Book

Joost de Vries

Clausewitz

A splendid hall of mirrors

While planning his thesis about Ferdynand LeFebvre, the famous author who disappeared without trace, young doctoral student E.T.A Modderman decides to plagiarize one of his books. The result is Clausewitz, a novel teeming with quotations and pastiche, sparkling metaphors and hilarious turns of phrase.

Both the protagonist and the author he imitates prefer fiction to fact. ‘What are facts?’ Modderman quotes LeFebvre. ‘They tell you no more about a person than washed up driftwood tells you about the ship it came from.’ The origin of the quotes LeFebvre gives are often unclear – are they from literary novels, pop songs, books of quotations, real-life dialogues? No wonder the mystery remains: did LeFebvre even exist and can we trust the account we are reading?

Astonishingly erudite, debut novelist Joost de Vries pokes fun at the 1960s generation of so-called engaged artists. It takes nerve to give a young hero’s associative, semi-negligent quest precedence over plot, philosophy and psychology. Clausewitz is a splendid hall of mirrors where we wander lost and enthralled.

A delightful postmodernist novel that sharpens the senses and provides all the fun of a puzzle, handling literary traditions playfully and at the same time making a clean sweep of them.

De Pers

This debut novel marks a turning point in Dutch literature. […] It masterfully gives shape to a changing of the guard in culture, politics and the dominant ideology.

NRC Handelsblad

Joost de Vries

Joost de Vries (b. 1983) studied journalism and history in Utrecht. Since 2007 he has been an editor and literary critic at De Groene Amsterdammer. He burst onto the Dutch literary scene with Clausewitz (2010), a biblio-thriller inspired by the work of one of his great heroes, Harry Mulisch. In…

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Details

Clausewitz (2010). Fiction, 229 pages.

Themes: debut

Sample translation

English (PDF document)

Publisher

Prometheus

Herengracht 540
NL - 1017 CG Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 624 19 34
Fax: +31 20 622 54 61

E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
https://www.uitgeverijprometh…

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