Joop: A Novel of Anne Frank

by Richard Lourie

From internationally renowned author and translator Richard Lourie comes this highly acclaimed fictionalized account of the man who may have betrayed Anne Frank. Set in present-day Amsterdam, Joop begins with the startling confession of an old man―a secret he has never told anyone. Transporting readers through the agonizing Nazi takeover of World War II, Joop recounts his role as a boy seeking his father's praise and desiring to shelter his family. He figures out a way to provide for them, but in doing so, he sets in motion a chain of events that will horrify the entire world.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Holocaust, World War II, Historical, Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro surpreendeu-me em três momentos distintos.
O primeiro, quando tive conhecimento dele. Um livro sobre a Anne Frank que ainda não conhecia.
Em segundo lugar, quando me chegou às mãos. Um livro com um formato diferente dos outros, muito mais estreito que o normal (13 cm quando o normal é 15 cm)
E em terceiro lugar, pela sua história. Uma história que ninguém conhece. O "outro lado da história" da Família Frank. O lado dos traidores que denunciaram a família. O lado do inimigo, até hoje sem rosto.

Então e se...
Se esta fosse a sua história?

A história de um menino holandês, como tantos outros, que tem de crescer demasiado depressa por causa da guerra, que tem de trabalhar para conseguir algum dinheiro extra para ajudar a sua família, que tem de comer bolbos de tulipas para enganar a fome, que tem de fazer escolhas que irão para sempre mudar a sua vida.

É esta a premissa para um livro muito especial que devorei em poucos dias e que aconselho vivamente.
Gostei imenso de conhecer um bocadinho melhor a vida e o dia-a-dia de uma família, num país ocupado pelo inimigo, que no início nem era assim visto por muita gente, mas antes como um exemplo a seguir.
As dificuldades e agruras de uma vida espoliada de qualquer bem essencial, o receio de ser mal interpretado, o medo de se ser quem é.

Só fiquei um pouco desiludida com a 3a e última parte do livro, pois o autor foi por um caminho que se desviou em muito do tema central da história, e deixou-me frustrada com o final, mas ainda assim não hesito em dar 4 estrelas bem gordas a este livro.

[Stacey B · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a secret in this book-which peaked my curiosity.
I liked it; but I did not find myself running to finish it as I usually would do.
I think this book was too wordy for me.

[Barb H · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book, Richard Lourie, who is an old family friend, is best known for his impressive connections with Russia, but obviously he has also been involved with international issues. He has written numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction.

The title of this novel refers to the “starvation diet” which developed during WW ll in Holland. The crux of the tale is the overwhelming hunger and starvation among the populace, especially one family. It influenced their every thought and action, often spurring actions which they previously found inconceivable andd intolerable. This account was told by an elderly man, Joop, who reveals his experiences to the younger brother he hasn't seen for 60 years when he visits from America. According to Lourie's fictional account, this informant who turned Anne Frank and her family in to the Nazis was a mere adolescent, motivated by sibling rivalry, a desire to receive positive recognition from his father and a diet containing mainly tulip bulbs, rather than obsessive anti-Semitism or greed. The build-up to the divulgence is unique and compelling.

Although this is a small, quick read, Lourie's narrative of Anne Frank's fictional betrayer as a selfish, misguided youth is grim and deftly written. Despite its brevity, I thought it was profound.

[Evalunasylva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ao contrário do que normalmente acontece comigo, não ia com grandes expectativas para a leitura deste livro e foi por isso que me surpreendeu tanto! Gostei bastante!

[Gerrybergstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Hatred For Tulips, September 1, 2007
By gerryb (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

If Breughel were a minimalist 21st century writer this might have been one of his books. It an easy and pleasurable read, almost casual in style, bit rich in incidental detail. The profoundly horrific dilemmas of being human that it deals with emerge stealthily but potently. It turns out Anne Frank's probable betrayer was not particularly monstrous but a confused and impressionable kid named Joop from a hungry family. The money he gets for informing may help save them from starvation and the Anne Frank's fate seems much more distant. The contrast of the breezy writing style and the gravity of the material make the book all the more memorable. There are other nuances in the plot which turn out to be quite important but I will leave them for other readers to discover. I recommend this book very highly.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH MY! I ADORED this book. What an amazing tie in to Anne Frank. Gave me the chills!

