Onno Blom

Een heftige biografie. Jan Wolkers komt er enerzijds goed uit: gedreven, oprecht, gul en dapper. Maar anderzijds is hij manipulatief, bezeten van seks, gewelddadig. Het boek maakt diepe indruk op me, doordat het duidelijk maakt hoe trauma's uit zijn jeugd en de dood van zijn broer doorwerken in zijn leven en zijn boeken. Dat is de kern van de biografie: hoe verwerkt Jan Wolkers zijn waarheid in zijn boeken. Een respectabele zoektocht.

De wondergrijsaard. Portret van Harry Mulisch is a short biography of the Dutch writer Harry Mulisch who died in 2010. The author, Onno Blom, was recently appointed to write the official, or at least, large biography of Mulisch. De wondergrijsaard. Portret van Harry Mulisch lacks a lot of detail. It presents a nice balance with description of Mulisch's life and his work. It is a very light read, enjoyable.

In 2017, Onno Blom published the biography of Jan Wolkers, in the tome Het litteken van de dood biografie Jan Wolkers. Since then, the author published a number of spin-off publications, apparently redistributing scrap materials from his degree projects, such as Zo is het genoeg. Het laatste jaar van Jan Wolkers, published in 2008, De Tarzan van de schapen. Jan Wolkers & Texel., in 2012 and Marszwart & titaanwit : het beeldend werk van Jan Wolkers, 2008, about Wolkers' painting.

Memoires van show more een biograaf. In de voetsporen van Jan Wolkers is truly a scrap book, consisting of notes made by the biographer about visits to Wolkers, their many contact moments, and his search as a biographer for his materials. It contains notes about his thoughts and feelings while working on the biography. Blom warns readers that they will find many ideas and facts which can also be found in the biography.

In the introduction Blom outlines how in his view he was the anointed, destined biographer of Wolkers, the chosen, who spent many years following Wolkers through all his motions an meanderings as a friend and as a pupil. He tries to insert himself in a tradition of biographers with a life-long dedication to an author. Then, too, Blom describes how as an editor for a publisher he also met other authors, about whom he is now writing, as, for instance, in De wondergrijsaard, claiming an early connection to Harry Mulisch, another great Dutch author whose biography remains as yet unwritten.

The prestigious Prive Domein series used to be a book series which was previously exclusively for ego documents by (dead) authors. While previously the editions could exist of inedited materials, they were usually selected reprints of published ego documents such as diaries or correspondence. However, for the past 25 years, the series includes ego documents of living authors, including diaries which were specifically written for inclusion in the series. Memoires van een biograaf. In de voetsporen van Jan Wolkers is a new variant in this genre in the sense that it is a scrap book of notes by a living author about another author. The publisher must have been aware of the parasitic nature of the publication, because this volume was set at the price of just 14.49 euro, which might well be the lowest price for any volume in the series. show less

The author of this small book, Onno Blom was a close friend of the author Jan Wolkers (1925 - 2007). Zo is het genoeg. Het laatste jaar van Jan Wolkers describes the last year and death of Wolkers. It was published in 2008. In the years before that, several volumes of Wolkers's diaries had been published, in apparently random, haphazard order. Zo is het genoeg appears a nice companion volume to that series.

In 2017, Onno Blom published Het litteken van de dood. De biografie van Jan Wolkers, show more to date the standard biography of Jan Wolkers. show less