Jan Wolkers (1925–2007)

Each year, since 2006, a book is selected and freely distributed through public libraries as a "national reading experience". In 2019, this book consisted of a selection of the writings of Jan Wolkers. It consists of a number of letters, pieces of prose and a full version of Groeten van Rottumerplaat. The work of
Wolkers is preceded by two introductions, a general introduction by Ronald Giphart and a more specific introduction to the work by the Wolkers biographer Onno Blom. There are a few show more small contributions by other writers.

The general introduction by Giphart is peculiar in the sense that he suggests these fragments were chosen to fit the overall theme of sustainability. This is really stretching the point, because none of Wolkers's writings are about sustainability of conservation. Giphart also calls Wolkers one of the best Dutch writers about nature and natural history, and this is obviously not true. Why else would the editors have so much difficulty to put together such a thin volume of just over a hundred pages?

It is true that Wolkers has a eye for the natural environment, and includes some detail about plants and animals that other writers might miss, but Wolkers is no great naturalist. Then, too, Wolkers studied biology or intended to study Biology as a young man, and in his final years, after having retired from writing he lived close to nature, painting and drawing and contributing small publications about his garden and his cats, but to suggest that he is one of the greatest writers about nature is really far-fetched. show less

Olga es burguesa, pelirroja y sensual hasta quitar el aliento. Él es un artista sin un centavo, rudo, práctico. Todo comienza con un choque automovilístico provocado por un doloroso cierre de bragueta, que desemboca en un matrimonio arrollador, desaforado, que desafía los prejuicios de la educación de Olga y se convierte en un paraíso terrenal en el que la locura es el destino final. Escrita a fines de los sesenta, Delicias turcas cuenta la historia de un amorío sorprendente, show more tempestuoso, sensual, escandalosamente explícito, una pasión de esas que sólo la muerte puede destruir. Pero también es una cruda y satírica mirada sobre el conflicto entre la potencia represora de la sociedad burguesa y los arrolladores embates de la revolución sexual. Delicias turcas ha sido traducida a más de diez idiomas y llevada a la pantalla grande por Paul Verhoeven en 1972. show less

De perzik van onsterfelijkheid is a novel that I would consider typically Dutch and typical for Jan Wolkers. It is typical for Dutch literature in the sense that it is extremely banal, with a lot of base humor. It is typical for Wolkers, particularly for his middle period through the focus on dirt, shit, slime or other filth, in this case dog shit.

Otherwise, the novel is a pleasant, and fluent read, with detail for environment and location. Like many modern novels, it is based of a very thin show more story, or hardly any.

I have also wondered whether the structure, the tendency of being preoccupied with certain motives and the relative absence of a story line has anything to do with the way Wolkers wrote his books. According to the diaries, he would work very methodically. Every morning he would write just one page. And that's the way it feels, as if each page is a new beginning. But this interpretation may be deceptive because the diaries do not mention revision or other editorial work. show less

This was Wolkers's last work of prose fiction, a novella written as the gift-book for the Dutch book promotion week (Boekenweek) in 2005. It's a curious mixture of bird-spotting, hardcore porn, and organised crime, set among the sand-dunes of the Dutch island of Texel where Wolkers lived for many years. There are some bits of quite inspired writing in the sex-scenes, but they seem to be written with a firm conviction that it's still 1970 and women's liberation is all about the right to take show more your clothes off on the beach. The crime story is clumsily cobbled together, apparently as an afterthought when the author realised that the love-story couldn't be made to fill enough pages - he has the narrator describe the key scene no fewer than five times, in slightly different situations. Perhaps it would have been kinder to leave Wolkers to enjoy his retirement in peace. show less