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one sentence that stood out for me was the truth of “Three quarters of Holland’s Jews go to their deaths, worse than Fascist Italy, but thanks to Anne Frank the country has a reputation for heroism, resistance, humanitarianism.” (Pg. 149)

[Kaila (pagesofthevalley) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short history fiction read. I didn't hate it nor did I love it. This novel had an interesting point of view of a boy during the holocaust.

[Hallie Cantor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, chilling speculation on the motivations of the guy whose choice shaped history.

This is a fictionalized account of the person who turned in Anne Frank and her family to the Gestapo, in late 1944. The protagonist (anti-hero?), Joop, meets his younger brother after an absence of 60 years. Joop is retired after a mediocre blue-collar life in his native Holland. His brother, on the other hand, who had moved to the U.S. as a child with his mother after her divorce, has forged a successful professional and family life with little memory of his former country.

The author describes vividly the harsh, brutal existence under Nazi occupation -- the oppression, the underground activity, the methods of smuggling food, and a Dutch population driven to eating tulips in order to fend off starvation. These factors, as well as a desire to please his difficult father, and keep him alive, led Joop to make the fateful decision to report the hiding of the Jewish family in an attic in exchange for rations.

This novel is hardly a "Sympathy for the Devil" scenario. Joop does not come across as anti-Semitic, although possibly psychopathic. In neither tone nor prose does the author claim any moral high ground, or make scathing judgments. Rather, we see how Joop tries to rationalize his actions and in the end received very little in the way of reward. Although he survived the war, and presumably continued everyday life, he achieved very little materially or intellectually. Rather, he ended up a bitter, lonely bachelor.

[Tara Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I was expecting a little more from this novel, which is uspposed to be a fictionalized account of Joop, the boy/man who may have betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis at the end of WWII. Although the story moved quickly, and was written in a way that made you feel as though you were a part of the picture, I felt that Joop's ideas and thoughts as a boy could have been conveyed a little better. his motives seem so very two-dimensional, and sometimes it can be hard to empathize with him, although it seems that empathy is part of the author's goal. A good read, but I'd recommend it more to people who have a definite interest in the story of Anne Frank, rather than as a stand-alone read by itself.

[Susan Sherwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a holocaust story told from the perspective of Joop, who as a teenager was involved in the betrayal of Anne Frank in Amsterdam. It is sixty years later and Joop shares his tormenting secret with his visiting younger brother, the surviving half of the twins who were babies during the Nazi occupation in Holland. There is much here: guilt, sibling jealousy, Joop's need of recognition and love from his dying father, his willingness to do whatever to help support his family survive, and nationalistic sympathies and position. The narrator tells of plights of everyday actions of average citizens, and it was certainly a difficult time for them. This would make for interesting discussion of a book group, especially in deciding whether or not Joop is a sympathetic character.

[June Guymon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A psychologically astute short novel about moral responsibillity and illusion of truth. A different take on what happened to Anne Frank.

[LynnB · Rating 2 out of 5]

It didn't make me care about the characters.

[mariuszowelektury · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tak właśnie działa wojna. Sprawia, że rzeczy niemożliwe stają się możliwe. I robi to tak często, że przechodzi w rutynę."

Mały holenderski chłopiec i jego problemy w szkole, z młodszym rodzeństwem, przemocowym ojcem, wujem, zwolennikiem hitlerowskich Niemiec. Wszystko to na tle wielkiej historii. Obraz wojny i życia cywilów zupełnie inny niż ten, jaki znamy z historii Polski.

