De geruchten
by Hugo Claus
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Ranyevskaya returns more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and regardless of the increasingly hostile forces outside, she and her brother snub the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin, a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, they put up their lives to auction and seal the fate of the beloved orchard. Set at the very start of the twentieth century, The Cherry Orchard captures a poignant moment in Russia’s history as the show more country rolls inexorably towards 1917. This spirited new version of Chekhov’s last play opens at the National Theatre, London, in May 2011 and follows Andrew Upton’s acclaimed adaptations of Philistines and The White Guard.Hear what I have to say about the Cherry Orchard, because it is mine. I say bring it down, tear it down. Smash it down and tear it down. I will chop this Orchard to the ground. I will rip every stump and root from this earth and burn it into smoke. And on the clear ploughed fields that remain. Watch, watch. Just you watch. On the beautiful river flats - I will build holiday villas, as far as the eye can see. I will build a place for everyone to come and enjoy. For the future. And this will be the future. A new life. A new way of life. Here! Come now and play. Play. Play! Get the band to play. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
First novel of the Belgian giant that I manage to finish (though admittedly I did not try as often as with Reve, the primus inter pares of Dutch literati). And I think it is wonderful, typical, iconic, a Flemish Romeo and Juliet, with all the beauty, coziness, vicious foulness and duplicity of Belgium as a nation thrown in. If this is the essence of the Claus’ style - a modern day parable that provides you with the DNA of a nation – then Claus is a giant.
Reading some reviews I now understand that this was the last novel written by Claus and that it was exceptional in the sense of applying a fast moving style, presenting many different POVs (Claus’ other novels apply the usual terse style that is used by many Dutch literati of his show more generation, making for tough reading and slow unfolding of the story).
The Romeo of the story is Rene Catrijsse, a recently returned deserter of a colonial war in Belgian Congo in the mid-1960s. This Rene has quite a reputation in the village (a typical Belgian village in West Flanders) as a hoodlum, irresponsible thief and playboy. His meek, soft hearted brother, and timid parents running a local bottlestore, do initially not know how to respond to his sudden re-appearance. Neither does Rene feel the urge to explain anything, being traumatized by his experiences in the Congo. This sets the scene for rumours. Rumours whispered in the local pubs, night clubs and homes (including the rectory). When next several people die suddenly of some mysterious illness that manifests itself in body parts turning blue and victims dying a slow and agonizing death, subdued voices add fuel to the rumours. Rene has been seen at night with a mysterious character in a car in the woods. Nosy investigators disappear (after being killed by Rene and his mate, their bodies dumped elsewhere). Rene’s mom is suspected to cover up for her son’s deeds and her past as nazi collaborator re-merges in village talks. Someone paints swastikas on their bottlestore front, people shy away from buying beverages from the family. Rene’s mom visits his real dad (a high-end Belgian collaborator, who impregnated her when working as a nurse in a labour camp in Germany) and requests protection of her son from high-up. The girlfriend of Rene’s brother visits Rene and spends some days frolicking with him in a sea-side hotel. In the end Rene has to disappear. He is called in to meet his captain (de kap), informed of the final judgement and killed. The diamonds left in his possession are sent to his mom and Julia, his brother’s girlfriend. Slowly normalcy returns to the village.
So what’s the DNA of Belgium? Catholic collaboration and suppression of whatever vices; nazi collaboration and State capture; Illegal diamond trading networks operating under the wings of post-colonial wars; illicit parentage and long lasting family secrets. But equally important: a culture of gossips, surprising sources of personal support and understanding (the scene where Rene’s brother loses his mind in the bar), high-flying love affairs and warm patronage networks. show less
Reading some reviews I now understand that this was the last novel written by Claus and that it was exceptional in the sense of applying a fast moving style, presenting many different POVs (Claus’ other novels apply the usual terse style that is used by many Dutch literati of his show more generation, making for tough reading and slow unfolding of the story).
