712. Rituals

Rituals
Cees Nooteboom
1980

Around 190 pages

I believe this is our first Dutch novel since 1860, so I suppose it was time to check in with these guys. I enjoyed this short, rather depressing work, and it was a nice reprieve from the hefty tomes we've had recently.

Inni's writes the horoscope for a local paper and tells his fellow Leos that their wives will cheat on them and they will kill themselves. So then when his wife cheats on him, he's really backed into a corner. The rest of the story follows Inni's previous encounters with a father and son, Arnold and Philip Taads. 

I don't have much to say about this one. This is largely a philosophical work, but he includes touches of well-measured absurdism. It was a quick, if not very uplifting, read. Glad we will see more of Cees down the line.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a French film in 1988.

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