[truttyMab]

It'll be interesting to see general reviewers' and critics' opinions on this book. It does indeed seem long.

Another long and recent Holocaust book, one that will soon hit British bookshops, is the translation of the American-Frenchman Jonathan Littell's "Les Bienveillantes" (The Eumenides, The Kindly Ones), written in French.

See:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/976.html

and

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1665.html

Personally, I'm more inclined to read authors who themselves experienced Auschwitz, the SS, or life as a fugitive from the Nazis, etc., etc., such as Paul Celan, Aharon Appelfeld, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Konwicki, Etty Hillesum, Avrom Sutzkever, and others.

I am rather sceptical of a younger generation of authors, mostly American, but also including the Dutchman Arnon Grunberg, who have created something of a derivative Holocaust literature, where rather comfortably off people, who have only read about the Holocaust in books, write a lot of material as a morbid kind of entertainment. This cheapens an examination of one of the most horrific episodes of the whole 20th century. Better to read history books, plus the memoirs and novels of those who were there.

As a translator myself of books written in Estonian, describing how the Russians also put people in cattle trucks and shipped them off to labour camps, I again want to read what people who experienced this have written, e.g. Jaan Kross, not what some young squirt knocks together into a bestseller. Kross was imprisoned for some months during the German occupation of Estonia (1941-44), then, when the Russians took over (1944-1991), he spent a total of eight years in labour camps and Siberian exile. Now there was a man who knew what he was talking about.

Does Dabbler think that the Verhaegen book rises above all this and adds something to Holocaust literature?

[realnilkless]

Omega Minor has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2008.

[bypeTeenehalT]

British reviewers?and critics?reactions to "Omega Minor" will be very interesting. I?ve put my cards on the table as regards my reservations about this kind of novel, which arguably belongs to the "Holocaust industry", as described above. Now that Sign & Sight is busy discussing the Littell novel "The Kindly Ones", and Grunberg has also made his mark with his book, I can imagine that this novel will be embedded, in critics?minds in the same genre.

As I have already said, I hope that we can get past this phase of popularising the murder of European Jews as a way of selling novels, and try to promote the reading of more things by those who actually experienced the epoch at first hand, and wrote either fiction and non-fiction.

[realnilkless]

Phew! I just bought Omega Minor today and, looking at the first page, I can see it's going to be a long, long ride. If anyone needs tempting (or put off) by the book, then here's that first page:

Im Anfang war die Tat - In the Beginning was the Act.

And this is what concludes that act, that serpentine pas-de-deux so skillfully performed against the satin backdrop of the blackest night: A lightning bolt hurls upward in a blinding curve of pristine white, the laws of gravity suspended for a quarter-second. There is a scream of triumph as the gushing garland - that string of boundless energy - spouts into the springtime air: With a dull thud the alabaster blob flops on a silken belly, tan and taut and humid with moonlight, and in the panting silence after the victory cry the room echoes with the silent howl of half a billion mouths that never were: 23-chromosome cells thrash their tiny tails in terror on the bare and barren skin. An illicit hand sends another power surge through his penis, fiercer still than the first - then a compassionate tongue descends, its trembling tip dipping into the basin of his navel: For an instant, a sticky thread of pearls connects the woman with the Center of his Being, then she swallows - she drinks my seed, he thinks, she WANTS my seed, and the thought makes his heart swell, not with love but with misplaced pride - and then her lips slide full over his lingam and the last fruits of her labor slither down her shiny throat. And while the man's mouth is still screaming in triumph, the gametic hordes yell out in Todesangst, for their worst nightmare has come true: In the woman's churning stomach the cell membranes break open, the molecules dissolve, and the strands of code unwind, and naked lies the blueprint, the secret of who Goldfarb is - the nucleic acids adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine swirl around in irreperable chaos, their alchemy forever lost. Here lies a man, exulting over the demise of a world population. Sure, I can see how that last sentence may tie in to a Holocaust theme. But, what to say about how he gets there? Not a dictionary page wasted.

[truttyMab]

I see. I haven't seen the book. Does it go on like this stylistically?

I think I'll give this one a miss (like the one who was doing a Monica Lewinsky on him in the paragraph Stewart quoted). This sort of gushiness-squidginess-splurginess is not for me. I would become an inmate if I had to read 695 pages of this.

