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Maan
Deze verbeeldingsrijke roman is niet bepaald het doorsnee verhaal over verliefde pubers. Maan woont met zijn excentrieke moeder Saskia, de weduwe van de rijke koopman Lambert Humalda, in een groot huis aan de rand van het Friese Dantumadiel. Rik is verliefd op de beeldschone Maan, maar raakt in verwarring als deze hem vertelt dat hij eigenlijk een meisje is. Dit is nog maar het begin van een aaneenschakeling van onfortuinlijke avonturen die hen langs treiterige rugbyspelers, adellijke kikkermensen en de onderwereld van Amsterdam voert.
This is not exactly the typical teenage love story. Moon lives with his eccentric mother, Saskia, the widow of the wealthy merchant Lambert Humalda, in a big house on the edge of the Frisian Dantumadiel. Rick is in love with the beautiful Moon, but becomes confused when he tells him that he is really a girl. This is just the beginning of a chain of unfortunate adventures that takes them along harassing rugby players, noble frog people and the Amsterdam underworld.
This is not exactly the typical teenage love story. Moon lives with his eccentric mother, Saskia, the widow of the wealthy merchant Lambert Humalda, in a big house on the edge of the Frisian Dantumadiel. Rick is in love with the beautiful Moon, but becomes confused when he tells him that he is really a girl. This is just the beginning of a chain of unfortunate adventures that takes them along harassing rugby players, noble frog people and the Amsterdam underworld.
170 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2015
About the author
Gaby den Held
5 books3 followersAs long as he can remember he writes stories. He has written poems and participated in a poetry platform, Poetry Alive! He has also written culinary articles, restaurant reviews and travelogues (2002-2009). He didn’t think of writing a novel. Until a traumatic event knocked him over.
"You write stories, do you?" a friend said. "Why don’t you write it all up and do something with it?" That 'something' has slowly grown into a story in which the sometimes harsh reality is mixed with a fairy tale. The story is about Ángel Flores who is tragically in love with CHARLIE DARK.
The foundation was laid for his personal style:
Imaginative fairytale-like stories populated with sometimes extravagant characters. But how bizarre and grotesque the stories sometimes may seem, they always have one foot in reality, like in a magical realist painting.
The foundation was laid for his personal style: succinct and clear prose with a complex storyline. The atmosphere is imaginative and fairytale-like with a penchant for the extravagant. But how bizarre and grotesque the stories sometimes may seem, they always have one foot in reality, like in a magical realist painting. Deceptively lighthearted and naturally heavy themes are covered as gender dysphoria, sexual fluidity, sexual harassment, suicide, perpetratorship and victimhood.
Maan: not exactly the typical teenage love story
After he wrote Charlie Dark he began on his second novel MAAN (Moon). This would ultimately be his debut as a published novelist. The theme
is self-determination and individual freedom, wrapped in a story about an impossible love. As a main character he chose the trans woman Maan who wants to make her own choices on all aspects of life. If Maan is still a boy he lives with his eccentric mother, Saskia, the widow of the wealthy merchant Lambert Humalda, in a big house on the edge of the Frisian Dantumadiel. Rick is in love with the beautiful Maan, but becomes confused when he tells him that he is really a girl.
Reünie: a tragicomedy about revenge
He decided to keep his firstling, Charlie Dark, in the drawer and began a new novel, a tragicomedy about revenge: REÜNIE (Reunion).
Dorian Pots arrives on a sunny May day in Diepenheim, the city of his youth. He intends to start a new life with his old puppy love Jasper van Vliet. But then he sees Titus Balkenhol on the terrace of cafe Boonk, wearing a blue polka dot dress. This willy-nilly old school chum, the clown of the class, tells him: "See you tonight at the reunion of our old school class." A reunion? Why does Dorian knows nothing about it? His former classmates have more surprises in store.
Alex Stanovsky: never ending train journey
He is now working on ideas for a next novel. This will be about a young man who takes the train to a job interview. It appears that the office where he will have that interview is in the train. In fact, the train turns out to be a world in itself, where he may never come out.
Gaby's debut novel MAAN was published November 2015 and REÜNIE was published October 2017, both by publisher IJZER.
First there are the images, then the words. Before I write I see the fragment for me as a movie scene. It’s no surprise that I’m particularly influenced by the movies. I love the films by Alex van Warmerdam, François Ozon, Roman Polanski, David Lynch and most of all: Federico Fellini. I want to create a slightly caricatural dream world that gives reality a brighter color. That does not deny the ruthlessness of life, but places it in a different light. In that world I introduce tragic clowns. Anti-heroes with panache. Outsiders who were bullied in the schoolyard as a kid. Because they have red hair. Because they don’t play football. Because they are boys who feel like a girl or vice versa. But they have rebounded. They go through life with their heads held high. They remember that statement of ballet legend Sonia Gaskell: If you fall, always make something of it.
"You write stories, do you?" a friend said. "Why don’t you write it all up and do something with it?" That 'something' has slowly grown into a story in which the sometimes harsh reality is mixed with a fairy tale. The story is about Ángel Flores who is tragically in love with CHARLIE DARK.
The foundation was laid for his personal style:
Imaginative fairytale-like stories populated with sometimes extravagant characters. But how bizarre and grotesque the stories sometimes may seem, they always have one foot in reality, like in a magical realist painting.
The foundation was laid for his personal style: succinct and clear prose with a complex storyline. The atmosphere is imaginative and fairytale-like with a penchant for the extravagant. But how bizarre and grotesque the stories sometimes may seem, they always have one foot in reality, like in a magical realist painting. Deceptively lighthearted and naturally heavy themes are covered as gender dysphoria, sexual fluidity, sexual harassment, suicide, perpetratorship and victimhood.
