The reason why I put Anne Frank’s diary on my list of forty books to read before my fortieth birthday is quite simple: it’s probably the most important Dutch book from the last century. As such, there’s absolutely nothing left to be said about it. It is what it is: the diary of a young, [...]
Category Archives: First Lines
First Lines: 11.22.63
December 29, 2011 – 22:53
The classic time-traveler’s dilemma: if you could go back in time and, say, kill Hitler before he could make his rise to power, and so prevent World War II and the holocaust—would you do it, not knowing what this act may change? In Stephen King’s 11.22.63 Jake Epping doesn’t get the chance to go back [...]
First Lines: The Hero with a Thousand Faces
December 28, 2011 – 23:47
The monomyth or hero’s journey is the pattern that underlies most, if not all, myths, folk and/or fairy tales that have been told since the dawn of mankind, and was first described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. It goes a little bit like this: a hero ventures forth from the [...]
First Lines: Whistle Down the Wind
November 7, 2011 – 22:38
While in Finland to see Tanz der Vampire with music by Jim Steinman, I was reading Mary Haley Bell’s Whistle Down the Wind. Of course, that’s the novel on which Andrew Lloyd Webber based the musical Jim wrote the lyrics for. Lottie Mayor with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber — Whistle Down the Wind And when [...]
Eerste regels: Versluiering
November 6, 2011 – 22:47
Versluiering, van het Italiaanse schrijversechtpaar Monaldi en Sorti werd mij in de boekhandel aangeboden in het kader van Juni, Maand van het Spannende Boek 2011. Desondanks, en hoewel er op de kaft ‘literaire thriller’ staat, vond ik het niet zo heel spannend. Om met het gedeelte ‘thriller’ te beginnen: er gebeurt in het hele verhaal [...]