The Romeo of the story is Rene Catrijsse, a recently returned deserter of a colonial war in Belgian Congo in the mid-1960s. This Rene has quite a reputation in the village (a typical Belgian village in West Flanders) as a hoodlum, irresponsible thief and playboy. His meek, soft hearted brother, and timid parents running a local bottlestore, do initially not know how to respond to his sudden re-appearance. Neither does Rene feel the urge to explain anything, being traumatized by his experiences in the Congo. This sets the scene for rumours. Rumours whispered in the local pubs, night clubs and homes (including the rectory). When next several people die suddenly of some mysterious illness that manifests itself in body parts turning blue and victims dying a slow and agonizing death, subdued voices add fuel to the rumours. Rene has been seen at night with a mysterious character in a car in the woods. Nosy investigators disappear (after being killed by Rene and his mate, their bodies dumped elsewhere). Rene’s mom is suspected to cover up for her son’s deeds and her past as nazi collaborator re-merges in village talks. Someone paints swastikas on their bottlestore front, people shy away from buying beverages from the family. Rene’s mom visits his real dad (a high-end Belgian collaborator, who impregnated her when working as a nurse in a labour camp in Germany) and requests protection of her son from high-up. The girlfriend of Rene’s brother visits Rene and spends some days frolicking with him in a sea-side hotel. In the end Rene has to disappear. He is called in to meet his captain (de kap), informed of the final judgement and killed. The diamonds left in his possession are sent to his mom and Julia, his brother’s girlfriend. Slowly normalcy returns to the village.
So what’s the DNA of Belgium? Catholic collaboration and suppression of whatever vices; nazi collaboration and State capture; Illegal diamond trading networks operating under the wings of post-colonial wars; illicit parentage and long lasting family secrets. But equally important: a culture of gossips, surprising sources of personal support and understanding (the scene where Rene’s brother loses his mind in the bar), high-flying love affairs and warm patronage networks. show less
De geruchten is one of the last novels by the Flemish author Hugo Claus. It is a book that is very inaccessible and difficult to read because of its multifocus perspective, which recreates the way "gossip" in a small community works. The novels consists of dozens of turns, each only a few pages long, of many villagers from a small village, many of whom frequent the local pub "De Doofpot". But while problems in this community have disappeared from official public discourse, problems are all but smothered in "De Doofpot" which is more like a "Pot au Feu" in which these issues keep simmering for ever.
The problems are all centred around one family, the Catrijsses, who collaborated with the nazis in World War II; later, their son, René show more Catrijsse, was involved in obscure, criminal activities, and fought in Belgium's colonial war in the Congo. Coming back wounded from the war as a deserter, in 1966, and returning to the village, where time seems to have stood still, René lounges and gets laid with some of the girls in the village, before disappearing to Amsterdam. As a mysterious illness afflicts the people in the village, suspicious eyes are turned to Catrijsse, and the gossip mills start turning. Gossip about the Catrijsse family has persisted for ever in Alegem, ever since World War II, through the 1960s, when René came back from the Congo and long after he has disappeared, as becomes clear from the talks with and around Noël, Renés younger brother.
The postmodern style and structure make De geruchten very difficult to read. show less
The problems are all centred around one family, the Catrijsses, who collaborated with the nazis in World War II; later, their son, René show more Catrijsse, was involved in obscure, criminal activities, and fought in Belgium's colonial war in the Congo. Coming back wounded from the war as a deserter, in 1966, and returning to the village, where time seems to have stood still, René lounges and gets laid with some of the girls in the village, before disappearing to Amsterdam. As a mysterious illness afflicts the people in the village, suspicious eyes are turned to Catrijsse, and the gossip mills start turning. Gossip about the Catrijsse family has persisted for ever in Alegem, ever since World War II, through the 1960s, when René came back from the Congo and long after he has disappeared, as becomes clear from the talks with and around Noël, Renés younger brother.
The postmodern style and structure make De geruchten very difficult to read. show less
I don't know, i honestly don't. It's a nice book on simple people, living in a small village, getting involved in not so simple events, partially root caused in past and present wars. In part 1 we get in short chapters different viewpoints on the current events with now and then references to the past. In part 2 the only thing we get is an interview by the police of one of the main characters confessing a series of events that happened some undefined time later then the ones in part 1.
