The Child that Protects
by Koen Eykhout
Michiel in Jan Siebelink's 'De herfst zal schitterend zijn' is a loner. After his broken-off study French he has hardly any contact with anyone anymore, apart from his little daughter Yvonne and the retarded boy next door Henk, who writes down license numbers of cars passing through the residential area. Michiel talks much easier with Henk than with grown-ups.
A similar strangly gifted boy is Bennie in Claus' 'De Metsiers'. Bennie is the solace of his halfsister Ana, also her protector against the perverts of the village in which they live. It's obvious that it doesn't help her one bit. The image of a simple boy as a totem or talisman is often used in literature. Filmmakers too aren't averse to it; think of the banjo player in Deliverance.
Bennie en Henk now have another brother, a great boy, his name is Guus en he lives in 'Hollandse fado' by Bartho Kriek. His first book 'Het ijzeren heden' remained virtually unnoticed but 'Hollandse fado' will no doubt meet a happier fate. Guus is the son of Koos Huizing in this novel full of melancholy and longing. Koos wants to be a sailor, but he is married with Jet and father of Guus, Bennie and José and so Koos works in a kafkaesk office. It's 1958 so one doesn't leave that easily one's wife and children.
The year has been chosen well by Kriek because it is exactly in between the old and the new. The old Holland of 'our' East Indies and quiet old villages is represented by Koos' father, who refuses to make use of the new tunnel under the Noordzeekanaal. Koos' wife on the contrary is in favor of all progress. She corrects grandpa when he talks about 'our' East Indies: Indonesia it's called.
Koos himself just wants to leave. He comes no further however than the escape of his imagination: the Portuguese blues in the fado's of Amália Rodrigues. De doleful sounds alleviate his headache. Koos is in a spot. At home as well as on his job. Leaving is impossible because he is convinced he has to protect his children, especially poor Guus with whom Jet has very little patience.
But then Kriek lets everything tilt. Through a few wonderfully written scenes one feels that the roles are reverse. Guus protects his father, not the other way round. During a walk with Guus, Koos feels his big man's hand hanging like a child's in the hand of Guus, who looks at his father naughtily laughing, squeezing lightly. Koos realizes that he needs Guus. At night he's in a cold sweat at the thought that Guus too one day will die: 'Guus will die. For the first time in fifteen years Huizing is aware of the fact that Guus is on his way to moments in which everything and everyone will have abandoned him. Lonely Guus will undergo his last struggle.'
That time hasn't come yet. First Guus has to not only protect his father but cure him. When Koos almost entirely stiffens because of all the strain, petrifies like Mulisch' Sergeant Massuro, he feels Guus' healing hands. 'Then it's as if the hands of Guus become extremely sensitive for what happens in Huizing's body. (...) And Huizing feels how the stiffness disappears.
'Hollandse fado' contains more melodies than this warm song about the big boy and his father, but for me it will always remain the story of Guus who saves his father, one of those stories in which one can believe for some time. Stories which one needs, says the book somewhere, because there are only stories, some a little bit more real than others. 'Hollandse fado' is one of those real stories. About children and what they have to offer: protection. Beautiful.
Bartho Kriek - Hollandse fado. Publisher: Atlas, 270 blz. ISBN 9045003201.
Friday, May 19th 2000, © Dagblad De Limburger
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