Publication
Amsterdam Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek cop. 2013
ISBN
9789059652057
Language
Collection
Description
Van Kooten onderneemt een speurtocht in zijn familiegeschiedenis, waarbij hij tal van zijpaden bewandelt. Zo stelt hij zijn verrekijker scherp op de digitale media, het papieren boek, ons aller handschrift, de wereld der insecten, de achteruit hollende wellevendheid, het hotelwezen en de nostalgie; 'die niet meer is wat zij geweest is.'
Genres
User reviews
LibraryThing member Dettingmeijer
Not one of his best. Story about the short experience of his father in the second world war composed around diary of father during the 10 days the Netherlands tried defend itself against the German invasion. Also some reflections about his relationship with his father, illustrated with his 'diary
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'literagenda' March 2013 - 2014. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lunarreader
Small musings by the author about being an author, your memories and how one can jump to the wrong conclusions when confronted with memorabilia. In the main case it's about binoculars (hence the title of the book) from his father and a little note dating back to World War II. The author is in
Amusing and funny by times also because it "breathes" The Netherlands, and the typical every inch decent mentality, in each sentence.
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disbelief of his first conclusions: "no, my father wasn't like this", and goes on an investigative trip, distracted more then once by wild fantasies about what could have been.Amusing and funny by times also because it "breathes" The Netherlands, and the typical every inch decent mentality, in each sentence.
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
After an interesting start, this short novel quickly developed in the regular, uninspired issue of guilt for the parents' actions during the second world war, a theme Van Kooten had been using for too long in his tv programmes, already.
LibraryThing member thorold
Kees van Kooten has been writing (humorous) books and columns since the 1960s, but he's best-known in the Netherlands as part of a long-standing radio and TV comedy duo with the late Wim de Bie. In his 2013 Boekenweek novella, he digs into memories of his father, a travelling salesman who was
Looking properly at the album for the first time to prepare this book, he discovers an army letter addressed to his father referring to a complaint from a civilian, a Mr Treurniet of Berkel-en-Rodenrijs, about the requisitioning of a pair of binoculars valued at f9.75, now missing from military stores. Could it be that his father acquired the binoculars dishonestly in the heat of (not-quite) war? Van Kooten imagines various fanciful scenarios that might lie behind such an incident — the adolescent Treurniet Jr. spying on a beautiful woman who has just moved into Berkel-en-Rodenrijs, Mrs Treurniet stalking a handsome dentist, and so on, but whatever trace there might have been of this wartime "petite histoire" in official archives has long gone. Maybe someone in Berkel or Rodenrijs remembers the J Treurniet of the binoculars...?
Charming, idiosyncratic, and an interesting little sidelight on the brief period in which the Netherlands was trying to defend its own neutrality, and on the way we look back at that period now.
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called up into the Dutch army as a reserve sergeant in the mobilisation of September 1939. Among the heirlooms from his father that van Kooten has kept are a splendid pair of binoculars and an album of wartime memories which he sadly never took the time to go through with his father while he. was still living. Looking properly at the album for the first time to prepare this book, he discovers an army letter addressed to his father referring to a complaint from a civilian, a Mr Treurniet of Berkel-en-Rodenrijs, about the requisitioning of a pair of binoculars valued at f9.75, now missing from military stores. Could it be that his father acquired the binoculars dishonestly in the heat of (not-quite) war? Van Kooten imagines various fanciful scenarios that might lie behind such an incident — the adolescent Treurniet Jr. spying on a beautiful woman who has just moved into Berkel-en-Rodenrijs, Mrs Treurniet stalking a handsome dentist, and so on, but whatever trace there might have been of this wartime "petite histoire" in official archives has long gone. Maybe someone in Berkel or Rodenrijs remembers the J Treurniet of the binoculars...?
Charming, idiosyncratic, and an interesting little sidelight on the brief period in which the Netherlands was trying to defend its own neutrality, and on the way we look back at that period now.
Show Less
Original publication date
2013