main character doesn't understand what is happening and seeks help from a 'nerve doctor' because he thinks he has lost his mind. It's a very poignant book and it doesn't shy away from the dark aspects of history. I would like to read more books by Grete Weil but my local library doesn't have any more of her titles at this point.
Croix de cendre broke my brain a few times because I wasn't familiar with the specific time period or the happenings in the church at the time, but it was a sort of mesmerizing read about religion I sometimes could barely grasp, and about deep, long friendships.
De weduwe van de kolonie is a fictional account of life in the Society of Humanitarianism in the Netherlands, and I have 2-3 generations of ancestors who lived there and tried to make a life for themselves there. I previously read Will Schackman's non-fiction books about the colonies and I found them very interesting and illuminating. Susanna Jansen wrote a book Het Pauperparadijs about her own ancestors and both this and Schackman's books seem to have started a new wave of 'colony books' (the colony in the North of the Netherlands) including De vondeling van Veenhuizen by Patricia Snel.
But with Dutch historical fiction I tend to run into the same problem over and over again: I love historical fiction with detailed descriptions of the physical environment of the characters, and complex inner lives, and in my experience the Dutch historical fiction genre falls flat compared to so, so much of foreign historical fiction. The environment feels empty and the character's inner worlds even flatter. I find it hard to empathize with main character Kaatje and the decisions she makes, and her relationships with others just seem shallow in a way. In the beginning the story is quite strong, but then events follow each other up so quickly that there is not really any space to process them as the reader or for the main character. I feel like the decisions she makes aren't deeply supported by an internal world; something happens, there is an immediate reaction and the character moves on, there aren't any deep reflections or scenes where you can tell the character is impacted by her environment and experiences. It all stays quite shallow and chronological.
Kindred (transl.) by Octavia E Butler
Tramhalte Beethovenstraat (transl.) by Grete Weil
Croix de cendre (transl.) by Antoine Senanque
De weduwe van de kolonie, by Marja Visscher (audiobook)
I often find it hard to say anything sensible about the books I've read but I would like to practice that, hence this first dingy little monthly review.
I've seen Octavia Butler's books around and I would like to read the Parable of the Sower as well. I just don't have any intelligent thoughts on Kindred, it was just fascinating to read about this main character being pulled into time to save the life of the slave owner of her ancestors, who was also an ancestor of her. The conflicting thoughts and complicated emotions about being dragged through time were interesting to read and I do recommend the book.
Tramhalte Beethovenstraat was also a fascinating read. My family didn't experience persecution during the Shoah, but the war was a topic on any family gathering on my maternal side as my grandfather had living memory of the war. My grandmother was a few years younger and never speaks on her experiences, but all through my childhood she has given me books about the Shoah in particular. In my life I've read quite a lot of (older) fiction on WWII, but never from a German perspective like this. The main character boards in a house that is near the tram stop at the Beethovenstraat, where Jewish people are gathered to be sent away in the night. The main character doesn't understand what is happening and seeks help from a 'nerve doctor' because he thinks he has lost his mind. It's a very poignant book and it doesn't shy away from the dark aspects of history. I would like to read more books by Grete Weil but my local library doesn't have any more of her titles at this point.
Croix de cendre broke my brain a few times because I wasn't familiar with the specific time period or the happenings in the church at the time, but it was a sort of mesmerizing read about religion I sometimes could barely grasp, and about deep, long friendships.
De weduwe van de kolonie is a fictional account of life in the Society of Humanitarianism in the Netherlands, and I have 2-3 generations of ancestors who lived there and tried to make a life for themselves there. I previously read Will Schackman's non-fiction books about the colonies and I found them very interesting and illuminating. Susanna Jansen wrote a book Het Pauperparadijs about her own ancestors and both this and Schackman's books seem to have started a new wave of 'colony books' (the colony in the North of the Netherlands) including De vondeling van Veenhuizen by Patricia Snel.
But with Dutch historical fiction I tend to run into the same problem over and over again: I love historical fiction with detailed descriptions of the physical environment of the characters, and complex inner lives, and in my experience the Dutch historical fiction genre falls flat compared to so, so much of foreign historical fiction. The environment feels empty and the character's inner worlds even flatter. I find it hard to empathize with main character Kaatje and the decisions she makes, and her relationships with others just seem shallow in a way. In the beginning the story is quite strong, but then events follow each other up so quickly that there is not really any space to process them as the reader or for the main character. I feel like the decisions she makes aren't deeply supported by an internal world; something happens, there is an immediate reaction and the character moves on, there aren't any deep reflections or scenes where you can tell the character is impacted by her environment and experiences. It all stays quite shallow and chronological.
