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Summer in TermurenAuthor: Louis Paul Boon Netherlandic Literature Series August 2006 488 pages, 6 x 9 Dimensions: Paperback, 1-56478-414-2 Retail Paperback Price: Our Paperback Price: $11.96—20% OFF! 
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Book Description
This, the author writes, is "the novel of the indiviual in a world of barbarians." It is the story of Ondine and Oscarke, a young married couple adrift in a Belgian landscape that is darkening under the spread of industry and World War I. Ondine, who "came to serve god and live," finds that she must "serve the gentlemen" instead.
Oscarke, an aspiring sculptor, finds himself unsuccessfully scouring Brussels for work and, when he is finally hired, too tired to make his own art. They grow old and their four children grow up as "technology and mechanization, unemployment, fascism, and war" take over around them. War destroys their attempts to establish a better life, which they seek continually and against all odds. And the chapters about these characters, some of whom first appeared in Chapel Road, alternate with chapters about Boon himself, who describes the impossibility of modern life and the destruction of war.
As this wide-ranging novel progresses, the author's struggles—both with writing and with his own life—come more and more to resemble those of his characters.
About the Author
| Louis Paul Boon's (1912-1979) oeuvre spans several genres, including compelling historical epics, sharp, witty newspaper columns and tongue-in-cheek scabrous novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize on several occasions. |
Praise
"One of the few truly maginificent novels in Dutch-language literature. . . . A masterpiece."—de Volkskrant"This book doesn't have its equal in Dutch and Flemish postwar literature. Originality, brilliant fantasy, an enormous social and human compassion, honesty, and courage go hand in hand with true authorship. One would only write a book like this out of sheer necessity—it is an attempt to carry on writing in a world that seemse to rush to its aimless downfall."—Hans Warren
"Chapel Road and Summer in Termuren together comprise the most powerful epic to come out of Flanders this century."—Elsevier
"Boon, one of the best realists we have, doesn't just represent things; he recreates and offers it to us in a world of dream and magic...in this long, sad, revolting, profound and beautiful book."—Jan Walravens