A View of the Ocean

by Jan de Hartog

The internationally best-selling novelist, playwright Jan de Hartog, author of The Captain and The Peaceable Kingdom , moves and inspires us with this simple, elegant story of his mother and himself.

She was a quiet, unassuming woman married to a giant of a man, a famous Protestant theologian and pastor, simple, bighearted and big-muscled, who moved through life with gusto and the commotion of a wagon train and who, but for God, might have become a pirate or a general. He adored his wife and didn’t like anyone else around to claim her attention. Their sons saw him as a monster of egocentricity, a tyrant, a blustering bully; to her he was a sensitive, shy, helpless man with a mission. She believed in him from the moment they met, and under the wings of her faith in him as a philosopher, he became one.

During their thirty years of marriage this woman’s only concern was to enable her husband to hearken to “the voice of God.”

After his death she discovered somewhere deep inside a core of drop-forged steel. She rose to the challenge of widowhood and, continuing his work, took his place in the world. The full splendor of this tiny, frail woman’s character, intelligence, and courage became evident during her World War II internment in a Japanese camp in the Dutch East Indies, when she managed to arrange a cease-fire between the Dutch Army and Indonesian guerillas.

After her release from prison camp, she returned to Amsterdam, and resumed her simple life, offering spiritual advice to those seeking solace. Finally, she was faced with the ultimate test of her spirit: a diagnosis of a cancer too far advanced for treatment.

De Hartog tells us how his mother’s blazing courage through it all inspired his own spiritual awakening as he found, in her final months, the strength, the power, and the acceptance to see her through to the end.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Religion

102 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Jan de Hartog (1914 – 2002) was a Dutch playwright, novelist and occasional social critic who moved to the United States in the early 1960s and became a Quaker. From then on he wrote in English.
At the beginning of his career he wrote five detective novels about the adventures of Commissioner Wiebe Poesiat and inspector Gregor Boyarski at the metropolitan harbor police under the pseudonym F.R. Eckmar

Johannes (Jan) de Hartog was een Nederlandse schrijver van romans, toneelstukken en filmscenario's, vooral gekend om zijn romans over de scheepvaart.
In het begin van zijn carrière schreef hij, onder het pseudoniem F.R. Eckmar, ook een vijftal detectieveromans over de avonturen van commissaris Wiebe Poesiat en inspecteur Gregor Boyarski bij de hoofdstedelijke havenpolitie.

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book you finish and read again. The author has written several novels that reflect his experiences in the 2nd WW, two of my favorites are The Captain and The Commodore (both good enough for saving and rereading.) This book is reflections about his life and parents which are occasioned as he tries to take car of his mother who in her eighties is dying of stomach cancer (before hospice care). If a reader is interested in the reality of experiencing evil in the world, of finding a basis for morality, in discussions of human limitations, the nature of God, this book will provide a great deal of interest. Two quotes:


“If someone comes to you for help, you shall not turn him off with pious words and kneel in prayer to recommend him to God; you shall act as if there were no God, as if there were only one person in all the world who could help him: you yourself.” Quoting a rabbi he had read.


“Death was a private matter, he said, the most private matter of a lifetime. Then, at last, each individual was confronted with his God. Not his Creator, mind you: the God he had created himself during his lifetime. It was a situation in which no one should interfere. . . . To be executed by the hand of her own personal God, that was what life was about.”

[Alesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan de Hartog became one of my favorite authors after I read The Peaceable Kingdom, a transformative story about the early days of George Fox and the Quakers. (The sequel about Quakers in the US was also interesting, but not as compelling IMHO.) So I was intrigued to find this little book (a mere 102 pages) written as a tribute to his mother.

De Hartog's father was a big burly pastor, and his wife lived in his shadow for decades, all the while inspiring him to deeper philosophical quests. After his death, she traveled to Indonesia to visit a son. Then WWII hit, and she was interred in a Japanese prison camp for many years. Her faith and brilliant spirit let her survive (if barely), inspire other prisoners and camp administrators, and return to a changed world in Holland.

What interested me most in the book was the author's spiritual quickening at his mother's deathbed, which led him to research Fox and the Quakers, and write his later books about them. The poem at the outset of the book, referenced later in his mother's notes, says it all:

"I saw that there was an ocean of
darkness and death,
but an infinite ocean of light and
love flowed over the ocean of darkness."
~ George Fox, 1647

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan de Hartog presents a very moving account of his mother's life, beginning with the enchanting story of meeting the man who was to become her husband and ending with the pivotal experience after her death which changed his life.

She was a gentle survivor with a capacity for tenderness even under extreme stress. Held in a Japanese prison camp in the Dutch West Indies during WWII, she was remembered by many of her fellow prisoners as a kind, gentle person who could persuade their guards to act humanely.

Years later, she approached her last days with that same dignity and courage.

The surprising thing is that he manages to write the entire book without ever mentioning her name. Once in the book he relates his father calling his mother Luc. There is a single photograph of her that has no caption. On the title page, I discovered that her married name was Lucretia de Hartog, but there is no mention of her birth family or her maiden name.