It'll be interesting to see how many of the copies are sold in the ejaculation of enthusiasm occasioned by the prize. And how many are read to the end!!! Having the book lying prominently on your coffee table is not good enough. I'm afraid this first paragraph does not bode well. I know that style is all, but this style is a trifle overdone for the jerkasm involved. (Verhaeghen pulls all the right levers...) Gushing garlands to you too. And he would have to do the chapter heading in German to boot. Why? Couleur locale? Plus 120 pages of excised footnotes. Manic, man.

I don't have the patience to get engrossed in these huge wordifications.

[truttyMab]

Dabbler: nothing wrong with the content of the first paragraph. Most normal people like a bit of sex now and again (or all the time), as do abnormal people. But if the author is looking for a new "angle" to introduce the reader to the murder of Jews to sell his book, vying with the others waiting in the queue for glory with their second-hand HolocaustLit, he'll succeed in mesmerising those uninformed souls for whom the Holocaust / Shoah / Khurbn is just another bagful of historical facts created by History to give novelists something thrilling to write about.

Someone who is never at a loss for words, and starts lists of obscure ones to impress university stoodents doing literature degrees is dangerously near to the entrance to Pseuds Corner:

...the nucleic acids adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine swirl around in irreperable chaos, It is possible to maintain narrative tension (and the reader's interest) by occasionally and postmodernistically listing things from science, history and the like, but if the technique is overused, and interspersed with dozens of pages of unparagraphed sentences, you begin to get the impression that the author is manic, rather than a genius. Variety is the spice of literature. Although I was making a cocky pun when I said that Verhaeghen "pulls all the right levers" (one Swedish novel even has a protagonist called Jerker), I did mean to imply that, judging by Dabbler's review (which I have now re-read), the Belgian author is pandering to a new generation of innocents that know nothing about the Holocaust, and want too "ooh" and "aah" at the sheer well-distanced and surrogate horror of it all - as if it were Frankenstein or Dracula.

I find that what Dabbler says about 550 pages of historical background (i.e. things that Verhaeghen has nicked from other people's books), blent with 150 that move the plot forward, rather implies that the author props his edifice up too heavily with historical detail, in order to disguise the fact that beyond generating shock value, he has little to add to any psycho-historical examination of the Holocaust.

In summa: there's nowt wrong with an orgasm, but in the right place. And, in logical terms, Verhaeghen is rather equivocal as to whether the semen is resting in the dip of his navel, or is coursing uselessly down her sucking throat. Must have a lot to go round if there's enough "salad cream" for both receptacles.

[Grizli]

Well, I recently purchased it, and I'm looking forward to reading it. But not yet.

[bypeTeenehalT]

Well, Dabbler, whatever the book's about, I am not going to buy it. I always avoid cults, and this is a prime example of one.

Without having read it, my intuition and what Dabbler wrote tell me the following: Belgian genius translates his own complex long novel and fills it with a mish-mash of facts and detail, plus various nods to political correctness, to enhance his fat book. Then he wins a prize, where the judges are already members of the London-Oxbridge, mainly Left-wing, literary ?lite.

Some critics will go on and on about its poetic beauty (though the Complete Review has some dissident voices: "mish-mash"), most of whom won't actually have read it cover-to-cover. The book sounds like one of those unbounded splurges that are written by people who want to blind their readers with science and detail over hundreds of pages to appear profound. I reckon this book will prove a white elephant for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in the long run.

People who have no knowledge of the sheer variety of Belgian literature marvel at this clever man, now living in the States, where you get promoted if you know the right people, especially in academe. Gullible masochists among British readers buy the book in droves 'cos it won a competition. They will all stop some way through the book they have rushed to buy, then quietly put it on an obscure shelf of their library so they are not reminded of the money they spent buying it.

In a word, I am prejudiced against this book right from the start.

*

Please re-read my thread on Belgian literature and think about all those other Belgian authors who haven't gone to America, but have stayed at home and written (in Dutch or French) a whole gamut of literature about aspects of their country. But because the Brits and Yanks can't be bothered to translate them, this one manic self-translating emigr? chap now "represents" Belgian literature in the eyes of the monolingual British and U.S. world.

