Montag, 26. März 2012

salvador - henk van straten (2011)

after reading van straten's satire novel superlul, i decided to read this one, which was released at the same time. the two books probably could't be more different, but they're both great!

hendrie perenboom travels to spain to meet his son, a seven-year-old boy, of whose existence he didn't know until some weeks ago. before he confronts the mother and the boy, he spies on them, wanting to know if he really is the father and why this is suddenly becoming an issue for the mother, who asked him to come.

a wonderful portrait. the best part is the inner struggle of hendrie, who refers to himself as ishmael of both the bible and herman melville's moby dick, and his hard fought but useless trying to develop from a hopeless juvenile delinquent to the man he desperatly wants to be, told in little episodes between the main story.

the book is nominated for the dutch literary price libris.

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