“He is coming,” we were assured by someone from the organization. Ten minutes later it was certain: ‘yes, yes, the car is now coming into the street, he will be there’. It was November 14, 2019 and the man we would announce an hour later as the winner of the Bookspot Literature Prize – as we as jury members knew – would barely attend the award ceremony. That was uncertain for a long time. Even then, there were some cracks in Wessel te Gussinklo’s health and a journey from Zeeland took quite a long time. But when he did walk into that room in the Hague library, there was great excitement.
Te Gussinklo may have difficulty walking, but smoking continued as usual. Also in that room. Someone from the organization approached him, bewildered. “Sir, you are not allowed to smoke here.” Gussinklo ignored the announcement in a friendly rather than harsh manner: “Oh, yes,” and he happily continued smoking.
On stage they then asked him what he would do with the money he would receive for being shortlisted. “Oh, buy a second-hand car, ma’am.” When he received ten times the prize a little later because he had won the main prize in addition to the consolation prize, he no longer knew where he got it and was short of breath. He could buy a brand new car. It could hardly be otherwise, or that was the first time in his life. He was almost eighty.
Wessel te Gussinklo, who died last Wednesday at the age of 82, has, you could say, narrowly became an acclaimed writer. Well, there had already been praise for his first two books, The forbidden garden (1986) and The assignment (1995), but how late he made his debut and how quiet it became around him for a long time afterwards – apart from a number of essays and stories. But about ten years ago, the momentum suddenly picked up. The five novels that appeared from then on – Very bright light (2014), The Returned Flower (2017), The high stacker (2019), On the way to De Hartz (2020) and (written in his youth) The expedition – are among the most interesting works to have appeared in Dutch literature in recent decades.
Cultural jihadist
Te Gussinklo once said in an interview with this newspaper that he had long seen himself as a “cultural jihadist”, as someone who wanted to attack the established culture instead of confirming it. He was not a beautifier. What you read about him shows enormous loyalty to what it means (for him) to be there, as David Foster Wallace once summarized literature. And that is uncomfortable – although there is also a lot to laugh about.
Desiring, falling short, being angry, being abandoned or humiliated, there was no writer in the Netherlands or Belgium who could explain it all to you so much. unpainted and truly threw it underfoot. He has been shaped by numerous writers (Sartre, Mulisch, to name a few), but he can best be characterized as a Dutch Dostoyevsky. Who in The Returned Flower reads how the narrator is deeply belittled at the presentation of a competitor’s book, who imagines himself in the famous restaurant scene in Notes from underground.
However, the core of Te Gussinklo’s writing is his so-called Ewout Meyster cycle, which he kicked off with his debut The forbidden gardenprovided concentrates with the fat, ruthless one The assignmentprovided music with the superior jazz blend The high stacker and which he concluded three years ago with the Faustian men’s study, which is extremely fascinating, even for younger people On the way to the Hartz. That cycle contains approximately twenty years of a boy’s and young man’s life. It is superior, delving literature, cast in a flowing, intoxicating style. That is why this medium exists, you think when you read it, there is no other net that can capture this.