A Satisfied Smile
A queer coming-of-age novel in post-war Amsterdam
In the classic A Satisfied Smile, Andreas Burnier (1931-2002) tells the story of Simone Baling, who, just like Burnier herself, survived the Second World War as a Jewish girl. We follow her first years of adulthood, in which she leads a roaming existence and wrestles with her gender and sexuality.
After leaving home she hangs around in a men’s café in Amsterdam, dressed like a proper gentleman, in a brown suit, complete with scarf and pipe. She tries to step outside existing roles, to grab life with both hands, to taste freedom in a way she’s never done before. To live, not as a woman, but as a human being. She wants, as she puts it herself, ‘to have life, the whole damn thing, drip down my chin like a juicy fruit’.
Simone’s life is tumultuous. In quick tempo – and in a refreshingly clear, humorous style – we read about her wanderings through Amsterdam, Paris and Germany, her student life, poverty, passionate love affairs, psychiatric institutions, artists’ colonies, the army and the mines. Autobiographical elements from Burnier’s own life alternate with fiction. Above all, A Satisfied Smile examines the essence of biography writing.
When the book appeared in 1965, it was praised both for its subject matter and its innovative style, featuring a blend of essayistic reflections, poems and first- and third-person narration. Sixty years after its publication, A Satisfied Smile has lost nothing of its relevance and sharpness – the book is nowadays seen as a milestone in Dutch-language feminist and queer literature.
Andreas Burnier (1931-2002) was born Catharina Irma Dessaur. She studied sociology, earned a doctorate and became a professor of social criminology. Her literary work includes novels and collections of short stories and essays.