('Als ik even heel eerlijk ben' lijkt de opmaat tot vriendelijk commentaar, maar is meestal de inleiding tot keiharde kritiek onder de gordel). Wat volgens Paulien Cornelisse in ieder geval vaststaat, is dat mensen bíjna nóóit zeggen wat ze bedoelen. Dat is soms walgelijk, en soms aandoenlijk. Het gaat over taal zoals die op dit moment gesproken wordt. Niet over hoe het zou moeten, of hoe verschrikkelijk het is dat er mensen zijn die 'groter als mij' zeggen. Meijer discusses the author's tempestuous life and career, the controversy the novel aroused and its unusual narrative structure. Roy Edwards's vibrant translation conveys the satirical and innovative style of Multatuli's autobiographical polemic. Sending shockwaves through the Dutch nation when it was published in 1860, this damning exposé of the terrible conditions in the colonies led to welfare reforms in Java and continues to inspire the fairtrade movement today. In Max Havelaar, Multatuli (the pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker) vividly recreated his own experiences in Java and tellingly depicts the hypocrisy of those who gained from the corrupt coffee trade. Max is an inspirational figure, but he is also a flawed idealist whose vow to protect the Javanese from cruelty ends in his own downfall. Max Havelaar - a Dutch civil servant in Java - burns with an insatiable desire to end the ill treatment and oppression inflicted on the native peoples by the colonial administration. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.Įach couple has a fifteen-year-old son.
Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays.
It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives - all over the course of one meal.
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