Review: The Ditch

The Ditch by Herman Koch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my first Herman Koch book. I was told to read the Dinner, but, for good or bad, I chose to read this book first.



I started off really enjoying it. It reminded me of Saturday, by Ian Mcewan, with the prolonged inner monologues (ramblings?), but that's where the similarities end. This narrator is the mayor of Amsterdam and, between suspecting his wife of having an affair, his elderly parents who wish to pull the plug (is it that easy in the Netherlands?), his wife's family from an (annoyingly) anonymous country, plus a couple of side stories dealing with wind turbines, the meaning of the universe (featuring Stephen Hawking!), and the appearance of a female thrush, it all got to be a bit much. The fact is, in the end, there doesn't seem to be much of a conclusion at all. Or maybe it was all too subtle for me. However, reading other reviews I see that I'm not the only one.

Regardless, I'd give this 3.5 stars.

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Review: The Following Story

The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't remember why I had this book on my wishlist, but I found a used version for rather cheap, so I bought it. I was then about to give up on it around halfway through, and just stuck with it because it was rather short. I'm very glad I did. This was absolutely excellent. Around 10-15 minutes after having finished it I suddenly realized what had happened. I rarely find a book that is able to do that.

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