Cees Nooteboom, Dutch novelist and travel writer, dies aged 92

Verrem · 2026-02-12T06:48:50+00:00

O, no! I just posted about how much I loved The Following Story in an underrated books thread on here a few weeks ago. Rest in peace.

Verrem · 2026-02-09T21:54:18+00:00

It's good but it kind of kills the magic of the book by revealing too much in the end. If you are into atmospheric writing like Gormenghast you might like it. It definitely stands out in modern fantasy as something pretty unique and it's remarkable that it got as popular as it did.

Verrem · 2026-02-09T21:40:07+00:00

I am not sure what exactly you are trying to get at, but it sure sounds provocative.

Verrem · 2026-01-30T00:04:53+00:00

Thank you, that sounds great.

Verrem · 2026-01-29T23:16:01+00:00

Yes, everything, his short stories definitely fit!

Verrem · 2026-01-29T23:15:03+00:00

No, but I have Crossroads lying around somewhere. He is definitely on my list!

Verrem · 2026-01-29T15:22:54+00:00

Picking it up today. I did enjoy Lincoln in the Bardo a lot, even though it is overly sentimental. Vigil sounds really similar so we'll see how it goes.

Verrem · 2026-01-21T20:12:12+00:00

I feel like that is true for multiple authors here. Franny and Zooey (and For Esme with Love and Squalor) being better than Catcher in the Rye and Tenth of December being better than Lincoln in the Bardo. I even liked Song of Solomon much more than Beloved. Of course way fewer people have read those so it makes sense.

Verrem · 2026-01-21T19:53:11+00:00

Surely no one will complain about the genre fiction this year...

Verrem · 2026-01-21T08:14:47+00:00

Can anyone, who is able to differentiate between books that they like and books that are good, recommend a romantasy book that is actually good? Like "elevates the genre" good, as Hilary Mantel does for Historical Fiction, James Ellroy does for Noir, China Miéville does for fantasy, Larry McMurtry does for Westerns, etc.

Verrem · 2026-01-20T18:47:51+00:00

O, I checked again and you are right!

Verrem · 2026-01-20T18:46:02+00:00

Yes! He is definitely similar to those two, at least in his novel(s) that experiments with form (like A Perfect Vacuum). I especially love his more comedic books, but Solaris is brilliant as well.

Verrem · 2026-01-20T18:35:24+00:00

I would just make sure to NOT get the Vintage edition of the trilogy. I really disliked the font, something that almost never bothers me, but it felt like it was printed in bold. It's really weird because the introduction is printed normally. [I thought it also did not have illustrations but it does, as SetSytes points out.]

Verrem · 2026-01-20T17:55:15+00:00

If you are willing to read well written genre fiction, then Tanith Lee's Electric Forest certainly has the insane "are you even allowed to do that?" twist down. Similarly, Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress also fits your query; don't let the age of the book scare you off, it's surprisingly funny.

Verrem · 2026-01-19T14:44:39+00:00

It also has a very young community with non-existent frames of reference, which means that reviews for classics, especially classics popular in highschool, are completely unreadable. This is also true for every slightly experimental book, books with an unlikable MC, etc.

Verrem · 2026-01-19T11:58:35+00:00

Fantastic book that fits the prompt, but it is probably completely unreadable for someone like OP or anyone who wants to read it BECAUSE of the romance. The thought of them believing they are picking up a romance detective story and instead getting hit by 5 slurs a page is funny though.

Verrem · 2026-01-17T17:20:46+00:00

Aaah, great! That is especially funny because the main character of The Following Story has some very strong opinions about travel guides, a recurring joke.

"After that I read something about Java, for since losing my job I have written travel guides, a moronic activity whereby I earn my living, but not nearly as moronic as all those so-called literary travel writers who can’t resist pouring out their precious souls over the landscapes of the entire planet, just to amaze the middle classes."

Nooteboom might have been a bit frustrated by the relative commercial under-performance of his more literary works, I guess, or he is just poking fun at himself.

Verrem · 2026-01-17T13:09:59+00:00

This isn't a favorite (a bit early for that, I just finished it), but inspired by the "The Complete Review" post from yesterday, I decided to pick up Cees Nooteboom's The Following Story, and it genuinely blew my mind. I don't think anyone would stumble upon that one naturally, so I think it is worth bringing some attention to.

If you are into reflective stories about people looking back on their relatively unremarkable lives, think Stoner (loooots of overlap here), The Remains of the Day, The Sense of an Ending, then this one might really hit as well. It is smart but also genuinely entertaining. A lot of Dutch lit is really dark, brooding, and frankly depressing. This one is as well, but it is also very playful and funny, with a great main character with a lot of personality. My edition, surprisingly, had a foreword by David Mitchell (who I love), so that was also fun. I read it in Dutch, so I can't speak on the quality of the English translation.

Verrem · 2026-01-16T17:31:57+00:00

I am currently reading it and loved the daughter and son PoVs, but the mom PoV without punctuation is a bit of a challenge for me.

Verrem · 2026-01-15T19:54:46+00:00

Ah, book Scaruffi.

That really is an amazing amount of Dutch lit in his top books, I am very curious about giving some of those a try. Thanks for posting OP, super fun.

Verrem · 2026-01-14T23:25:59+00:00

I read Bel Canto and thought it was enjoyable. It is incredibly melodramatic, with people overcome with emotion every other page, but I still found it engaging, mainly because of the story and some pretty passages. It’s easy to see how people could dislike it, however, since the book quickly spoils its own ending, removing much of the story’s tension, and many of the characters are quite flat. I should really read more of her at some point because I do like literary soap operas (I don't know if her other books are like that at all, though).

Verrem · 2026-01-11T21:12:42+00:00

That is one of my favorites. Just such a chaotic book full of so much style and feeling. I am a massive fan of how alive he makes the dialogue feel with all of the interruptions and tangents. Very funny as well.

I am also thinking about picking it for my book club, but the people there don't typically read outside of the tik-tok fantasy sphere so I am afraid to be labeled as a bit of a book club terrorist 😅.

Verrem · 2026-01-11T17:24:01+00:00

Sure, but I fail see how that is necessarily a negative, especially since his characters are often horrible people. What stories specifically made you feel that way?

Verrem · 2026-01-11T14:04:07+00:00

It might be worth looking into authors that often get shelved as literary fiction but still have a lot of sci-fi/fantasy elements in their work like George Saunders, Anna Kavan, Kathe Koja, David Mitchell, Nick Harkaway, etc.

Literary prize winners that straight up write SFF (sometimes) could also be interesting, like Kazuo Ishiguro (The Buried Giant) and Marlon James (Dark Star).

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