Marnix Gijsen (1899–1984)

A set of seven cheerfully ironic short stories, reflecting Gijsen's sober rational/humanist view of the world. Accidents, illness and unhappy marriages happen for no good reason, but we have to deal with them and put up with their unavoidable consequences.

The title story takes its theme from those radio messages that used to come on after the news in the pre-mobile-phone era — "Mr So and so, believed to be on holiday in the South of France, driving a blue Ford Cortina registration number show more such and such, is urgently requested to contact Marylebone Hospital where his mother is seriously ill" (some knowing person would always comment "that means she's died"). In other stories he writes about his sister-in-law desperately trying to make her husband notice the new furniture, or about his own doomed relationship with his (now ex-) wife, or about a charming late-life flirtation with a hospital nurse who turned out to be a fan of his early verse. All very enjoyable, and quite fittingly illustrated by Wout van Vliet, who also did the cover art. show less

Marnix Gijsen published Telemachus in het dorp. Een verhaal zonder wind of wolken (1948) after his break away from the Catholic Church and faith. The novel is a severe criticism of the hypochrisy of life in the Flemish countryside, where life in small villages during the turn of the century was dominated by the mayor, the parson, the school head master, and the village council secretary. In the fictional village Blaren, the latter three are the most powerful, and they are all family members show more of the young Marnix: Uncle Louis Leenaerts, the parson, Uncle Leander, the head master, and Uncle Felix, the council secretary.

As the young Marnix is caught playing sexual games with one of his friends, he is sent to spend the summer holiday in Blaren. Telemachus in het dorp. Een verhaal zonder wind of wolken is a retrospective view on this summer. While as a young boy, Marnix was unlikely to see through the hypochrisy in the village, the sharp eye and comment of the elder Marnix is ruthless. The Telemachus of the title should not be taken to refer to the Odyssey by Homer, but rather as a reference to François Fénelon's Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699), (Eng. The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses, a fierce denunciation of the aristocracy, which is what Telemachus in het dorp. Een verhaal zonder wind of wolken is.

The myth of the village as a pure, and peaceful haven is soon broken by describing the background of some of the locals. Uncle Felix is described as a womanizer. Rape, suicide, adultery, avarice, socialism: all the "evils" associated with life in the cities are also found in the countryside. show less

Een jonge man van kleine adel wordt door zijn moeder zorgvuldig voorbereid op de diplomatieke carriere. Hij ondergaat die fysieke en geestelijke tucht gewillig en vervult uiteindelijk haar wens: hij eindigt zijn loopbaan als ambassadeur. Dit gaat niet zonder moeilijkheden, want al in zijn eerste post staat hij voor een zwaar probleem: de nymfomane ondernemerszucht van de ambassadrice, de vrouw van zijn chef. De oplossing die hij voor dit probleem bedenkt, schijnt hem een meesterlijke zet, show more maar zij beinvloed zijn verdere loopbaan ongunstig… show less

Ik heb me nogal geergerd and de wat melige/ cynische toon. Ik denk niet dat ik meer Marnix Gijsen wil lezen.