Transit

The cover art of this one immediately made me think of Sandrine Bonnaire in Agnes Varda's 1985 film Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond), and indeed there seem to be a lot of parallels between these two snapshots from the lives of teenage girls estranged from society and living rough. But maybe only at an obvious, superficial level: Varda starts with a defined ending and works backwards, whilst Haasse takes care to fill in a past for her character Xenia ("Iks"), but to leave the future undefined.

Xenia has returned to Amsterdam, homeless and penniless, after a year or so of travelling around Europe doing odd jobs where she can. She wants to resume contact with the two friends she left behind after their grand project to travel the world was show more broken off in acrimony, but Daan seems to have turned into a broken and uncommunicative junkie, whilst Alma has disappeared — apparently into sex-work. Whilst she attempts to pick up the pieces, she finds temporary shelter with an elderly philosopher who has withdrawn from the world in disgust after his experiences in Paris in 1968. And, inevitably, they use the opportunity to share their experiences of the many things that are wrong with the (modern) world.

Haasse has written a lot of short fiction in her time, and clearly knows how to handle the form: this somehow feels like a much more substantial book than it actually is, as though there were hundreds of extra pages that had been written and then deleted because they weren't really necessary. Very impressive, and moving. show less

Hella S. Haasse (1918–2011) was the grand old lady of Dutch letters. Although for many years, literary critics ignored her work, which they characterized as belletristic, and therefore less literary, Haasse had no trouble finding readers for her work. In fact, her work was translated and read in other languages long before that of the critics' favourites, and in more than 60 years of her active live as an author Hella S. Haasse was able to entice various generations of readership. Unlike any other Dutch author, she was selected thrice to write the Boekenweekgeschenk a complimentary publication of approximately 96 pages, presented to book buyers during the annual "Week of the Book" in March, a Dutch tradition since 1930. Haasse wrote show more Oeroeg in 1948 (her literary debut), Dat weet ik zelf niet, an essay, in 1959, and Transit in 1994.

The strength of Haasse's work is probably that she can go with the time, while writing from a contemplative, melancholic mood, while touching on themes which are central to the Dutch imagination and culture. Haasse has written several historical novels, many of which set in the former Dutch Indies (now Indonesia), where she was born. Oeroeg (filmed in 1993) is about the Dutch Colonial war in which friends who grew up together, Dutch and Indonesian, find each other on opposite sides in the Indonesian war of Independence.

The short novel Transit is about a different conflict, namely that of generations. Arnold Cluysman, the name suggests a life of solitude, kluizenaar, related to English "cloister", is a demented old man, who is piecing together his life and intellectual legacy. Fragments of his writing suggest he belongs to the generation that rebelled in the late 1960s, striving for new ideals in 1968 in Paris, which became known in Dutch culture as "De verbeelding aan de macht", by the Dutch journalist Bob Groen. It reflects the ideal of the hippies that society can be reshaped in any possible way, that reality follows the imagination. By portraying Cluysman as a decrepit old man, Haasse shows how far and forgotten the ideals of the 1960s and 70s now are. In the early 1990s, Haasse was early to see where things are going. The idealism of the young generation, to drop out from school, to go to Paris, has brought ruin. Her school friend Daan, a junky, left on the street to freeze to death, her other school friend, Alma, who cannot be found, rumoured to be a prostitute. The novel follows Iks Westervliet, her life, upon her return to Amsterdam: no friends, no money, no job, no future, not welcome. The only jobs she can get are taking care of old people (Dutch: Thuiszorg) and garbage collector, the worst. That is the life of Iks, which can alternatively be spelled as "X" and her generation. Generation X.

Transit is a very bleak novella, which is also a time document. The most optimistic part is perhaps the title, which suggests that nothing remains the same. Generation X may be in transit on the way to a (better) future. As the heydays of Cluysman's generation were forgotten in just under 25 years, likewise, hopefully, Generation X may find itself better situated 25 years on. show less

I read this book a long time ago. Frankly speaking, I do not really remember what it is about. It hasn't impressed me very much.
So when another copy of this book came along in a book box from Moem, I made it available for BookCrossing as well as BookMooch.
And, guess what? It'll go on a journey to England... Who would have thought that!

Uitgeleend aan Denisa Filip op 18 nov 2022

Volgens mij staat het boek al een kwart eeuw bij mij in de kast, maar op de een of andere manier is het ook op mijn E-reader beland. En daar kwam ik het in de zomer tegen, toen ik op zoek was naar een dun boekje voor tussendoor. En toen las ik dus wel wat ik al die jaren genegeerd had.

Iks komt aan op het station en weet niet waar ze naar toe kan. En, toeval wil, ze belandt in een huis van een oude man, wiens hulp niet meer de hulp wil zijn. Dus voor kost en inwoning wil ze wel wat klusjes doen. In de tussentijd gaat ze op zoek naar vrienden die ze is kwijt geraakt, maar die zelf de weg ook zijn kwijt geraakt.

Mooie gesprekken, prachtige gedachtekronkels, het tweetal verschilt veel, maar lijkt stiekem ook wel weer wel op elkaar. Maar de show more situatie is natuurlijk niet houdbaar. Want er zijn altijd anderen die het nieuwe status quo willen doorbreken.

In mijn beleving had het boek nog wel veel langer door mogen gaan, er had volgens mij wel een roman in gezeten, ipv deze novelle. Ik had wel willen lezen hoe het verder gaat met Iks, met Cluysmans. Maar goed, nu was ik er vrij snel doorheen, weer een nieuwe keuze te maken. Next.

Citaat: “Maar angst en hoop zijn even zinloos wanneer mutatie afhankelijk is van een onvoorspelbare volstrekt toevallige, misschien maar minieme, wijziging in onze genen, die zich ten enenmale onttrekt aan ons begrip, onze wil, onze beste voornemens. We zijn machteloos. Dat is een verschrikkelijke gedachte” (p.46) show less

"Heel haar aardse bezit zat samengeperst in een klein model
rugzak.Ze had juist haar gezicht gewassen en haar tanden
gepoetst in de wc op het eerste perron. In de nissen, gevormd door de muur van het hoofdgebouw en de uitspringende metalen ribben van de overkapping, zaten en lagen een paar, meest jonge, reizigers te wachten op vroege internationale treinen. Ook zij had geld noch onderdak. Ze was niet meer op reis, maar evenmin thuisgekomen. Ze woonde nergens."

Boekenweekgeschenk 1994. De jonge Xenia komt na een lange reis door Europa aan in Amsterdam. Ze wil haar vrienden Daan en Alma opzoeken. Daan blijkt nu op straat te leven en Alma is spoorloos. Tijdens de speurtocht naar Alma ontmoet Xenia een oudere man met wie zij een korte relatie krijgt.