Summer in Termuren

Kapellekensbaan #2

by Louis Paul Boon, Paul Vincent (Translator)

This, the author writes, is "the novel of the individual in a world of barbarians." It is the story of Ondine and Oscarke, a young married couple adrift in a Belgian landscape that is darkening under the spread of industry and World War I. Ondine, who "came to serve god and live," finds that she must "serve the gentlemen" instead. Oscarke, an aspiring sculptor, finds himself unsuccessfully scouring Brussels for work and, when he is finally hired, too tired to make his own art. They grow old and their four children grow up as "technology and mechanization, unemployment, fascism, and war" take over around them. War destroys their attempts to establish a better life, which they seek continually and against all odds. And the chapters about these characters, some of whom first appeared in Chapel Road, alternate with chapters about Boon himself, who describes the impossibility of modern life and the destruction of war. As this wide-ranging novel progresses, the author's struggles--both with writing and with his own life--come more and more to resemble those of his characters.

Genres: Literature, Modern Classics, Belgium

489 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Lodewijk Paul Albrecht (Louis Paul) Boon was een Vlaams schrijver, dichter en kunstschilder.

Louis Paul Boon in de Nederlandstalige Wikipedia

Louis Paul Boon in de Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren

Louis Paul Boon bij "Schrijversgewijs"


Lodewijk Paul Albrecht (Louis Paul) Boon was a Flemish writer, poet and painter.

Louis Paul Boon in the English Wikipedia

Biography in English on NLPVF

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls]

Despite blurb comparisons to Foster Wallace and Cèline, two dozen pages into this pomo Dutch epic, the will to continue became as impassable as Trump’s skill at building walls. A ludicrous overuse of lower case, repetitive waffle, and niche references to another novel published before this one made me say, ‘Not right now, Peter.’

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where to start? This is a long book, 500 pages of small font, dense text, so it’s more like 1000. But it was worth it. This is fundamentally a tale of a mismatched husband and wife, Oscar and Ondine, who manage to stay together in Belgium through both World Wars despite the hard times and their separate and joint dysfunctions. He is an in- and out-of work sculptor who has an eye for underage girls. She is a conniver, a shrew and a social climber married to an unfaithful husband and she spends her whole life clawing her way up a socio-economic ladder that ends up going nowhere. Meanwhile they produce a litter of dysfunctional kids and believe me, you do not want any of this family moving in next door to you.

Against this backdrop we have wars, art, and politics. The wars come and go and at times the author deliberately obscures which one (I or II) is going on. There’s great talk of art. Oscar’s companions are writers, poets and painters, none of whom actually earn any real money, so the painter paints houses and the sculptor carves gravestones. These friends are all pretty much dysfunctional as well. Oscar is a lifetime socialist and can’t comprehend why almost everyone he knows (including Ondine) doesn’t support the socialist cause; it just makes so much sense to him. In his old age, as these things happen, Belgium pretty much becomes socialist but what was the point? Oscar is still poor, saddled with his dysfunctional wife and kids, and life goes on.

The book is a metanovel. The author, in asides, talks about when he’s going to end the book, or should he have included this or that chapter, and how this or that chapter was organized. It is basically a sequel (someone called it an obese sequel) to the author’s earlier acclaimed work (which I have not read), Chapel Road. In this second book, Termuren, one of the characters wrote the earlier work, so there is discussion by the characters of the two books and how they fit together, The book is divided into short chapters with little traditional punctuation and capitalization.

Boon asks Big Questions: “Why can’t people just live, live without a goal?” Why must we follow ideas, because we end up “…driven into a corner by idea-obsessed people.” “We must…struggle for some rationality and some human feeling – among these creatures who are not yet people, and yet are in control…” There is a lot of good writing: “…my thoughts walk like Chaplin’s feet.” and “…in my life I’ve tried love, art, science, religion, and politics…but all I achieved were so many spectacular failures…”

In short, this is quite a treatise. But its good writing kept me coming back to finish it. Boon is considered Belgium’s greatest modern novelist and was nominated several times for a Nobel Prize. The book was published in Belgium in 1956 but this translation is from 2006.

[Sofie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik heb de beide boeken over De Kapellekensbaan twee keer gelezen en vond twee keer Zomer te Ter-Muren nog inniger droevig, nog melancholischer en dus nog mooier dan het eerste boek.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an extraordinary book. I bought this for two bucks at the Boston Book Festival a few years ago, and somehow it never made it into the Year of Reading Big Books in 2017. I finally got around to it, and I'm glad I did.

He's obscure now, but in his day Louis Paul Boon was a celebrated and innovative Belgian novelist. He was nominated a couple of times for a Nobel Prize. His acknowledged masterwork was Chapel Road, which I haven't read. But Summer in Termuren is the sequel to that work, dealing with the Chapel Road characters. We see feckless stonemason Oscar and his irresponsible wife Ondine trying to raise a family and stay alive during WWI, but we also see Boon's creative process in conceptualizing the story; his friends give feedback on the saga and propose alternate scenarios.

Boon is like Celine: funny, pessimistic, and intelligent. His way with words made this rather overstuffed novel a real pleasure to wade through.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is basically a continuation of Chapel Road, with the same characters and even the same general style and structure, so you should read that one first. this one is possibly more negative than chapel road because instead of complaining about the failure of reformist socialism in belgium he's going on about how the world is becoming increasingly hitlerian after it killed hitler, and how contemporary technological society is a wasteland, always fun and relatable themes to read about. the writing here isn't really any worse than in chapel road but it's so similar that it didn't really strike me in quite the same way, even though the book is good.

[Piet Vandaele · Rating 5 out of 5]

30 jaar na de kapellekensbaan, las ik eindelijk zomer te ter-muren.
veel beter wordt het niet in de vlaamse literatuur.
een stijl met doorlopende zinnen zonder hoofdletters die doen denken aan saramago,
een spel met alter egos en filosofische beschouwingen die doen denken aan pessoa,
en een pessimisme dat doet denken aan celine,
dat alles in geschreven in een sappig vlaams met boon's kenmerkende humor en relativeringsvermogen.

[WillemC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ingekorte versie (396 pagina's)
4.5/5

[Piet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long and repetitive.
Very negative philosophy.
No positive characters.
The seamy side of life.