Wim and Marie hide Nico, a Jew, during Nazi occupation in Holland. When Nico dies of pneumonia, Wim and Marie dispose of the body in the nearby part but forget to remove the laundry numbers from the pyjama Nico was wearing. Because that clue could lead the police to their door, they end up hiding at somebody else's place and go through all the anxiety and feelings of helplessness one feels while being dependent on somebody else's help. A clever concept but the dialogue between the characters is poor and the characters are far from fleshed out. The main question is whether you are alive, in which case your body is warm, or dead, in which case your body is cold. The frustration of hiding is crystallized in the animosity that one develops to certain dead objects in an apartment: Nico hated a vase in Wim's and Marie's apartment, Wim and Marie ended up hating a picture at the place where they were hiding. The chronological order is scrambled in a fairly innovative way. For instance, a discussion between Marie and Nico is picked up by Wim who asks Marie about it later on: "And what did he answer then?" Wim asked when Marie told him about the conversation." Whose vantage point sets the coordinates for the chronological order? If being in hiding scrambles one's sense of time, is the chronological order or the lack thereof set by Wim's and Marie's time in hiding? The book closes the door to anything that happens thereafter because it ends with the observation: "...the door was closed in a way it had never been closed before."The original book came out in 1947. I am unable to go along with the view that the book is that great. Spare, trim, and by turns elegant and blunt, hopeful and fatalistic.What struck me most was the uncertainty of an end date to the characters' situation. Hiding someone in your home would be difficult under any circumstances, both for the hider and the hidee. We're so used to knowing that 1945 was the end of the war that it's hard to image not knowing what the final outcome of the horror and fear were. During the war, I'm sure the fear and uncertainty seemed indeterminate and interminable. That Nico's death is so ordinary reminds you that life and death occurred even outside of the direct conflict.
What do You think about Komedie In Mineur (1947)?
Very well-written, interesting, and darkly comedic exploration of death and responsibility.
—tyben
I thought this book would have more detail about the Holocaust event than it did.
—Sodapop
goed boek, leest vl ot, menselijk/meeslepend
—francenne
