Willem Elsschot (1882–1960)

In early September 1939, the narrator and his wife are invited for a jaunt to the Ardennes by their brother-in-law, Antwerp ship-broker Jack Peeters, who wants to try out his powerful new car. They arrive in Bastogne, book into a local hotel, and are busy buying souvenir hams when they hear the news of the outbreak of war on the radio. Jack is surprisingly happy about the news, and explains it to them over a bottle of champagne in the hotel bar.

A year earlier, it seems, he was contacted by show more the mysterious Mr Boorman via a small ad in the Journal de la Marine marchande. Boorman told him that a friend of his, a shipbuilder in France, was in trouble with the tax authorities and needed to unload an asset to a foreign owner urgently. He wanted Peeters to become nominal owner of the tanker Guadeloupe — free of charge — and sell her on for a share of the profits, which were bound to be huge if war should break out.

If you’ve ever deleted an email from a Nigerian prince, you probably have an idea of where this might be going: indeed, Boorman’s spiel seems to have all the hallmarks of the professional conman. But you’d be wrong. Elsschot is actually entrapping us into a clever satire attacking the capitalists who welcomed the outbreak of war for all the wrong reasons. It’s perhaps even no coincidence that the nested-narrative format echoes Heart of Darkness.

Engaging and fun, but somehow you feel that there ought to be more here than a 70-page novella. Elsschot claimed that the story was based on something he had been told by his own brother-in-law, who was in shipping, and he hinted several times that he was working on a continuation of the story, but nothing ever emerged. show less

Laarmans, a rather unassuming office clerk in the harbor of Antwerpen, is via an influential friend suddenly getting the opportunity to become general agent for a dutch cheese manufacturer. Despite hating cheese, Laarmans is swept away by the prospect of becoming an entrepenuer – and not least what such a label does to his self-image – and faking an illness, takes a sick leave from his job to start this new, prosperous venture. The future is so bright it’s blinding, despite what show more nay-sayers like his wife and brother think of it. However, finding the right desk takes time, finding the right type-writer and letter paper does too, and before he is even set up there are twenty tons of edamer delivered to him. How does one even sell cheese?

This is a deceptively light-handed, slender book about being in love with who you think you should be, and the inability to say no. It’s a fine example of early modernist writing, a little bit like a gentler Kafka. But the style and the awkwardness of Laarmans also reminds me a little of Magnus Mills, which is high praise. I also have to admit to blushing at times – there’s definitely a little Laarmans in me. show less

I liked this book a lot. It's very short and quick to read. Obviously I picked it up because it's called cheese and it's about cheese. It kind of reminded me of Death of a Salesman, but much more lighthearted and funny. The only thing that really bugged me was the main character's attitude towards his wife and kids. He's definitely a misogynist. I guess he wasn't supposed to be the most likable protagonist because he's both cocky and incompetent. He's kind of a bumbling sort of dumb guy who show more realizes he's in over his head in a business he never cared about just because he wants to seem cool. That being said, I think he's also supposed to be relatable in some ways, so I'm not sure if his attitude towards his wife is supposed to indicate that he's not the best guy or if it's just a symptom of the times. show less

The long-serving office-worker Frans Laarmans suddenly gets the chance to set up in business on his own account as a cheese importer. He's essentially a Flemish Mr Pooter, a kindly, mild-mannered husband and father who achieved his maximum promotion level in the shipyard office many years ago, but who can't resist this one last chance to bite off more than he can chew. Laarmans has a lot of fun picking a name for his business, ordering headed notepaper and setting up an office, but then the show more first batch of twenty tons of Edammer arrives and it becomes all too clear that he is not psychologically equipped to go into grocers' shops and persuade them to order his cheese, even after a session with an expert motivator.

A gentle little social comedy, no real fireworks, but an engaging central character and a lot of charming period detail about commercial life in the thirties. show less