June 25, 2005
Sint-Juttemis
Well I've finished Maria Stahlie's Sint-Juttemis. And I loved it! 'Masterful' and 'deft' were the cliches lodged in my brain at the end. Now I have to rush out and buy everything else she has ever written although at the moment I'm not even sure what, if any, that is.
As I was reading it through a fog of Dutch I would really love to hear what anyone else who has read it thought of it. Its a very 'post-modern' novel (as they said in the 90's). I was very conscious of the author throughout, her use of literary devices and her handling of characters and their movement from one 'place' to another, bonds being broken and bonds been formed, both between characters and with the reader. It was this that left me so impressed, just how well managed it all was. In the end I found it un-put-downable, just to find out how on earth she was going to resolve it all without leaving me feeling flat? The ending was, in the end, perfect, the only possible ending it could have had. And the whole thing was perfectly set off with a very restrained and very dry sense of humour that manifested itself mostly through the character of Sophie and that would suddenly have you laughing out loud over one sentence.
At least thats what I thought.
PS. I'm turning into a bessotted fan. I've just found out that Maria Stahlie, or Madeline Tolhuisen as she is actually called, lives here in de Pijp. Where? Where? Where? Luckily she has also plenty of other novels for me to read.
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