Transcript Cees Nooteboom Rituale

Cees Nooteboom
Rituale
Title: Rituale
Author: Cees Nooteboom
Format: Hardcover
Language: German
Pages: 231
Publisher: , 0
ISBN: 3518035762
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 8.5 MB
Download: allowed
Description
Das Amsterdam der fünfziger, sechziger und siebziger Jahre erscheint hier in der Perspektive
von Inni Wintrop. Dieser will Selbstmord begehen in seinem WC, »weil er in seinem Horoskop
für >Het Parool< prophezeit hatte, seine Frau werde mit einem anderen durchbrennen und er,
der ja ein Löwe war, würde dann Selbstmord begehen. Es war eine treffende Prophezeiung.«
Doch wie der Tod so spielt, der Strick reißt.
Insightful reviews
Kimberly: FINALLY!!!
Finally I finished this book... It took me three weeks to read it. I think it never took so long to
read a book before...
Well, my opinion. It's not that I hated the book or something, and there were some funny things
in it too, but it's just... There's not much excitement (the only thing I considered exciting was the
death of Philip Taads, and that was on the last couple of pages.)
So yeah... There's not so much to say about this book. I wouldn't recommand it if you don't like
stories where not really much is happening, because then it's boring, but if you like this type of
books, maybe you'll like this one too, and then I would recommand it.
I have to say one more thing, and that is that I was intruiged by the way of thinking of Philip and
Arnold Taads... They HATED human beings, so they hated themselves too... But they never
'really' killed themselves. (Of course they did, but it could have been an accident too).
Lukasz Pruski: "They lay still for a time. In accordance with the rules, Inni was sad. As he let the
embrace with the bigger Lyda seep away into his memory gap, he felt, as usual, bitter at what
was bound to happen next. They would disentangle themselves, maybe wash, he would
descend the long staircase like someone descending a staircase, she would fall asleep in her
own nest, tomorrow she would drink crème de menthe again, with idiots, and they would die,
each one separately, in different hospital beds, ill treated by young nurses who were not yet
born"
Having read 99 books so far this year I decided a special item for the "hecto" number is needed.
The Following Story , a quietly beautiful meditation on love and human transience, has been
my best book (so far) of 2015, so why not "Rituals" (1980), another novel by Cees Nooteboom?
Well, first of all, it is not an easy book to read: I needed almost 10 hours for the mere 144
pages, and my otherwise debilitating insomnia came handy here. Not only did I have to tightly
focus my attention to follow the rather complex structure, but also, more importantly, I kept rereading and re-reading, savoring the cleverness and beauty of many dazzling passages of
prose: I could not afford to miss a single word or phrase.
It is not a book one reads for the plot: there is not much of a story in "Rituals". The novel is
composed of three episodes that take place at crucial moments in the life of Inni Wintrop, a
financially independent Dutch dilettante who dabbles in stock market and art collecting. His wife,
with whom he is extremely close - but only in the physical sense - leaves him in 1963, and Inni
decides to commit suicide. The second episode takes place ten years earlier, when he meets
his aunt and, through her, a Mr. Arnold Taads, a recluse and misanthrope, so disgusted with life
that he eventually kills himself. Finally, it is 1973 and Inni meets a Mr. Philip Taads, Arnold's
son, who also ends up committing suicide.
From the shallow summary it may seem this extraordinary novel is about suicide, which is not
true. The human emptiness of being is the focus: people who have not found love in their life fail
to make sense of their existence. While Inni has frequent sexual contacts with many women, he
is not in any real way close to them. Arnold Taads rejected his son, who, in turn, has isolated
himself from the world in his dark mysticism. Inni and the Taadses are three utterly lonely
people who attempt to construct the sense of their being on this Earth by immersing themselves
in rituals. For Inni these were the Catholic faith rituals in his youth. Arnold "divided the empty,
dangerous expanse of the day into a number of precisely measured parts, and the boundary
posts at the beginning and end of each part determined his day." Philip had the Japanese
ceremonial of drinking tea to justify his existence.
"Rituals" is an extremely serious novel, and I am using the word 'serious' quite seriously. Yet
even with the exceptional writing it still feels opaque, impenetrable, mysterious. Perhaps the
feeling that the reader is almost there to understand is the key? After all, what would be left for
us in life if we did understand?
Four stars.
Gerben: "Op de dag dat Inni Wintrop zelfmoord pleegde stonden de aandelen Philips 149.60.
De slotkoers van Amsterdamse Bank was 375 geweest en Scheepvaart Unie was gezakt naar
141.50. Herinnering is als een hond die gaat liggen waar hij wil. En dat is wat hij zich
herinnerde, áls hij zich iets herinnerde, de koersen en dat de maan in de gracht geschenen had,
en dat hij zich had opgehangen in zijn wc omdat hij in zijn eigen horoscoop in Het Parool
voorspeld had dat zijn vrouw er vandoor zou gaan met een andere en dat hij, Leeuw, dan
zelfmoord zou plegen."
Zelden zo'n toffe eerste alinea gelezen in een boek.
Daarna kwamen er nog veel meer mooie zinnen, treffende metaforen en boeiende gedachten.
Maar al dat moois ging nergens naartoe, dus daarom ging het geheel een beetje stinken naar
pocherij en narcisme. (Narcisten zijn allergisch voor narcisme.) 'Kijk mij, ik ben briljant' riepen de
zinnen, en dan probeert alles in mij te vinden dat het zo briljant nog niet is. Er waren ook teveel
bijvoeglijk naamwoorden en bijzinnen naar mijn smaak. Een paar hoofdstukken later schold ik
het boek daarom uit voor pretentieus Rococo en schroefde ik voor straf mijn leestempo op.
Naar het midden toe, had ik me aan die pretentieusheid toch maar overgegeven. Dat het
verhaal nergens heengaat en vooral een vehikel is voor mooie zinnen en wijze gedachten kon
me niet meer hinderen. Sommige van die gedachten zijn ook echte slijpstenen:
"Aan het eind van die winter was zijn vader bij het bombardement op het Bezuidenhout
omgekomen. Het bericht had hem met grote trots vervuld. Nu hoorde hij ook echt bij de oorlog."
Ik realiseerde me ook dat ik door mijn opgeschroefde leestempo waarschijnlijk veel moois
gemist heb. Ik zou het verhaal dus nog een keer moeten lezen met een welwillende bui die het
hele boek duurt, maar dat ga ik waarschijnlijk niet doen.
Blijkbaar is ook de juiste stemming om een boek te lezen 'een eigenwijze hond die gaat liggen
waar hij wil'.
Lauren Albert: A strange, brilliantly written book. Like different reviewers have said, there have
been such a lot of passages that i needed to save lots of that is outstanding for this type of brief
novel. don't visit this novel for plot--but should you like philosophical fiction and nice writing, you
are going to get pleasure from this.
Denys: a narrative of a man, who nonetheless saved whatever of a individual inside of himself
dwelling within the "brave new world" and simply refusing to accommodate it. a few passages
are only striking. No ask yourself this ebook turned a type of foreign "breakthrough" for the
author.
Ruta: guy is a tragic mammal that combs its hair.
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