“Time stood still, but not as still as before.” This is how Guus Luijters describes Tom’s aging, from roughly his 6th to 10th year. He grew up in a warm family in Amsterdam-West, shortly after the Second World War. The atmosphere of that time is in the beautiful little novel How Tarzan won the Tour de France tangible, from the milkman who comes to the door to an uncle who was ‘wrong’ in the war.
Tom is an active and dreamy boy. He likes to play outside and form clubs. His fantasy focuses on the approaching Olympic Games (1952) and the Tour de France. He honors the Amsterdam cycling great Hein van Breenen – nicknamed Tarzan – with the bigotry appropriate to his age. In Tom’s fantasy, his hero is capable of more than he actually achieves.
This pre-pubescent coming-of-age novel tells subtly about a childlike open-mindedness, the growing disenchantment with aging and imagination that gives life meaning and color. Tom sometimes seems like a great-nephew of Kees the boy, with his dreams and imagination.
A twinkling diamond, this story about joy to grow and growing pains and above all about the value of fantasy. A disarming, sweet book that reconciles with existence and yet never becomes soggy.
Guus Luijters: How Tarzan won the Tour de France. New Amsterdam; 175 pages; € 20.99.