War & Culture: W.F. Hermans in The New York Review of Books

A great review by Tim Parks was published in The New York Review of Books, on 4 classic novels by Dutch author W.F. Hermans, who "is spectacularly successful in drawing his readers toward the same disorientation as his characters. Like a partisan’s grenade tossed into the plushly preserved house of Western culture, these unrelenting tragicomedies leave no complacencies intact. In this regard, even though the generation they were intended to shock has long since disappeared, they could hardly be more timely." Reviewed are:
An Untouched House (translated by David Colmer), The Darkroom of Damocles (translated by Ina Rilke), A Guardian Angel Recalls (translated by David Colmer) and Beyond Sleep (translated by Ina Rilke).

Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) is one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors. Before devoting his life to writing, Hermans taught Physical Geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He had already started writing and publishing in magazines at a young age. His polemic and provocative style led to a court case as early as 1952. His caustic pieces were compiled in Mandarijnen op zwavelzuur (Mandarines in Sulphuric Acid), which was reprinted with additions a number of times.