''All Souls' Day'' () is a 1998 novel by the Dutch writer
Cees Nooteboom
Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees" Nooteboom (; born 31 July 1933) is a Dutch novelist, poet and journalist. After the attention received by his novel '' Rituals'' (''Rituelen'', 1980), which won the Pegasus Prize, it was the first of his n ...
. It tells the story of a Dutch documentary filmmaker who lives in Berlin, and reflects, with his friends, on matters such as art, history, and national characters.
Reception
Julie Myerson of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' wrote:
"It's clear that Nooteboom knows more than enough about art, philosophy, semantics and the whole onanistic malarkey, but the effect of his prose is so blindingly didactic
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain.
...
that you quickly feel you would pay good money to have someone smile or burp or drop something or talk about anything other than the reunification of Germany
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...
or the iconography of late German romanticism
German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...
. I also wondered whether Susan Massoty's translation - unbearably arch, enervatingly fussy - might be letting him down." Myerson continued: "we are never allowed to empathise with, let alone believe in, the tragedy that has befallen Arthur. The dead wife and child are no more than juicy, gratuitous sidebars. No, 'juicy' is too kind; they're just bland tidbits, laid whingingly there on the page, and you quickly begin to resent them."
''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' said: "Nooteboom's attempt at an intellectual novel is worthy of respect, but Arthur and his friends are frustratingly static in their habits and thoughts, their perorations inflated with hot air. More enervating than invigorating, the book fails to communicate the vitality of a life of thought."
See also
*
1998 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1998.
Events
* March 5 – Tennessee Williams' 1938 play ''Not About Nightingales'' receives its stage première in London, in a collaboration between the Royal Na ...
*
Dutch literature
Dutch-language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, ...
References
1998 novels
20th-century Dutch novels
Novels by Cees Nooteboom
Novels set in Berlin
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