Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION ONE OF THE WHITE REVIEW'S BOOK OF THE YEAR The sensational Dutch bestseller: Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's extraordinary portrait of a farming family distorted by grief, translated by Michele Hutchison. I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.' Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all. A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild, violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other.

The Discomfort of the Evening

WINNER OF THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE A stark and gripping tale of childhood grief from one of the most exciting new voices in Dutch literature Ten-year-old Jas lives with her strictly religious parents and her siblings on a dairy farm where waste and frivolity are akin to sin. Despite the dreary routine of their days, Jas has a unique way of experiencing her world: her face soft like cheese under her mother’s hands; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads in the village; the sound of “blush words” that aren’t in the Bible. One icy morning, the disciplined rhythm of her family’s life is ruptured by a tragic accident, and Jas is convinced she is to blame. As her parents’ suffering makes them increasingly distant, Jas and her siblings develop a curiosity about death that leads them into disturbing rituals and fantasies. Cocooned in her red winter coat, Jas dreams of “the other side” and of salvation, not knowing where this dreaming will finally lead her. A bestseller in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s radical debut novel The Discomfort of Evening offers readers a rare vision of rural and religious life in the Netherlands. In it, they ask: In the absence of comfort and care, what can the mind of a child invent to protect itself? And what happens when that is not enough? With stunning psychological acuity and images of haunting, violent beauty, Rijneveld has created a captivating world of language unlike any other.

A Novel

The Discomfort of Evening

Meniah

So disturbing and uncomfortable. I found this book more uncomfortable than tender is the flesh. I’d say this is less “disturbing rituals” to and more “child sexual abuse”. 

Nicole Neuman

Chris Dailey

Macabre tale of a Dutch dairy family that clings to fundamental religion and the accidental death of their oldest son. Scarily simple in prose, the story is told by the pre-teen sister as the family slowly unravels in darker and darker ways. Animals are tortured, children abused, plague strikes all while the relationships crumble beyond repair. Despite the despicable acts, the narration is cold and almost scientific, which adds to the horror. Tough to get through some portions which may be due to the translation, it also become tough to put down.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020* 'One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good ... A classic.' Max Porter The sensational Dutch bestseller: 'Exceptional' (Financial Times) 'Exhilarating' (Independent) 'Luminous' (Observer) 'Beautifully wild' (Guardian) I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.' Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all. A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild, violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other, exquisitely captured in Michele Hutchison's translation. 'THE MOST TALKED ABOUT DEBUT NOVEL OF 2020 ALREADY' [Dazed & Confused] ONE OF VOGUE'S TOP FIVE DEBUTS OF 2020 ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S HIGHLIGHTS OF 2020 ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020

Lindy

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and Sayaka Muruta should hang out.

Natalie

A grim, uncomfortable, but ultimately heartbreaking read on a family's inability to cope with grief and how it affects the psychology of a child. The dread and violence are relentless and become a bit of a drag by the third part, but the bits of poetic thought from a child struggling to understand her new reality are worth it.

"No one in the village liked to dwell: the crops might wither, and we only knew about the harvest that came from the land, not about things that grew inside ourselves."

Andréa Mellalieu

Unforgettable. I can agree with the 1s and the 5s on this one. 

I’m struck by the absence of comment on the religious indoctrination and the insulated insanity of parents obsessed with piety, punishment, cruelty and repentance. In the absence of eduction or parenting, and in the presence of grief and trauma, in a community of batshit end-of-dayers - it’s really no wonder that these farm kiddos came of age with delusion, confusion, fear and a preoccupation with sacrifice and absolution. The Old Testament is not exactly silent on these matters and they seem to know it by heart.

The squeamishness of readers (sure, discomfort) around the scatology is fair but I saw past it to recognize Jas’ desire for autonomy and control when none was available to her. Their lives were, literally and figuratively, shitty. The abuse is hard to read but I’m glad I stuck with them all to the end.

I can’t even convey what happened in this book but it was so poetic and beautifully written that I can’t be mad

Jacque

One of the more disturbing books I've read this year. Did not went the way I thought it would. All I can say is I wish I could wash my brain and forget about it. 

Jovana Gjekanovikj 

“In discomfort we are real.” 

A strange, dark, imaginative and bleak book, the trauma of life and adulthood seen through the logic of a child struggling to make sense of the cruelty of the world.

Maria Bono

"In discomfort we are real" — In discomfort I decided to put the book away almost by the end. No need to read what happens. I read enough to know the spiral of disturbing shit will keep going until the last pages.

Great writing, I guess, truly made me nauseous in some passages (and I wish I was exaggerating).

The darkest, most disturbing book I have ever read.

