Buchmania

Rianne and I went along to this today, on the top floor of the wonderful public library in Amsterdam. (Why have I never been here before?) Organised by a club of Boudewijn Büch enthusiasts.

Nop Maas read from the as yet unpublished 3rd part of his biography of Reve; the bit about an extremely controversial interview he gave to Boudewijn Büch. Later the 'surprise speaker' was indeed Theodor Holman. I'd spotted him earlier, first mistaking him for a possibly autistic bookseller who refused to make eye contact when I did my usual friendly nod to the person behind the booktable. It was only when I saw the pile of Theodor Holman books that I realised that the well-filled face beneath the explosion of white hair was in fact his. Snotty git - if he hadn't been so obviously unkeen to make any contact with the hoi polloi he might have sold more of his books. Though to be fair, he did make an excellent job of reading his monologue on the subject of what possibly went through Büch's head when he was acting out the death scene of his invented son.

He certainly made me feel like re-reading De Kleine Blonde Dood, which I can only remember as being a beautiful short novel about his relationship with his father. (Vague, vague, I can't really remember why I liked it so much, just that it was definitely beautifully written.)

Anyway, enjoyable afternoon. Excellent location. I'll certainly be going back there. In fact there's a Reve day next week... ach maybe not, but I'll certainly be going to have a look at the Reve museum on the second floor next time I'm in town.