A funny novel by a Flemish rocker - singer - author - popular mediaperson who died short after publishing this book at the age of 52.
His death came as a shock in our community and everybody agreed, this is too early, this guy was doing wright, popular songs, on screen in funny images, nice books etc. etc.
A good guy as well, his last will as a testimony, he asked not too buy flowers, nor other stuff but too make a donation to Natuurpunt (the biggest nature and wildlife conservation organisation here in Flanders).
But enough on this hero author.
His book now: well the author is a little bit older then i am, and i recognise a lot of childhood situations he describes and that have evolved enormously since then. Like for instance: the weekly bath. Unimaginable today for most of us, but reality back in the early 70's.
Also the standard sentences parents liked to use towards their children when not behaving as desired and the totally different look towards sexuality, just to name a few.
The story in the book: a child with no big socially integrated background struggles to have friends, girlfriends and ends up in weird situations that bring him to drink, drink a lot. This drinking, surprise surprise, gets him in more trouble until there seems no way out but then all of a sudden there is a short period of success.
Short, which means that afterwards everything gets bad again but there seems to be a little bit of relief in the end, or isn't there really any relief?
The best elaborated part of the book can be described as autobiographical, a hard realistic coming of age story. The rest of the book is a bit on a rush and instead of making another point, it jumps a bit from one rock to another, lying in the river of life, but not sure if he wants to get to the other side, turn back, or just keep jumping around.
Anyhow, too bad there won't be anymore books by Luc De Vos, this being his best work so far. ( )