The second half of the book is devoted to the last weeks of her life as she was dying. In spite of this, it is an uplifting story of an heroic woman.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a good book to read - a hard book to read because I don't think cancer is ever an easy disease to die from - but still a very good book. This is a very small book about Jan De Hartog coming to terms with his mother's mortality as she is dying and finding out some interesting things about himself and his mother as this happens. It makes you really think about the way we have hidden what happens as people die and whether there may not be a better way. De Hartog died himself in 2002.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a love letter to de Hartog's mother, written posthumously. Although my mom was not a refugee camp survivor, there is no doubt that WWII profoundly affected her life. I found so many parallels to my mother's death from cancer in this book, including that one moment of clarity that de Hartog shared with his mom when she was near death. I appreciate that de Hartog spoke from his heart, not his head when writing this book.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan de Hartog provides us with an exquisitely written account of his mother's life as he knew it and her death as he experienced it. On page 23 there is a picture of her. You can tell at once that she was a woman of great character. Her face is radiant with love, and she has poise and wit in spades, oh and beauty also. Jan's wonderful writing provides further evidence of this.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

In its simplicity and seeming artlessness, this short, searing memoir of a mother's death from cancer achieves true pathos even as the author faces his own death, perhaps with acceptance. The unadorned work of an old master is ultimately cause for celebration.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant and bittersweet memoir. It traces the author's perception and conception of his mother from mere helpmate to his father to a courageous and faithful widower to a frail and helpless patient facing a painful death. It is at times harrowing, poetic and insightful. Not an easy read but there is something deeply human about it despite the difficult subject.

[Elderberrywine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A memoir of the Dutch author's mother, who was interned in a WWII Japanese prisoner of war camp while visiting her other son in the Dutch East Indies. Apparently she arranged a cease-fire between the Dutch army (?) and the locals, but we don't exactly know how. And then she comes back to the Netherlands to die a gut-wrenching death from stomach cancer. OK.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply personal and moving writing about his family and especially his mother including from his childhood through WWII and her excruciating death from cancer.
The emotional impact of his openness and matter of fact details is in inverse proportion to the size of the book.
I will be looking for more books by this author.

[Jane S · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all its slimness at 99 pgs, de Hartog’s tribute to his mother is a gem with deep facets. He chronicled memories of his mother and his time spent nursing her as she suffered slowly from terminal cancer, his writing slow in the articulation of all the unspoken yet deeply felt anguish, doubts over his own intentions and inadequacies, and questions as to whether he was doing the right thing till the end.

In many ways this brought back all the complex and unresolved feelings I have till this day about my dad in his final years, his death and how I felt and reacted to the news. So much went unsaid as with de Hartog and his mother but this book helped to show a different way of gleaning another dimension to my relationship with my dad, a way that simply points to possibilities of moving past trying to reconcile to simply accepting things as they are, and knowing that it is truly and gloriously enough.

I liked how the book doesn’t have neat endings or answers, or any necessarily mystical aspect/end to our human experience. In doing so, it acknowledges how we might always grapple within trying to reconcile memories with reality etc., how that can mislead us into thinking that we are striving for truth, and yet show that such grappling is what makes life worthwhile for the insight that our grapplings don't matter, because we are just part of a continuum of something much greater, more forgiving and ultimately affirming of all our humanness than we allow ourselves to feel for ourselves.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seem to be reading a lot of books about dying these days -- "I Heard the Owl Call My Name", virtually all of Mitch Albom's books and now this one, a paean to De Hartog's mother. A growing awareness of mortality, perhaps? In any case, if there's a trend here, it's not necessarily a positive one, because of all those mentioned, this one was the toughest read. His mother did not go gently, her death was very, very hard. So the point of the book is trying to make some sense of it. The book's title refers back to the founding of the Quakers in the 17th century -- perhaps hoping to find an answer there. Lovingly and sensitively written, but in the end not very satisfying.

[Lynn Pribus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was published posthumously and tells the story of his parents, especially his mother, including her harrowing pre-hospice death.

I also had an aunt in a similar Japanese concentration camp (my father's cousin, actually, but she was Tante Nelle to me). Who knows? It could have been the same camp as deHartog's mother and she could have returned home on the same vessel.

DeHartog touches the heart! And he writes exquisitely in English which is not his mother tongue.

[Victoria Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a strange little thing - lyrical, devastating, confessional, deeply private, spiritual, irreverent.

SO preachable, pastors!! De Hartog's father was a famous Dutch Protestant minister, and de Hartog's journey takes him through WWII. His mother, Lucretia, is the central character and will make you consider (or reconsider) the concept of secular sainthood.
It took about an hour to read and I'm sure I'll re-read it again soon.


I can't wait to discover more of his works.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and bittersweet memoir of the author's mother. Just a slim (102-page) volume, it concentrates for the most part on the death of Lucretia de Hartog, and the legacy she almost unwittingly left her son. It was very touching.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was not a fun book. when i picked it up i didn't realize it would be de hartog's struggle w/his mother's death. and his parents legacies, nazi germany, faith in God. not easy.
worth reading.

[Lynn Demarest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief, heartfelt, elegantly written memoir mostly about the death of de Hartog's parents, and especially his mother, who at the end preferred his inept nursing to that of the professionals.

Highly recommended.

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtle, sublime, and clear; like a New Year’s dawn that knows no time.

[Pippin · Rating 5 out of 5]

what his parents were was more important than what they did.

[Chelsea]

I has never heard of this author, which surprised me, because his style was great. I'd like to read more of his nonfiction. His writing has an impressive level of frank empathy for himself

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

not exactly what I expected but a good read.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dutch memoir. Liked.

[Becca Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fragile, beautiful stillnesses between events

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very moving account of the death of Mr. Hartog's mother.

[Tia Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, but most definitely worth while book. This was a book that had compressed some of the most important aspects of De Hartog's life. Mainly composed of his agnostic faith and his family. This is a book you can sit down and read all at once (as I myself did); and a book you will want to pick up and read again.