Wojna przychodzi po cichu i niepostrzeżenie, stopniowo przyzwyczaja do głodu, brudu, nienawiści, antysemityzmu, donosicielstwa, śmierci. Joop chce za wszelką cenę przetrwać. Historia przedstawiona oczami dziecka, z jego naiwnością i prostotą języka, tym bardziej podkreśla banalizację zła, która według Hannah Arendt moze dotyczyć każdego człowieka.

Czy można postąpić inaczej? W którym miejscu jest granicą między dobrem a złem? Czy pragnienie przetrwania może usprawiedliwiać każde postępowanie? Jak my zachowalibyśmy się w takiej sytuacji? To tylko niektóre pytania, które stawia ta książka.

[Anne Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title first drew me in, and then when I found it was a story about how someone who had a role in Anne Frank's family's arrest in Amsterdam, I had to read it. The writing is masterful, clean and spare, and evokes the feelings of the man who narrates to his long-lost brother what happened to him as a boy during the German occupation of Holland. You feel for him and his family as they struggle to survive. And in the end, although you feel pity and horror at what happened, you understand.

[Kassi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was great.
It was quick and well-written.
WWII from the perspective of a young Dutch Protestant boy but narrated by his older self.

Recommend for anyone who likes WWII stories but is looking for a new spin. Or anyone who is doing the "52 week reading challenge" and looking for a book with a plant on the cover.

[Wendee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a quick read. I didn't love it. There were no characters I really liked. It was an interesting concept. And even though it was fiction, it gave me a better idea of what it might have been like to be living in the Netherlands during Nazi occupation.

[Melissa Ye · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Hatred for Tulips is a historical fiction written in the point of view of a young boy during the Holocaust. When I first started reading the book, I thought the book would be interesting because the story was from the perspective of a man who betrayed Anne frank’s family to the Nazis. However, around the middle of the novel, the book seemed a bit wordy and I started to get bored of the book, which is why I’m rating the book 3 stars. However, I think the book had a great storyline and when I was reading it, the book read like a nonfiction. Dispite the book being wordy, I think the book was very well written, and I kept wondering if it could be a true story. Similar to many historical fiction books about WWII and the Holocaust, the book studies moral responsibility, the illuson of truth, and guilt. A quote I really liked from the book is, “People who don’t have secrets imagine them as dark and hidden. It’s just the opposite. Secrets are bright. They light you up. Like the bare lightbulb left on in a cell day and night, they give you no rest.” I would recommend this book to people who are interested in reading about WWII and the Holocaust, and already have dsome background knowledge about the time period of the book.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really wasn't about Anne Frank. She was only mentioned once or twice in the whole story. It is more about the main character Joop, living through those harrowing times when World War 2 was happening, and the different experiences he and his family went through because of the war.

[Justyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sentymentalne a zarazem epatujące nieszczęściem żeby trzymać czytelnika przy lekturze. Trochę się można dowiedzieć o Holandii w czasie wojny dlatego 2 gwiazdki.

[Brian O'Leary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it without knowing anything about it, was blown away, awesome book

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful little book, an imaginary story of the person who betrayed Anne Frank. It feels real.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me of my mother in law's stories about the war.

[jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, recommended by my bc teacher who turns out to be a reader and really loves this book. not a bad read but didn't really stand out to me.

[Amanda MacCauley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy read. I felt it rambled a few times and I didn't really connect with the characters, but I liked the story overall.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book, but one that has sat on my shelves to read for over a year. For some reason it never called to me when selecting my next read. For such a short book it really brings a powerful punch in the deep thoughts category. While most of the story is not directly about Anne Frank and her family’s capture, the story is still relevant to that topic.

This is a fictional tale, but one that provides such a similar perspective to Anne’s diary it could almost be read along side her words. The story is set in modern day, but is told mostly through a retelling of Joop’s childhood so what the reader sees is much of what he experienced as a child. It is that aspect I think these two works compliment each other. You get the same time period told through the eyes of two children on the opposite sides of the line. Neither of them fully understands the depths of the seriousness of their situations, so both are still caught up in normal thoughts of their ages. Both end up having drastic impacts on the world far beyond their little corner.