The Danish author Peter Adolphsen also introduces aspects of science and a ragbag of realia, as does Max Sebald. But their books are kept in proportion to the tale they tell.

[Indessasp]

Paul's Top 10

[bypeTeenehalT]

Good idea, Dabbler. The Belgians, usually totally ignored in the English-speaking world except for their capital city, berated as being a hotbed of bureacracy, will be over the moon that a Belgian has won a prestigious literary prize. I will seek out the reviews and see what they say.

[bypeTeenehalT]

So, the first review I found in De Standaard (28th May), the more conservative quality Flemish daily, tells of the languages into which to book is being translated: Greek is the latest. Nothing about the book itself.

The Dutch literary promotion organisation, the NLPVF, describes it as a "thoroughly impressive and fascinating book". They give a reasonable survey of its contents.

The liberal-Left Flemish daily De Morgen (30th May) simply lists the facts of the prize and the prize money. No analysis.

On 11th April 2005, in Goddeau an online magazine for literature and the arts, critic Peter Mangelschots says the following: he says the book is long, but he is glad. He wants it to go on forever. He compares it to Mulisch's "De ontdekking van de hemel", also a thick book. A book to be savoured. Mangelschots gives a reasonable description of the basic plot.

Boekbesprekingen.nl, a website for literary reviews, gives a description of the plot, but no comment. (Undated.)

The website vlabin-vbc has a longish article which covers some of the press opinions. This author says that: Omega Minor is een breed uitwaaierende encyclopedisch roman en een zeldzaamheid in de Nederlandse letteren. Talloze verhaallijnen en uiteenlopende stijlen komen daarbij samen in een ambitieus boek over wetenschap, technologie, geschiedenis, psychologie, filosofie etc. (Omega minor is a broad, fan-like and encyclop?dic noveland a rarity in Dutch-language literature. A multiplicity of plots and different styles come together in an ambitious book about science, technology, history, psychology, philosophy, etc.) The American reviews are positive, but the (anonymous) reviewer says that reactions from the Netherlands were less positive. Arie Storm tells of a soporific plot and "deliberate purple passages" ('Het Parool', 6-1-2005), whilel Kees 't Hart uses the expression "literary kitsch" ('De Groene Amsterdammer', 14-8-2004).

The Flemish weekly magazine Knack says nothing except that he's won.

The Dutch weekly magazine Vrij Nederland says very little too, and falls back on a Time interview to fill out its comments.

*

In summa: so far, I can find surprisingly little in the Flemish and Dutch press which isn't merely a rehash of the story, or an announcement of the prize. Maybe the literary journos are busy reading it right now before commenting.

[Nicihntm]

The quote in Dabbler's #19 posting introduces a new dimension: Verhaeghen has changed nationality! Given the fact that English is spoken in the USA, Canada, etc., etc., the reviewer might have stopped to think what the difference is between Flemish, Dutch, Belgian, etc. There is a simple test that nearly always works when looking at the surname: if it has an "ae" in it, it's Flemish, i.e. from Belgium. Examples: Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Verhaeghen, Claes, and so on.

I feel a bit rotten knocking this book that I've never read, because The Dalkey Archive Press have treated me, as a translator, better than any other publishing house, to date. I've translated two minority interest postmodernist novels for them and done a few reviews in their literary freesheet CONTEXT. But everything I read about it just heaps coals on the fire of my prejudice against Omega Minor. I'll have to leaf through a copy in the bookshop in Amsterdam when I go there to return my library books next week. Maybe I will be converted.

Anyway, when I've got time I'll see what more I can find by way of more reviews from Belgium and the Netherlands.

[bypeTeenehalT]

I'm still mystified why there is so little on Verhaeghen and "Omega Minor" on the internet, when it comers to reviews, opinions, and so on. The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is usually big news. And the book has already appeared in German and the original Dutch. But I can find very little. One more informative review is:

http://sunews.syr.edu/story_details.cfm?id=3048

But this was written about a year before he won the prize.

The Jewish Chronicle (London) is less enthusiastic:

http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?Paren...7261&ATypeId=1

While the Rain Taxi website is quite the opposite - pretty gushing:

http://www.powells.com/review/2008_03_23.html

The Dutch (despite the name) Cutting Edge website says it's a masterpiece:

http://v3.cuttingedge.be/reviews/boo...megaminor.html

There's not much more been said about the book. We will have to look again in six months' time.

