In a 12-part series ‘Indebted to Krol’, biographer John Heymans pays attention to the influence that the writer Gerrit Krol (1934 – 2013) from Groningen has had on Dutch literature. In part 5 Tonnus Oosterhoff: Fusslessness
In an almost empty transit house in the heart of Drenthe, Tonnus Oosterhoff (Leiden, 1953) is working on a new collection of poems. Every new book of his, whether poems or essays, is the result of ‘experimenting with a new laboratory set-up’. He is always trying something completely new. He may have that in common with Gerrit Krol.
I would like to talk to Oosterhoff – winner of the PC Hooft Prize just like Krol – about that, but yes, when an interview request reaches him, he usually declines for the honor. He knows from experience that it hardly ever pays off when he, “charming, harmless scatterbrain,” cooperates in an interview.
Yet on a Thursday afternoon – thank God: a day without rain – I am sitting opposite Oosterhoff in that Drenthe house, not far from the woods near Hooghalen.
First a few words about his antipathy to interviews: “The main thing is,” says Oosterhoff, “that I don’t want to stand between myself and my work.” and fiction in his work, the bouncy story structure and cool narrative tone. ,,But of course I like to talk about Gerrit Krol.”
Burn holes in the comforter
When Oosterhoff got to know that Groningen PC Hooft Prize winner, he can’t remember exactly. My episodic memory is very poor. Fortunately, I do remember a few encounters. Gerrit and I were both nominated for the 1998 VSB Poetry Prize, as was Rutger Kopland, whom I already knew quite well. He then received that prize and was a laureate in a chic hotel. The other nominees were accommodated in a different canal hotel. A beautiful facade, but what rooms! There were burn holes in the comforter. You had to keep your shoes on if you wanted to go to the toilet, it was that gross. Unimaginable. I was furious. The next morning I ran into Gerrit at breakfast, so I immediately started scolding him, and he replied: ‘Yes, yes, it’s very simple, isn’t it.’ Brilliant, no. He had something of a Groningen shrug. That frivolity, I admire that in him.”
After that joint adventure in the Amsterdam hotel industry, Oosterhoff visited Krol a few times. An important reason for those visits to Oudemolen was Krol’s booklet For those who want evil (1990), his reflection on the death penalty. That caused quite a stir afterwards. Oosterhoff wanted to do something about those reactions in particular.
Anger is not good fuel for a lot
Why? ,,My reason was: grumpiness”, says Oosterhoff. “I have always been annoyed at the canal belt, where no contradiction is tolerated. Just think of the Buikhuisen affair. That man wanted to investigate the biological grounds for crime. There was such fierce opposition from the canal belt, especially by Hugo Brandt Corstius, that he resigned as a scientist. I wanted to write an angry essay about it, but with me anger is not good fuel for a piece. Essays should have a positive framework. You can get as angry as you want in there.”
In short: ,,When the death penalty affair came along around Krol, the Buikhuisen affair started playing up again, and also my annoyance with the canal belt. Not that Gerrit needed any kind of defense, but with all those often oversimplified reactions to his booklet I had a counterweight to write an essay about that affair.”
According to Oosterhoff, Krol’s reflection is not so much about the death penalty as about the conflict between civilization and retaliation . This leads to a complicated attitude towards the victim of a crime.
What did Krol think of the essay? ,,Well,” Oosterhoff sighs, ,,I can’t remember any great enthusiasm, he wasn’t like that either. I didn’t need to be praised by him. I was also quite critical of that booklet: he sometimes didn’t complete arguments, sometimes he also used confusing, imprecise images. He must have read my draft beforehand, but I don’t remember reworking the piece on that basis. It wasn’t his business anymore.”
Bizarre consequences of drug use
The day before my arrival at the Drenthe transit house, Oosterhoff had reread Krol’s last novel: Devil fair (2007). A novel about the bizarre consequences of drug use in Parkinson’s disease. Krol experienced this firsthand. From 2000 onwards, he developed Parkinson’s and suffered from hallucinations, from demons and monsters: ‘One sees them flying and the other sees nothing. I grab a stick or a ruler and run after them, much to the laughter of the family.’
Oosterhoff: ,,What I like is that he gives such a naturalistic sketch of the Parkinson’s events. Despite all those wonderful figures he encounters in the house, he remains very laconic. I can’t imagine living in such a world all the time.”
The last time Oosterhoff spoke to Krol, he was already in the Maartenshof nursing home in Groningen. ,,I went outside with him for a while: he in a wheelchair and I pushed him. That’s how we moved – in the snowy landscape.”
Biographer John Heymans
John Heymans (The Hague, 1954) studied mathematics and philosophy of science at the University of Twente. He is active as a literary essayist, has published monographs on Armando, JJ Voskuil, Cherry Duyns and Simeon ten Holt, among others, and has written the collection of poems Flag display (2003). He is currently working on a biography of Gerrit Krol and gives one at odd times Krol Cahier out.