Literature

Literature

I am not going to deny that I have a strong opinion of literature and the scene around the Dutch literature. All that I want to type here is that I am more than happy that I don't move in those circles. Elsewhere you can see how I feel about it (unsuitable for people who are sensitive to criticism).

As a visitor you are probably wondering what yours truly has achieved in literature. I will be frank (although I always am René ...) with you: nothing. Although it might be more suitable to change this into nothing yet. My first manuscript could be published in English by Minerva Press; I sent the Dutch version to Vassallucci Publishers for reading, but they turned me down. If only I read the interview MAN Magazine had with the editor in chief, then I would never sent it down to them, but still time is irrevocable. Despite all that I am currently working on a second manuscript (which will be the second part of a trilogy) and in addition to that I am also accumulating a collection of poems. You can read some of them if you follow this link.

You might even wonder how this all came about ... then again, maybe you don't. Fact remains that I was probably one of very few students who read the mandatory reading list for the Dutch and English classes, and some of them I even read more than once. You can see for yourself what stuck in my memory.
What really has my attention since the beginning of the 90s is the work of the so-called literary Brat Pack: Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney. Especially the one mentioned first turned out to be a true visionary. In my most recent column I try to show that he is not just that after twice reading his novel, Hey Nostradamus!.

Some Links (or actually they are rights ...)

(English only) Douglas Coupland

(English only) Bret Easton Ellis