[truttyMab]

Two evenings ago, I was taken to a pleasant restaurant in London, where it was claimed that Verhaeghen feasted after he's won the Indy prize. I don't think I ever took note of what it was called but it was somewhere on the Old Brompton Road and served Lebanese food. It may have been "Simply Lebanese", but I'm not sure. Anyway, the portions were huge, and the food was pleasantly Middle Eastern.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a closer look at the book itself in the various bookshops I visited, during my brief visit to Blighty, so I still don't know whether it would be as daunting as I imagine.

[downtowndude]

RSB/Bookdepository interview w/ PV

[bypeTeenehalT]

Good interview by Mark Thwaite for Book Depository. I notice that Verhaeghen uses the pronoun "we" when talking about America. Has this Belgian been subsumed by the USA?

I still haven't seen a copy of the book, but maybe the lack of sales are only to do with the fact he is a dreaded Belgian. Maybe the book gives people leafing through it in the bookshop an overpowering impression.

He doesn't give much away about himself. Maybe that's a writer's prerogative to keep an element of private life.

In another interview he describes the process of self-translation:

http://www.splicetoday.com/writing/i...aul-verhaeghen

As you know, translation interests me a great deal. Verhaeghen speaking to Splice Today. Here, he's being more straightforward:

PAUL VERHAEGHEN: The translation! I just bumbled into it. To try to lure publishers into buying the foreign rights, the Flemish Fund for Literature had a few pages translated by a professional. And although this person did an excellent job, I had to swallow hard when I read that translation. It just wasn?t me. So: (a) I realized I apparently had a voice in English; and (b) I stupidly thought that therefore I should do the translation myself. So I applied for the job, and I got hired. It?s not a new book and it?s not a slavish copy. I felt I could take a few liberties here and there, twist sentences around, insert new puns, delete obscure jokes, correct a few mistakes. My English is still not as good as I would want it to be, but I wanted to avoid having a book that read as if it had been translated. In Dutch, my choice of words is very often determined by sound and rhythm. I tried to do that in the translation as well?you have to be able to read it out loud, somehow I feel that?s important. The good thing about translating your own work is that you don?t have to bother with doing the work ?justice?; if something doesn?t work in the translation, off it goes! The author isn?t going to show up on my doorstep with a gun.

I do realize I got tremendously lucky. When is the last time you or anyone of your acquaintances lusted for a Flemish novel in translation, right? To get published in any language is a miracle, to get translated into American is even more unthinkable, and to get some small amount of attention and recognition is utterly fantastic. My older work is not worth translating (I hope it all goes out of print in Dutch soon), and whatever is going on inside my mind right now isn?t worth writing down. At all. So it?s gonna be Omega Minor and that is it. A quarter-million words is enough of an oeuvre anyway.

At another point in the interview, he mentions the untranslatability of some authors, including Boon. But Boon's been given some airing in the English-speaking world. Verhaeghen on Boon:

I would recommend Boon, except that he?s totally unreadable in translation. You have to hail from a particular two-by-three block area of the village of Erembodegem to fully appreciate his craft, I have been told. I hail from two miles down the road, and find him sublime. But all my Dutch friends hate him.

Remember what Eric revealed about Boon in another thread...

[bypeTeenehalT]

When buying other books yesterday, as listed elsewhere, I leafed through the Dutch original of the Verhaeghen book. I have to admit that the text looked more readable than I had expected to be, but I also noticed a kind of what I term "creative writing" style, with some rather journalistic punchy phrasing and onomatopoeics. I'd have to read a few chapters to see whether I would really get on with this book.

I expect the copy I leafed through (?11) will still be in the bookshop when I return in a week or two's time.

Has there been anything in the U.S. or British press about it lately (i.e. during late June 2008)?

[favwebbb]

I read it a couple of weeks ago. It's indeed much more readable than what it's meant to be. I found it a very fast read too.

[Battwenue]

I'm stuck somewhere in the middle. German translation so maybe that's it. It just seems so incredibyl uneven, very readable passages, then some shlock. 100 pages flying by, 100 pages dragging like fuck.

[downtowndude]

Not only does Verhaegen have a blog, but I find out fausto's holding out on us. (available for a limited time only)