Rituals

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Cees Nooteboorn, b. 1933, published his novel `Rituelen' in 1980 and this English translation, by Adrienne Dixon in 1983, won the Pegasus Prize, an award `to introduce American readers to distinguished works from countries whose literature is rarely translated into Engllsh'.Nooteboon's central character is Inni Wintrop, named after Inigo Jones, who is wealthy enough to dabble, buying art, writing a newspaper horoscope and investing in the financial markets. He is without any aim in life [`If he had ever had any ambition, he would have been prepared to call himself a failure, but he had none.'] but he finds pleasure in his insatiable desire for women. In the short first part, Intermezzo, it is 1963 and his wife, Zita, leaves him for an Italian because she can no longer put up with his infidelities and lack of any personal or professional commitment. He tries to commit suicide, and fails.The second part, set ten years earlier, describes Inni's meeting with Arnold Taads, a former Dutch skiing champion who has lost an eye. The final part takes place in 1973 and describes Inni's meeting with Philip Taads, Arnold's unacknowledged son. Arnold and Philip share lives in which they have isolated themselves, physically and emotionally, from the demands of the real world.Inni, a restless and rootless character, has had to devise and exploit ways, the `rituals' of the title, to get through everyday life. In childhood he relied on the Catholic religion but this was disrupted and he was no longer able to regain its security. As the book develops it becomes clear that this protective behavior is a necessary requirement for the other characters. Life is, quite simply, a struggle for everyone and not just for characters in a Dutch novella. Nooteboom's writing is spare with each paragraph requiring this reader's thought and consideration. Indeed, the book took me longer to read than many others with double the number of pages. It is not a relaxing read.Arnold has developed a very structured way of life with different activities, eating, smoking, reading and walking, each taking place at the same time each day, and each lasting for exactly the same time each day. Only with this rigid structure in place can he deal with life each and every day. When this inflexibility is interrupted, for example, by the arrival of Inni at his house ten minutes earlier than arranged, he is unable to meet him until the allotted timeslot begins. In the winter he moves into an Alpine chalet where he lives alone with his dog - the only other being that he shows any affection for.Philip, half Indonesian, has hidden himself within a personal world of Japanese asceticism that once again is used as a barrier to the requirements of everyday life. However, the world he has created is entirely abstract since he rejects any opportunity to visit the `real' Japan. He participates in elaborate ritualistic ceremonies that obstruct the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam life intruding into his life.Nooteboon explores these protective cocoons and through an underlying commentary on religion suggests that all such protective agencies, and personal wealth, are equally ineffective. Inni is a close observer of those around him and his own lack of motivation means that he does not threaten the ritualistic lives of Arnold and Philip.Nooteboon makes the reader think as much after finishing the book as while reading it. The characters and their carefully wrapped lives are laughable but when the reader scrutinises his/her own life it will become there are different routines in place that offer protection to the everyday events of our personal and professional lives. This is the easy art - to use `Rituals' as a means of gaining a different perspective on oneself, to see ourselves as others see us. The much greater challenge is, when we identify our own rituals, to decide whether we need to change them and, if so, how.The difficulty that I had with the book was that, in order to develop his arguments, the author does not need the characters to be rounded and believable; indeed, the more that he describes them the more they would distract from the underlying theme of his writing. As it stands, Inni, Arnold and Philip are as human as clothes pegs.Not an easy book but, given some effort, it is well worth reading. The translation fully deserves the plaudits that it has received.

Blessed with the novelistic inheritance of a dysfunctional family whose power and resources mean that he has no need to work, `Inni' saunters around Amsterdam, enjoys casual sex frequently and finds life generally pointless. Poor thing,eh? He meets - successively - a father and son; the first in the 1960s, the latter in the 1970s. Their existential disdain for life recalls his own, but their ritualised responses to it do not.A novella out of time: `Rituals' (publ. 1983) recalls a culture where it was assumed that the novel would both sustain its intellectual prowess and preoccupy itself with the indulged male's need for higher meaning. Women are another country, accomplishments `merely' call for application, and plots are disregarded as a childlike obsession - since the randomness of events are an affront to the philosophical mind.Personally I could take exception to this were it not that Noteboom's concern with the philosophical function of memory seems more original: "Memory'" he says "is like a dog that lies down where it pleases". Like that! `Rituals' might be parked in a chronological siding - overtaken by designer label soaps, serial killers, magical realism and chick-lit - but it's all the more endearing for it.

My heart sank when this book arrived. On the just acceptable side of 'Acceptable' it was waterstained, grubby, had an unattractive cover, and with the odd previous reader's unenlightening comment, it seemed destined for the bin.But what a read! The prose, translated from the original Dutch, was admirable. The characters were beguiling. The action, such as there was, was riveting. The philosophies and the big questions asked, if not answered, were revelatory.I loved it. I hope to read it again. Perhaps I'll buy a better copy.

This is a thought provoking novel from one of Europe's best writers. It is more than a novel, more a life experience.

Good service even if not a great book.