Val, bom

by Gerrit Kouwenaar

124 pages

Published January 1, 1973

About the author

Nowadays he is considered "the grand old man of Dutch poetry" and collected nearly all the literary prices one can collect in the Netherlands.

Kouwenaar debuteerde in de Tweede Wereldoorlog met een aantal clandestiene uitgaven, waaronder Vroege voorjaarsdag. Hij schreef in die jaren voor het communistische verzetsblad De Waarheid en na de bevrijding voor Het Vrije Volk.

Hij was verbonden aan het tijdschrift (Reflex), en kwam in contact met de Experimentele Groep Holland en later met het experimentele kunstenaarsgezelschap Cobra. In 1949 publiceerde hij samen met de Cobra-schilder Constant Goede morgen haan, een combinatie van gedichten en tekeningen (Peinture-mots).

Aanvankelijk een meer sociaal en politiek bewogen experimentele dichter, later is zijn werk meer gericht op het taalgebruik in de poëzie. Kouwenaar streeft naar poëzie die autonoom is en voor zichzelf spreekt. Kouwenaar maakte ook talrijke vertalingen van toneelstukken o.a. van Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Hochhuth, Weiss, Kroetz, Sartre, Tennessee Williams, Stoppard, Osborne en Pinter.

His poems have been translated and published in anthologies in numerous languages. Full collections have appeared in English, French, German, Polish and Swedish.

Reviews

[Tom Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soon to appear in English for the first time as Fall, Bomb, Fall, from Pushkin Press, this superb little novel is like a cross between The Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22.

First published in 1950 in Dutch, it tells of a few days in the life of Karel, a 17-year-old bored boy who is fed up of all the talk of war, and wishes they'd just get on and drop some bombs already. Of course, the very next day he gets his wish, and his slow crawl into adulthood abruptly turns into a sprint.

Charming, absurd, funny and tragic, this is a unique and surprising novella - my only complaint is that I'd have liked it to be longer. 4.5.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a short novella about a 17-year-old Karel who is so bored and fed up with all the talk of war, but who can blame him if his family is so unserious, problematic and doesn't care about anything except their problems? Karel then, being a young bored boy, wishes the bombs would fall already, but of course, he could never imagine what it could bring him and what life would become.

I was quite amazed by the language, because even though it's a story with character development, conflicts, and a culmination, it reads like poetry, perhaps even a little bit of epic poetry with a young protagonist as a hero. But the boy is not a hero, but a dramatic human (not in an annoying way). The plot is entirely focused on the boy and his thoughts, happiness, pain, and regrets. The Jewish girl is a part of the plot, but I would say she stays more in the background to underline the boy's feelings. I would say her family is even more important.

And the ending? The phrase was perfectly fitting to summarise the idea. Needless to say, I liked it very much, because it's a fresh look at the beginning of the war and people's ignorant blindness. Please, dear Pushkin Press, translate more classics from other countries. These are amazing.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - Fall, Bomb, Fall

This was nothing like I expected - the most surprising narrative style detailing the inner thoughts of a seventeen year old boy in the Netherlands, just as it's being invaded by the Germans in WW2.

A bored teenager on the cusp of adulthood, he wishes for the bombs to fall. And so they do. But is it everything he'd hoped it would be? Will he ever again see the Jewish girl he's only just met and thinks he's in love with? or his family who are waiting for him to come home? There is no going back, and especially not to the fearless and naive youth he had before.

I've never read another WW2 book like this, and I think that says it all.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vlot boek over een tiener die midden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog belandt. Het is duidelijk dat Kouwenaar poëtisch begaafd was en er zitten autobiografische details in.

[gemma]

ging echt van 1 naar 100 toe in de laatste 10 pagina's

[Dymphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 'Val, Bom', volgt de lezer Karel, een zeventienjarig jongen die eigenlijk wenst dat er oorlog komt en dat er bommen vallen.

Het boek kabbelt redelijk door en ik heb dit klein boekje in een keer kunnen uitlezen. Het was interessant om eens dit perspectief te lezen (begin van de oorlog in Rotterdam), maar ik zal het waarschijnlijk geen tweede keer lezen.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Las primeras 80/90 páginas se me han hecho bola. Me ha costado acostumbrarme al estilo de Kouwenaar, puesto que es muy literal y lo he sentido vacío en muchos momentos.
Sin embargo, sí he disfrutado las últimas 40 páginas, aunque el final me parece muy atropellado (como toda la historia, en realidad).
No me parece que merezca la pena este libro.

[Jacques · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aangrijpende, poëtische deels autobiografische novelle over het begin van W.O.-II en het bombardement op Rotterdam.

[B.]

Ik was er na anderhalve pagina wel klaar mee. Dnf