In the Low Countries, 4: Postscript— Delft
(I wrote this shortly after our return from the Netherlands at the end of May, 2017) Last night we finally saw Peter Webber’s glorious film The Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003) — after reading Tracy Chevalier’s novel, which I reviewed in 2001, seeing the original painting in Den Haag, and then visiting Delft, where … read more »
In the Low Countries, 3: Art in context
One of the benefits of our journey was seeing famous and familiar art works in contexts that made them new and required a fresh interpretation. Seeing reproductions in books and the Internet or, if we’re lucky, the originals in a museum can be no more than a start to understanding it. Being there, in the … read more »
In the Low Countries, 2: Language, art and history
What intrigued me most about the Low Countries were their languages and art, keys to understanding their complex cultures and their roles, passive and active, in clashes that have transformed the world. The decades of wars in the 16th-18th centuries involving Spain, France and Austria, each with their local Nederlander allies, the defeat of Napoleon … read more »
In the Low Countries: Belgium
The main aim and greatest satisfaction — besides beer and chocolates — of our recent visit to Belgium and The Netherlands was place sensing, which is much more than “site seeing.” Place sensing means taking in the smells, from rancid frites to flowers, fish and sea brine; the sounds of gutturals and oddly twisting vowels … read more »
Riches of the Lowlands in Rembrandt’s time
Rembrandt’s Holland by Larry Silver My rating: 3 of 5 stars This will no doubt be a helpful starting point for anyone interested in discovering how so much artistic and intellectual accomplishment could arise in 17th century Netherlands. Unfortunately it is written in a scholastic prose that sucks the life from a story so full … read more »
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit. This last year has been one of many visits, as well as books read, plays and movies seen, friends and family embraced. We began with a return to Susana’s homeland, Argentina, terribly hot in January. There we met and feasted with her cousins in Puan— her birthplace, a … read more »
Chile: The coup and I
The coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, was a tremendous shock — not because it was unexpected, which it wasn’t, but because it was so much more violent and murderous than we, or at least I, had imagined, in a country long known for its civility, its culture, and its rational and orderly manner … read more »
Polar + histoire
I read this book on the recommendation of Michèle Audin, whose blog La Commune de Paris has been enormously helpful in my research for my novel The Bookbinder. As I say below in my review, Hervé Le Corre is a very effective writer of dark suspense and brings the fears, terror and heroism of the … read more »
How to save Europe
Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times by Thomas Piketty My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a translation of monthly articles written between 2008 and 2015 for Libération, devoted almost entirely to the crises before the European Union and Piketty’s proposals of how to confront them. Though written before Trump, Brexit or the Catalonian secession … read more »
Voyage to Bolivia
Susana Torre has permitted me to post these excerpts from her report on our January trip to Bolivia. We are still assimilating the disparate experiences of our Bolivian sojourn, as it is really 3 countries (geographically and culturally) with over 40% of the population being of 36 officially recognized indigenous groups, the Aymara and the … read more »
