[snova]

I'm not going to bother posting up my old review of Tim Krabb?'s The Vanishing as I thought it was terrible. But it's the idea that counts and when it comes to threads here, the more the merrier. So I've cut it up a bit, bringing little bits over

Not many books can claim to have been filmed on more than one occasion although as Hollywood becomes more of a recycling plant than a hotbed of imagination that will soon go out the window. Published in 1984 as Het Gouden Ei (The Golden Egg), Tim Krabb?’s short psychological thriller was filmed in 1988 as the brilliant Spoorloos, which suffered that greatest indignity of cinema in 1991: the American remake.

Rex and Saskia are in love. Very much so. And one day, while driving through Europe, they stop at a petrol station in France. Saskia, offering to drive the next leg of their journey to Nuits-St-George heads into the shop to get Rex a beer. She doesn’t come back. Just vanishes.

Eight years later and Rex is in love with Lieneke, is pondering making her his bride, but he can’t let go of Saskia. If she was to come to him now he would go with Lieneke. But it’s the not knowing that continues to haunt him. Then, one day, a man arrives and offers Rex the chance to find out what happened to his former love.

Having seen both movie adaptations I was already aware how this novella was going to conclude (although the US remake had a different ending; or, more specific, had an extra ten/fifteen minutes tacked on; the same director though) but, given my love for the idea, that wasn’t going to stop me. The idea itself (girl gets kidnapped, lover mourns) isn’t all that original; it’s the clinical calculation of the kidnapper, a man called Raymond Lemorne, that makes it worthwhile. His journey to test himself as an angel of death (in opposition to his capacity as hero years before in a river rescue) is what makes the book. The decisions he makes, the planning, the revelations, the planting of alibis, etc. all combine to make him the real star of the book.

It's not often when the film is better than the book, but I think I would recommend watching Spoorloos over reading this translation, as I found it wanting. What makes it interesting is a comment atop the Complete Review's summation of the book, which reads:...this review refers to Claire Nicolas White's 1993 translation, which has since been superseded by Sam Garrett 2003 translation; in a profile of Krabb? from 2006: "He says the first English translation of The Vanishing was "horrible", but it has been done again by an award-winning translator, Sam Garrett". Interesting because the book I read was definitely the Sam Garrett translation from Bloomsbury and, I recall it being rather nasty in its own way too. The glaring error that stands out most - a few years on - was Rex referring to his girlfriend, Saskia, as his wife. That, and something else that irks me: littering the narrative with exclamation marks. Like this!