The powerful thought this book leaves you with is that of desperate times and desperate measures. Not all informers were Jew hating Nazi lovers. Many were starving, dying, and angry. Informing gave them enough food to live another week and strength to beat an illness. The end result of their tattle-tale ways didn’t directly impact them the same as their empty stomach, sick father, or wilting children. It’s a heavy thought – how far would you go in the moments before death?

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

People who don’t have secrets imagine them as dark and hidden. It’s just the opposite. Secrets are bright. They light you up. Like the bare lightbulb left on in a cell day and night, they give you no rest.” So thinks Joop, the narrator of this brief and bitter tale, whose secret is like no other. He has kept that secret for more than sixty years, but now his brother---whom he has not seen since the end of the war---has suddenly shown up at his door.
Having grown up in North America with only the vaguest memories of World War II, Joop’s brother has returned to Amsterdam to find out what his childhood in Holland had been like. But what he discovers is much more than he bargained for---he is startled and dismayed to learn of his own role in the betrayal of Anne Frank. Transporting readers through the agonizing Nazi takeover of World War II, Joop recounts his role as a boy desiring to feed his starving family. He figures out a way to provide for them, but in doing so, he sets in motion a chain of events that will horrify the entire world.

[Kristin Runyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually prefer nonfiction accounts of WWII and the Holocaust. I don't think it is necessary to fictionalize an historical event that has so many primary sources available. The premise of this book is to tell the story of the thief who turned in the Frank family, hence the subtitle A Novel of Anne Frank. The tie to Anne Frank does not occur until the very end of the book (although the setup is provided in the first chapter). The novel is well written and provided an insight to WWII that I was not familiar with--the Dutch Christians living under occupation. For example, I did not know that even though the Americans had landed in France in June 1944 that Holland remained occupied until 1945 so that for the winter of 1944-45, many Dutch people were starving and had to eat tulip bulbs. I feel that the novel could have stood on its own without the Anne Frank hook, but I also think the author included it to expand readership. I probably would not have picked it off the shelf without the Anne Frank subtitle.

[Purvika · Rating 4 out of 5]

"People who don’t have secrets imagine them as dark and hidden. It’s just the opposite. Secrets are bright. They light you up. Like the bare lightbulb left on in a cell day and night, they give you no rest.”

This book starts with Joop visiting his brother William, confessing the crime he carried on his shoulders and was now sagged with guilt. He shares how this guilt
Never let him have a normal life. Picturing himself as a victim as well, he talks about the life he lived or rather suffered. Which makes me wonder was he telling the truth or was this a farce to fetch some sympathy.

What I really liked about "A Hatred for Tulips" is that in the end, the story didn't end like a typical novel rather had a reminiscence of life in it where, the truth of a situation is often never discovered. Or there turn out to be many facets of the truth. Just as in life, "A Hatred for Tulips" is a study in shades of gray, it is a psychologically astute novel about moral responsibility and the illusion of truth.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story -- it read like nonfiction! It all starts when a stranger knocks on Joop's door in Amsterdam 60+ years after the end of WWII and says that he is his brother, Willem. He has come to discover what his life was like as a child in Holland during the war.

At the end of the war, Joop and Willem's mother took Willem and left Joop and his father for a Canadian officer and moved to North America. Bitter, Joop begins to tell Willem about their life during the war . . . Joop asks Willem if he knows who Anne Frank is and Willem says "of course", insinuating that everybody knows who Anne Frank is. Joop tells Willem that when the Nazis came to get Anne they went right to her hiding place and Willem said that he knew this and Joop says that's because somebody betrayed her. Willem asks who and Joop says you.

We learn the history and the story of their childhood beginning in Chapter 2. We also learn why Joop has a hatred for tulips.