Desire and suspicion

This novel will probably stand out in my mind as one of those with the most explicit writing on lesbian sexual intercourse. Some of the descriptions run on for pages, in great detail.

It is a novel set in Overijssel, a rural province of The Netherlands. The time period of 1960s is important, because it is a post-war period when people are starting to sort out the mess and confusion of the upheaval and movements and disappearances of people during the war.

In the winter of 1944, Isabel and her brothers Louis (older brother) and Hendrik (younger brother) are found a house by their Uncle Karel, for themselves and their mother, when they had to move from Amsterdam. The brothers have moved away but Isabel continues to live alone in the house, caring for it and being relatively solitary though she does visit her relatives, and also has a suitor, Johan, an old family friend, whom she is not particularly keen on. Isabel also has help around the house, Neelke.

The Dutch as depicted by Van Der Wouden in this novel, come across as very blunt, and also taciturn and not particularly emotionally expressive. For example, Uncle Karel tells Isabel,

“You will understand, Isabel, how that your mother is gone, that you must be your own guardian. You must make your own connections […] Don’t be a burden to your brothers, they will have their own lives. You can’t ask too much. And I won’t be here, I’ll have my own business, you understand. I’m not saying this to be harsh. I am saying it because it’s how these things go, and there is no one else who will tell you” (p33)

Isabel is just as blunt to others in her very small world; to her brothers, to Neelke the help, and of course, to Eva, her brother Louis’ girlfriend who comes to stay in the house because Louis needs to park her somewhere, against Isabel’s wishes, of course.

“Louis said, ‘You will be nice to her.’ ‘I will be nothing to her,’ Isabel said…” (p26).

Despite this unpromising start, and despite Isabel trying to ignore and reject Eva at all turns, she is drawn to Eva, and they begin an intimate relationship which consumes Isabel. Parts I and II of the book which is told from Isabel’s perspective mostly, ends with Isabel discovering Eva is not who she thought her to be. Clear clues are given in how things are disappearing from the house in the course of Eva’s stay,

“an engraved cake knife, missing. A decorative tile, a letter opener. A napkin ring” (p59)

Part III of the book is told from Eva’s perspective, and of course, the two women’s stories dovetail and are predictably enough bound by the house and all the things in it, particularly the cutlery, crockery (which they all seem to set such store on) and the furniture.

It isn’t that much of a plot, and the twist in the tale is easy to guess early on, but for all that, it retains its tension because the texture of the telling is the charm of it. It invokes a particular kind of people, almost taciturn, very determined, very forthright. It is not an indulgent, luxurious or decadent kind of lifestyle. Even Uncle Karel who is clearly affluent, comes across as frugal to the point of meanness – when Isabel comes to visit, he takes out just 2 biscuits from a tin, only one for each of them, and shuts the tin again. The novel invokes a particular mindset and world view, particularly Isabel’s, almost a siege mentality, defensive and protective. It is essentially a story about extremely strong attachments, to a house, to material things within the house, and to unexpected people. This is a debut novel, and here we have an interesting, strong, new writing voice. It was enjoyable for the marked understatedness of it, the restraint, the pushing at societal boundaries and chafing against conventionality, but in very quiet, unflamboyant ways.

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