Maan: not exactly the typical teenage love story
After he wrote Charlie Dark he began on his second novel MAAN (Moon). This would ultimately be his debut as a published novelist. The theme
is self-determination and individual freedom, wrapped in a story about an impossible love. As a main character he chose the trans woman Maan who wants to make her own choices on all aspects of life. If Maan is still a boy he lives with his eccentric mother, Saskia, the widow of the wealthy merchant Lambert Humalda, in a big house on the edge of the Frisian Dantumadiel. Rick is in love with the beautiful Maan, but becomes confused when he tells him that he is really a girl.
Reünie: a tragicomedy about revenge
He decided to keep his firstling, Charlie Dark, in the drawer and began a new novel, a tragicomedy about revenge: REÜNIE (Reunion).
Dorian Pots arrives on a sunny May day in Diepenheim, the city of his youth. He intends to start a new life with his old puppy love Jasper van Vliet. But then he sees Titus Balkenhol on the terrace of cafe Boonk, wearing a blue polka dot dress. This willy-nilly old school chum, the clown of the class, tells him: "See you tonight at the reunion of our old school class." A reunion? Why does Dorian knows nothing about it? His former classmates have more surprises in store.
Alex Stanovsky: never ending train journey
He is now working on ideas for a next novel. This will be about a young man who takes the train to a job interview. It appears that the office where he will have that interview is in the train. In fact, the train turns out to be a world in itself, where he may never come out.
Gaby's debut novel MAAN was published November 2015 and REÜNIE was published October 2017, both by publisher IJZER.
First there are the images, then the words. Before I write I see the fragment for me as a movie scene. It’s no surprise that I’m particularly influenced by the movies. I love the films by Alex van Warmerdam, François Ozon, Roman Polanski, David Lynch and most of all: Federico Fellini. I want to create a slightly caricatural dream world that gives reality a brighter color. That does not deny the ruthlessness of life, but places it in a different light. In that world I introduce tragic clowns. Anti-heroes with panache. Outsiders who were bullied in the schoolyard as a kid. Because they have red hair. Because they don’t play football. Because they are boys who feel like a girl or vice versa. But they have rebounded. They go through life with their heads held high. They remember that statement of ballet legend Sonia Gaskell: If you fall, always make something of it.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 18, 2018
Zo mooi is dit boek! Het heeft een sfeer die lang nazindert...
Friesland krijgt een nieuwe andere dimensie en is tegelijkertijd erg Frieslandachtig door de gebeurtenissen aan de slootkant.
Als Maan in beeld komt schakelt de verteller over op jij. Je voelt zijn verlangen intiemer te zijn met Maan, de Jij die een hij is en maar al jong zeker weet dat hij een Zij is.
Ik doe het boek tekort als ik zeg dat het transgenderthema het enige is waar het om gaat.
De sprookjesachtige sfeer en de stoet kleurrijke personages en (tragische) gebeurtenissen bekoorden mij. Ik zag ze voor me. Afstandelijke en op zichzelf gerichte Maan. Haar intrigerende moeder Saskia met een verleden op de Amsterdamse Wallen. In het heden een kleurrijke kunstenares met verzameldrift. Het huis waar Maan opgroeit in het Friese Dantumadiel: Sytzama state, met een afbeelding van een eenhoorn boven de voordeur. Ik vond het heerlijk sfeervol dat de trip naar Amsterdam per boot was. Dat gaf het iets magisch. Oom Cornelis met watervrees als schipper maakte het dan weer grappig. De volwassen Rik en Maan wonend in Amsterdam waren heel realistisch en hun beroepskeuzes perfect bij ze passend. Natuurlijk was Maan zo geworden. En Rik fotograaf.
Friesland krijgt een nieuwe andere dimensie en is tegelijkertijd erg Frieslandachtig door de gebeurtenissen aan de slootkant.
Als Maan in beeld komt schakelt de verteller over op jij. Je voelt zijn verlangen intiemer te zijn met Maan, de Jij die een hij is en maar al jong zeker weet dat hij een Zij is.
Ik doe het boek tekort als ik zeg dat het transgenderthema het enige is waar het om gaat.
De sprookjesachtige sfeer en de stoet kleurrijke personages en (tragische) gebeurtenissen bekoorden mij. Ik zag ze voor me. Afstandelijke en op zichzelf gerichte Maan. Haar intrigerende moeder Saskia met een verleden op de Amsterdamse Wallen. In het heden een kleurrijke kunstenares met verzameldrift. Het huis waar Maan opgroeit in het Friese Dantumadiel: Sytzama state, met een afbeelding van een eenhoorn boven de voordeur. Ik vond het heerlijk sfeervol dat de trip naar Amsterdam per boot was. Dat gaf het iets magisch. Oom Cornelis met watervrees als schipper maakte het dan weer grappig. De volwassen Rik en Maan wonend in Amsterdam waren heel realistisch en hun beroepskeuzes perfect bij ze passend. Natuurlijk was Maan zo geworden. En Rik fotograaf.
February 24, 2024
Ik vond het boek erg mooi, maar deel 2 viel me een beetje tegen in vergelijking met deel 1. Er was minder spanning en ik vond Esthers rol maar vaag. Gelukkig maakt het einde van het boek veel goed en vind ik het over het algemeen een prima boek met leuke personages. Ik moet wel zeggen dat ik het lastig vond om door de ogen van Rik te kijken, ik voelde bijvoorbeeld niet echt de intense liefde die hij voor Maan had. Maar al met al is het een aanrader en zou ik het misschien nog wel een keer lezen.
December 30, 2022
Het boek geeft een fantasievolle kijk in het leven van (trans)jongeren.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews