The misfortunates by Dimitri Verhulst

The misfortunates by Dimitri Verhulst

Belgian fiction

Translator David Colmer

Dimitri Verhulst is a Belgian writer and he grew up in a broken home and spent a lot of time in foster care .This is often reflected in his fiction .He has written several novel and short stories .The misfortunates ,was made into a film in 2009.The film won a prize in Cannes .

I add the trailer ,which to me seems to capture the character in the book so well .We follow Dimmy the son he is at school and is at a point where he could follow his father and his uncles into a life of drink and misadventures or he could put his head down and study .Now we follow a period as Dimmy begins to see his family are maybe a little different from the normal family .That time as you turn from a child to a teen and a young man ,he is 13 as this happens .

The male members of the Dimmy’s  family,  Dimmy’s father and his uncle’s Potrel ,Herman and Grider  spend a lot of time drinking in the pub  and ending up doing thinks because of the drink like having a naked cycle race this made me smile as I love cycling and the fact that grown men decide to copy the men they seen by doing it naked was funny .They did this as Dimmy was getting drawn towards cycling and being more disciplined in his life .Now Will of Just William compared it to Shameless with chips and Mayo .Which I agree with ,I also got visions of saturday night sunday morning and a hard-edged version of the northern Kitchen sink drama relocate to Belgium and scripted by Irvine Welsh . As the quote below shows this is even linked in the book .

It was only later ,when I read Alan Silltoe’s best known work ,The loneliness of the long distance runner ,that I realized that it had been pure logic that had turned me into a runner as a child .

I loved this quote linking his life a bit with Kitchen sink drama classic loneliness of long distance runner .

 

This book has a feel of a roman a clef  slammed with a coming of age novel .I feel this is Dimitri looking back in some ways to the point he became the writer he is now ,a Robert Frost moment take the trodden path that his family has taken or that unknown one that he seems more drawn too .The book can tug at the heartstrings this is a tough world ,but also a world that has a certain pathos to it .

I enjoyed this book ,I felt this was a very realistic book  given the writers own history ,I read an  interview with him here ,which was interesting in both a small insight into him and also an insight into Belgium .As it is mainly about the Flemish/Wallonia divide that has appeared in recent years in Belgium .I really want to watch the film and hope it gets shown or a uk DVD  release which it hasn’t seemed to as of yet .

 

The character of rain by Amelie Nothomb

Source – Library

Translator – Timothy Bent

Amelie Nothomb is a prize-winning Belgian writer ,she was born in Kobe in Japan and lived in Japan til she was 5 she learnt some Japanese whilst there ,she has had numerous books translated into in English .I ve enjoyed her other books before blogging so really look forward to this and it didn’t let down .

The book focus on Rain a child ,her thoughts as she approaches her third birthday .This is a time the Japanese think think children are gods til the age of three  the Okosma or lord child  .Now this is why I wanted to read this book in particular to compare at some stage to room to see who had caught a child’s voice the best .Now Rain has a wonderful voice, if a bit adult at times and also very funny at times ,she explains how she says mama as her first word and then quickly  has to say papa as she sees dads disappointment that it wasn’t his name first , her brother her sworn enemy ,you she how wonderful the world can appear to a two and half-year old and might I say how down hill it can be from when you reach three .There is a great scene when friends of the parents come with there little boy Hugo ,who Rain initially likes but then he makes friends with her brother ,this is like a first heartbreak but wonderfully funny ending at the same time .

Hugo was a serious and reserved boy .He had made a good impression on me until the moment he went over to the enemy -my brother .The two boys became inserable .To punish him I decided not to name him Hugo .

A first heart-break maybe …

The book is obviously based  partly on her own life ,rain is a child of a Belgium family living in Japan ,this book deals with growing up in a foreign land  been spoken to in two languages ,near the end of the book rain discovers and is fascinated with water ponds river rain .This is a very Japanese way at looking at the world a culture than loves the changing seasons and elements .I love rain she so jumps of the page and became a precious two and half-year old in my head .

Have you read any of her books ?

Do you like books set in Japan by non-Japanese writers ?

wonder by Hugo Claus A.T.W52 POST 1

Wonder was published late last year by archipelago books .It is one of the few Claus in print at the moment ,Claus was one of Belgians major writers having won a lot of prize and also courted controversy with his subject matter and even his own death due to euthanasia .This edition is wonderfully translated by Micheal Henry Heim who also translated my century by Gunter Grass .

   The book is about Victor de Rijckel a teacher in a small town in post war Belgium ,the chapters tend to jump from time to time and are inter speed with what are date notebook entry’s that are written by de Rijckel whilst in a sanatorium in transpires ,in describing events de Rijckel talks about school local people and ends up going to a masquerade ball where he sees and follows a woman to a small village and a meeting of post war fascists including the sinister Crabbe a former member of the ss this eventually leads victor to lying and despair as he question his on morals and people round him at this point he cracks .

14 November ,about 8 o’clock

….and I ve stopped writing .Korneel keeps goading me.Two lines a day and we ll make it he says.Frozen feet .losing weight .draw out vapor.This table was once used for cleaning herring ;you can smell it in the wood.Draw out vapors.Write a fair hand,all curlicues and cues .I don’t want this pen squirting shame on the paper ;I don’t want any regrets;the past clouds sail past.didn’t I say they were spots?Like butterfly spot? I did I sit

     the book its self is square nicely printed ,with a Goya print on the cover