[Pypeassesty]

Despite the rather cumbersome title in English, "The Garden Where the Brass Band Played" ("De koperen tuin" in Dutch), this is one of the best novels by one of the most important twentieth century Dutch authors.

The novel has been republished recently by Quartet, and is going for a song on Amazon. See:

http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Where-P.../dp/0704301733

It is the story of a young man whose life is influenced by a somewhat mediocre and alcoholic small-town musician, just as the former is finding his feet in life. But it the musician's daughter, Trix, that mesmerises the protagonist, one of Vestdijk's many alter egos throughout his works. He first meets her at a party in a garden ("garden party" gives the wrong vibes). It all results in tears, but the 280 pages present this unfolding tragedy in a readable way.

Simon Vestdijk (1898-1971) is, in my opinion, the key Dutch author of the twentieth century. He wrote 52 novels; too many some would say. And some were undoubtedly pot-boilers. But among the good ones are an excellent selection of subtle portraits of Dutch life in the twentieth century.

Vestdijk wrote various suites of novels that involved the subtleties of growing up in small-town Netherlands. But this is an author that emulates Proust (although in one other novel, he had a shot at emulating Joyce). I'll write more about him in another posting here, but I am a fan of the Grumpy Old... programmes, and a rerun of one will be starting in ten minutes.

But suffice it to say that for me, Vestdijk a very worthwhile author, only two (!) of whose novels have apopared in English, this being one..

[cbUDaNFRu]

Excellent. I remember reading about this novel a year or so back and had made a mental note to buy it. Then, like most mental notes, it vanished when I made a mental note to buy something else. All this time I've remembered neither author or title but always knew I would recognise it straight away. And so I have.

You saying "it all ends in tears" is a surefire way to recommend anything.