“I intended to be the only summer guest that won’t get any moist eyes,” said Herman Koch as a Summer Bast in 2025. “We will see, we will see,” answered interviewer Griet op de Beeck. There was no longer a lot of time to evoke damp eyes, because Koch only spoke his intention at the end of the evening out. But life after the diagnosis of prostate cancer had not yet been discussed, so it was indeed a matter of ‘we will see’. The disease was discussed, but fortunately did not get the chance to play a leading role this evening. There was plenty to see.
By the way, there was enough emotional: the death of Koch’s mother, the complicated bond with his father, the little happiness when he was eating out with his wife, son and his girlfriend, the humor that according to Koch was over on TV (where Jiskefet and Michiel Romeyn were called, but not a word about Kees Prins) and his loneliness on the tractor. For a moment, Op de Beeck had the opportunity to ‘see’ her ‘we will see’ when Koch told about the hormone pills that caught on with him, but made him a more emotional person. In music by the Brazilian singer Marília Mendonça, he became emotional at the time and wondered: “Am I this or are they the pills?” The obvious question “and? What was it?” was not stated.
Kochs Zomergasten evening was full of beautiful fragments, as out American Fictionto a great novel by the writer Percival Everett. The film is about an author of novels who are not read by anyone. As a joke, he writes a manuscript about the raw life of a black American man. The literary agent believes he see authenticity that is so important, not knowing that she is dealing with a professor of English literature.
How far do you go in your lies was the question that played in a fragment Ich bin Enric Marcoabout a man who becomes chairman of a Spanish organization of camp victims. He came up with his camp experiences in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. He thought that he was thrown out of the organization unreasonable. In the concentration camp he himself was moved over ‘his past. “If you believe in your own lies, you can also be moved by it,” said Koch.
Throw with children’s brooms
In fact, the whole evening was about lies or playing with the truth. For example, Koch told about a call center where he had worked. After three phone calls, he asked someone: “Is your husband at home?” The woman then said: “He died last week.” Nonsense of course. It was a scene at best Monty Pythonat the worst an anecdote heard more often. You knew that Koch played a game – immediately at the kick -off when he started about the problem of emotion in interviews, or told about throwing children’s fumes after Jimi Hendrix had beaten his guitar to pieces – but that didn’t work out well, because he didn’t have a fellow player. Certainly in the beginning, as if a Umberto Eco game was played that sometimes made the first part of his novels a bit tough so that only the real readers remained, everything came up very slowly so that only the real one diehards Remained.
The game with the discomfort, which was named with many fragments, was also plenty of present. Op de Beeck and Koch did not really like to find each other, had a completely different view of humor, when in the Beeck some uncomfortable laughed, Koch. They only found each other when it was about the lack of literary prizes, but after her comment: “I wish you a big literary prize,” Koch silver. Or he did not give her or he performed the game of the humor that he often came down to the ‘need not wanting to be verbal’. Because of the game: let’s hope for the latter.