BOOKS FROM NETHERLANDSThe Evenings: A Winter’s Tale
by Gerard Reve
Tags:
Set in Netherlands
Description:
THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF A POSTWAR MASTERPIECE 'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it.' Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit. This is the story of ten evenings in Frits's life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city street and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him. Darkly funny and mesmerising, The Evenings takes the tiny, quotidian triumphs and heartbreaks of our everyday lives and turns them into a work of brilliant wit and profound beauty.
Reviews:
(4 months ago) |
18 Jul, 2024
Frits is an interesting character, Frits has rather an empty life, he goes to work, visits friends in the evening, goes to the cinema walks around alot.
Well, Frits likes to talk, he does most of the talking and thinking, he thinks alot.
This is a very unusual book, nothing wrong with that of course, different in a sense that nothing and loads actually happen. Frits goes out every evening to meet with his friends and each time nothing really happens, apart from Frits coming up with some story or another, some of which are rather morbid , he doesn’t really enjoy spending time with his parents, they annoy him with their habits. the book is rather cleverly written, even though nothing happens it keeps you interested and engaged.
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