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The Book Club
by Marjolijn Februari


Translation by Paul Vincent.

Marjolijn Februari studied Art History, Philosophy and Law and was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on the clash of economics and ethics. So it is no surprise that THE BOOK CLUB, her second novel, is the thinking book groupīs book. In fact, it should be the thinking book groupsī Book of the Year. And the well-read book group will probably appreciate the literary allusions and quotations with which it is peppered. This book cleverly illustrates one essential value of fiction: the freedom to reference international rogues and hypocrites. Fictional characters can think and say what they will, and in her enigmatic and cryptic account of human trial and error, of the European predicament and good old love and marriage, Februari takes full advantage of that. With honed wit and masterly dialogue she rages against that most endearing of Dutch characteristics - the Protestant work ethic - when it is manipulated and abused by international, globalised, hypocritical wheelers and dealers.

The cast of THE BOOK CLUB is fascinating. The juvenile lead, Victor Herwig, is foreign correspondent to a national Dutch newspaper. Back from Africa, with sun bleached hair and khaki trousers with fourteen pockets, his interest is caught by an ecstatic review of a new novel which in three months has run through fifteen editions and has been sold in umpteen different languages. It is an autobiographical tragicomedy about a young girlīs experiences in a mental hospital and Victor is intrigued to realise that the author is a mouse-quiet girl, Ruth Ackermann, with whom he had shared a class room for six years. Out of mild interest, he drives out to his childhood village, and there he accidentally meets another co-pupil, Teresa Pellikaan, who still lives in this middle class, charming, enlightened Dutch village.

Everyone in the village knows at least an MEP or a lady-in-waiting, and the most characteristic aspect of the area is the ingenious interplay of virtue and a talent for business with the advent of the very latest technology. Teresa is more beautiful than ever. From her teeth, her hair, her bag, her watch, her shoes and even her pen, it is clear that she is either very successful or very married. She remembers Victor as the boy at the front of the class who used to make a fuss about the injustice in the world. She cannot remember Ruth Ackermann at all. She and Victor lunch together in the restaurant in the park of the nineteenth century castle at the edge of the village. It is a warm early summer day, and under the chestnut trees in the park, a peacock crosses the grass with small, indignant steps.

There are so many unexpected and interesting characters in this novel, and they are portrayed with such skill, that this reviewer could go on and on. But, writes Februari, a novelistīs job is to entertain, and THE BOOK CLUB is nothing if not entertaining. It is an excellent novel, essential reading for the eclectic and erudite book group. Best discussed over a glass of good wine, I should think.

Paula McMaster



Booktrust
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Books We Like

The Book Club

By Marjolijn Februari

Published by Quercus


This darkly comic, unsettling novel explores snobbery, ambition and personal morality in the 21st century.
Teresa Pelikaan lives a charmed life in an affluent Dutch village. While it may seem sleepy and idyllic, the village is populated with top-class bankers, lawyers and intellectuals who are playing on the world stage from the comfort of their state-of-the-art home offices.
Teresaīs husband and father are two of these high-flyers, and members of the villageīs very exclusive book club. When Teresa suggests that they read an autobiographical love story set in an asylum written by a girl she used to go to school with, the book club is outraged.
However, beneath their outward show of intellectual snobbery lies a more sinister explanation for this reluctance. Teresa discovers that the book club members were to some extent complicit in the actions of the authorīs father, which led to the death of 80 children in Haiti.
As the horrors of the past are uncovered, Februari raises many troubling questions: If you follow all the rules, are you absolved of guilt? At what point does knowledge make you implicit in an act of injustice? And what happens to personal responsibility in an age when decisions affecting the lives of thousands can be made at the click of a mouse?

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Translator: Paul Vincent


text © 1989-2024 Maxim Februari
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