The Evenings
On 1 November 1947, Gerard Reve published what was to become one of the classics of Dutch literature. Set during the last ten dark days of 1946, the story revolves around Frits van Egters, a young man who lives at home with his parents, whom he finds annoying and embarrassing. He avoids them by visiting friends, whom he provokes and challenges, and by withdrawing into his bedroom, where he finds comfort with his favourite cuddly toy, a rabbit to which he devotes near-erotic attention.
Original title
De avonden
Author
Gerard Reve
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Not only a masterpiece but a cornerstone manque of modern European literature. […] What can I say, in a world of hype, that will put this book where it belongs, in readers’ hands and minds? […] Reve’s sparkling collage of acute observation, droll internal monologue and pitch-perfect dialogue keeps the reader breathless right through to the grand finale. […] Huge respect to Pushkin Press.
Tim Parks, The Guardian
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A masterwork of comic pathos. […] It should be acknowledged as one of the finest studies of youthful malaise ever written. […] In all fairness to Salinger, 'The Evenings' is so much better. […] For a narrative so funny, it is also profoundly moving.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
The novel is dark, funny, unsettling and lingers vividly in the mind. Hats off to Pushkin Press and the outstanding translator, Sam Garrett, for making this odd, orphaned masterpiece available at last to an English-speaking readership.
Times Literary Supplement
Gerard Reve
The most widely read book by Gerard Reve (1923-2006) remains his debut 'De Avonden' (The Evenings, 1947), but the controversial, epistolary novels 'Op weg naar het einde' (On My Way to the End, 1963) and 'Nader tot U' (Nearer to Thee, 1966), with their frank discussion of homosexuality and the author’s conversion to Catholicism, were instrumental in establishing Gerard Reve as a public figure in the Netherlands.