Allthough the author was for some time mentionned to be a candidate Nobel prize winner, or at least considered so here in Belgium, he never got to me. Not with his masterwork Het verdriet van België, and not with this one as well.
Good village life show more descriptions, a nice feeling of some characteristics of the "small" people, well written.....but not gripping, "the bite" completely missing.
I feel no sympathy with any of the characters, no compassion, nothing really. The events also start to look a bit grotesque to me as the story unfolds...
No, Claus, i gave him a second try, based on the recommendation by a notorious reader on the monthly bookevent "Uitgelezen" ("Finished reading") in Ghent, Belgium, but it's a fail. show less
Allthough the author was for some time mentionned to be a candidate Nobel prize winner, or at least considered so here in Belgium, he never got to me. Not with his masterwork Het verdriet van België, and not with this one as well.
Good village life show more descriptions, a nice feeling of some characteristics of the "small" people, well written.....but not gripping, "the bite" completely missing.
I feel no sympathy with any of the characters, no compassion, nothing really. The events also start to look a bit grotesque to me as the story unfolds...
No, Claus, i gave him a second try, based on the recommendation by a notorious reader on the monthly bookevent "Uitgelezen" ("Finished reading") in Ghent, Belgium, but it's a fail. show less
Begin jaren ’60 keert René Catrysse na 3 jaar terug uit Congo: hij is gedeserteerd uit het koloniaal leger dat daar heeft huisgehouden en heeft een tijd met enkele companen (contractuelen) rondgetrokken.
Zeker hoogtepunt in oeuvre: alle klassieke Claus-thema’s komen er in voor (de beknelling van familie en dorp, de kerk, de onmogelijkheid tot communicatie enz., obsessie met sexualiteit, perverse rol van collaboratieverleden).
Het Faulknerprocédé van de verschillende personages-invalshoeken wordt weer systematisch toegepast. De stijl is realistisch maar bij wijlen ook lichtironiserend en soms evolutie tot burlesk. Af en toe net over de rand van het ontspoorde. In essentie is De Geruchten een remake van De Metsiers, maar veel show more origineler en rijper show less
Zeker hoogtepunt in oeuvre: alle klassieke Claus-thema’s komen er in voor (de beknelling van familie en dorp, de kerk, de onmogelijkheid tot communicatie enz., obsessie met sexualiteit, perverse rol van collaboratieverleden).
Het Faulknerprocédé van de verschillende personages-invalshoeken wordt weer systematisch toegepast. De stijl is realistisch maar bij wijlen ook lichtironiserend en soms evolutie tot burlesk. Af en toe net over de rand van het ontspoorde. In essentie is De Geruchten een remake van De Metsiers, maar veel show more origineler en rijper show less
Aug 13, 2010Dutch
Weer zo'n "hoogtepunt" uit de literatuur waar ik me overheen moest slepen.
Dec 7, 2008Dutch
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Man spürt sofort, daß hier ein freier, unabhängiger Kopf und großer Erzähler am Werk ist. Seine Destruktivität ist von einer Schärfe und Entschiedenheit, wie man sie lange nicht gelesen hat, und sie wird von beißender Komik im Übermaß konterkariert.
added by Indy133
Author Information
309+ Works 6,231 Members
Author and artist Hugo Claus was born in Bruges, Belgium in 1929. While in Paris, in his early twenties, he explored surrealism, existentialism, and modernism as a member of the Cobra group of experimentalist artists. Later in Rome he concerned himself with filmmaking and actually produced a film called Friday for which he wrote the script show more himself. He can be regarded as the primary developer of a technique which has become known as intertextuality. Its application in The Sign of the Hamster led to accusations of plagiarism, an accusation which many critics rejected because of the recognizability of the references which vary from the classics to the Middle Ages and his own time. He gained recognition as painter, poet, playwright, filmmaker, and writer of classical, psychological, modernist, and experimentalist novels. His best known work is The Sorrow of Belgium. The book consists of two parts, the first strongly autobiographic, situated in a Roman Catholic boarding school in Belgium, from which Louis, the protagonist, is expelled. The second part describes the experiences of a large number of people, including Louis's mother and father, during and shortly after World War II. He was charged with blasphemy for the play Masscheroen because of his irreverent representation of the Holy Trinity on the stage. This charge and the possibility of plagiarism identify Claus as a controversial writer. He died by euthanasia in Antwerp, Belgium on March 19, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- De geruchten
- Original title
- De geruchten : roman
- Original publication date
- 1996
- People/Characters
- René Catrijsse; Alma Moens; Dolf Catrijsse; Noël Catrijsse; Charlie; Il Capo (show all 9); Il reverendo Lamantijn; Julia Rombouts; Il maestro Arsène
- Epigraph*
- 'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;
All just supply and all relation.'
