{"id":5065,"date":"2017-06-21T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2017-06-20T17:03:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T17:03:06","slug":"book-review-summer-house-with-swimming-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/book-review-summer-house-with-swimming-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Summer House with Swimming Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Dutch novel I’ve read is Herman Koch’s Zomerhuis met Zwembad<\/em> or Summer house with Swimming pool. This novel was published in 2011 and wasn’t received as well as Het Diner<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo taken by Ed Ivanushkin found on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Zomerhuis met Zwembad<\/em> is told from the perspective of Dr. Marc Schlosser. Schlosser is huisarts<\/em> or general practitioner that not only feels contempt for the human body but also does little to help his patients. He gladly tells them what they want to hear rather than what they should hear, and offers to write prescriptions for whatever his patients might want.<\/p>\n

One day, he receives a somewhat famous Dutch actor, Ralph, in his practice because he would like certain medication. Schlosser accepts and shortly after, some sort of friendship is formed. Schlosser and Ralph meet a couple of times and it leads to an invitation to the summer house Ralph and his family have rented for the summer. Schlosser’s family ends up vacationing there.<\/p>\n

Before this point, the narration deals mostly with somewhat disgusting descriptions of foot fungus and sagging bodies. Once the characters are in the summer house, the story turns to the dirty aspects of humans and human interactions. Koch attempts to narrate the basic animal aspect of humans, and in particular, sexuality.<\/p>\n

The summer house becomes the setting for one poorly made decision after another with dubious characters that truly test how much we can read along when we dislike the characters. Although Het Diner<\/em> had this same idea, for some reason, the characters of Zomerhuis<\/em> went beyond what I could stand of unlikeable.<\/p>\n

You can hear Koch’s reading of the novel in the following video.<\/p>\n