JOHN DONNE
La dèmarche des belges, folle et lourde
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE - First words
- Dolf Catrijsse staat bij het raam, met zijn rug naar de eetkamer en naar de persoon die in de rieten zetel met de bebloemde kussens zit die sinds jaren aan Dolf is voorbehouden.
Dolf Catrijsse è in piedi davanti alla finestra, con le spalle rivolte alla sala da pranzo e alla persona seduta nella poltrona di vimini con i cuscini a fiori che da anni è riservata a lui. - Quotations
- Bisogna essere prudenti con le dicerie, si trasformano rapidamente in realtà.
Ogni tanto Dolf e Alma avevano visto in televisione dei soldati bianchi scivolare curvi tra gli arbusti della savana. All'improvviso venivano sferzati da una pioggia di lance e di frecce e urlavano nel dialetto delle Fiandre ... (show all)occidentali. Una di quelle voci avrebbe potuto essere di René. Correvano, agitando le braccia, ma nessuno di loro assomigliava a René. Nemmeno l'ultimo, quello che l'elicottero non era riuscito a raggiungere e che era rimasto lì, in ginocchio, con una decina di frecce nella schiena e nel collo.
I negri che li inseguivano, gridando, ballando e sparando con le mitragliatrici contro l'elicottero, erano ragazzi di quattordici anni vestiti da donna, con parrucche color paglia in testa e képi belgi. Alcuni avevano reggiseni bianchi con dipinti capezzoli sanguinanti.
"La mamma è andata al supermercato", dice. "Speriamo che non si scordi le sigarette. Perché la prossima settimana il prezzo aumenterà. Il governo ha deciso di levarci ogni piacere. Ecco cosa capita quando cattolici e socia... (show all)listi vanno al potere insieme".
Lo ammetto, non è una cosa di cui andiamo fieri, ma un essere umano deve pur far qualcosa con i suoi simili, tormentarli o fotterli.
"Ascolta", dice.
"Ascolto", dice René.
"Haydn", spiega Charlie. "Quando ancora insegnavo, paragonavo sempre le sonate di Haydn ai diamanti. Estratti dalle viscere della Terra e portati alla trascendenza. Questa deve es... (show all)sere in re maggiore. La numero trentuno. Del 1766 o del 1768. Peccato che non abbiamo del libano rosso, la musica si sente molto meglio con una canna di libano rosso".
Noi [...] non optiamo mai per un'unica spiegazione convincente. Tutte le cose sono collegate fra loro, solo che non sappiamo bene come.
"Simon", gli disse il Capo, "io terrei d'occhio meglio gli stati confinanti, tutti e tre."
"Capo", risposero le labbra screpolate, "se due elefanti combattono tra di loro, chi ci rimette di più?"
Mentre riflette il Cap... (show all)o ha, come Michiels, un'aria di preistorica stupidità. "Il più debole", risponde.
Simon Bukule sniffò una pista di coca, si appoggiò allo schienale e lo guardò con aria appagata, beffarda.
"L'erba", disse poi.
"Non ho più fiducia in Dio. È intelligente e saggio e ho l'impressione che esista per aiutarci, ma non ci dice mai quando." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Dat doet altijd plezier.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Sapete una cosa? Mandate una cartolina ad Alma una volta. Fa sempre piacere. - Original language
- Neerlandese
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- General Fiction, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 839.31364 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures Other Germanic literatures Netherlandish literatures Dutch Dutch fiction 20th Century 1945-1999
- LCC
- PT6410 .C553 .G47 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures Flemish literature since 1830 Individual authors or works
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