Irem

Çok rahatsız edici, çok zorlayıcı, boğuldum. 
Dört çocuklu bir ailenin bir evladını kaybetmesinin ardından bir ailenin dağılışını evin on yaşındaki kızı Jas’ın gözünden aktarılıyor. Daha çok bitmeyen -iki yıla yayılan- anlaşılamayanın, dürtünün ve yalnızlığın monolog halindeki akışı. 

Anne ve babanın kendi yaslarının içinde kaybolması ve püritenliğin, kırsalın ve yalnızlığın içine sıkışmış çocukların git gide kendilerine, topluma ve aileye yabancılaşmaları, ailenin soğukluğu ve parçalanmasını adım adım izlerken daha en başından bu hikayenin hiçbir şekilde iyi bitmeyeceğini biliyorsunuz.

Kitap on yaşındayım ve paltomu çıkartmayı bıraktım olarak başlıyor. Çünkü ailesinin ilgilenmeyi unuttuğu bir çocuk olarak kardeşini koruyamayan tanrıya da güvenemeyeceği için bir paltoya sığınmayı tercih ediyor. Jas için palto hayatta kalmasını sağlayan bir sığınak olmasına karşın, “ölüm” de iflah olmaz bir merak ve istek duyduğu bir fenomen. Kitap konu itibariyle olduğu kadar; bu üç çocuğun kardeşlerinin ölümünü anlama ve neler hissettiğini çözme amacıyla hayvanlar üzerinde uyguladıkları deneyler, kendilerini ve cinselliği keşfetme süreçleri ile bitmeyen bir kabızlığın anlatımı eklediğinde dil olarak da ayrı bir zorluk getiriyor. Kitabın en iyi yönlerinden birisi bir şairin romanı olması; zira nefes bile aldırmadan kalbinizi kırarken bunu oldukça şiirsel bir dille yapıyor. Çok yorucu, çok rahatsız edici ama söylene söylene bitiriyorsunuz. Bir ilk roman olarak çok başarılı ancak umarım önümüzdeki kitaplarında acının ve karanlığın dozunu biraz azaltır. Üç günde ciğerimi soldurdu, bu kitabı her turda tekrar okuyup hayata tutunmayı başaran Booker jürisine de saygılarımı sunarım.

“We never really live in the seasons as we’re always busy with the next one.”


3,5 ⭐️


“Nobody knows my heart. It's hidden deep side my coat, my skin, my ribs. My heart was important for nine months inside my mother's belly, but once I left the belly, everyone stopped caring whether it beat enough times per hour. No one worries when it stops or begins to beat fast, telling me there must be something wrong.” 

.

Jas Wang

I was instantly drawn to this book having never seen a book's protagonist with the same name as me, but apart from the name, we share nothing in common. 
I am not from a farm, have no siblings, am no where close to being religious; have no idea what it is like to have such a tragic loss at such a young age, yet somehow, this book is the closest to  who  I am what I am and how my brain string thoughts. 

There were multiple times this book made me feel nauseous, petrified in ways that is done so subtly but concurrently with a strong punch. Jas, the kid, holds witty comments entangled with the truth she perceives of the world from her child logic and curiosities of God. 

The book would continue to haunt me and have me question all the white to black areas of all heavy topics for years to come, even if it is not the most accessible book out there, I would chew on it as my comfort book over and over again. 

Would highly recommend, if you are up for a challenge and wish to appreciate stories(thoughts) that (in my opinion) tells honesty.

Steffi

Trigger warnings for the book: death, grief, maybe eating disorder, incest, hitler, animal abuse, talks of suicide and suicide itself (this one is speculative).

I have to sit with this one a bit. I thought the writing was so good and it flowed well. We follow a girl and her family experiences the loss of the eldest son. They all do so in very different and often times disturbing ways. The descriptions at times were almost too disgusting to even fathom. Also living on a farm and being strict Christians, communicating and experiencing your life through bible verses becomes the norm. There isn't anything to compare it to since it's all you know. We see everything happening through Jas, the narrator, and since she is 12 for most of the book we are experiences her and her life in a curious and pubescent way, meaning a lot of what she does is purely driven by emotion and less on what the actions entail. I think that's a good way to look at it otherwise the book becomes less so and almost too much to take in as a reader.

Ada 

This rating honestly was painful for me to give since I was really excited about this book, especially after hearing so many good things. Although I understand the need to be harshly realistic and the child-like approach to death and how difficult it is to deal with grief, this point could come across way better without all the weird paragraphs that are spot-on incestuous and disgusting and disturbing. The book is very beautiful in the parts in which it actually follows the main idea which is, imo, to showcase how death affects people when you do not have the conditions to properly process it. The context with its traditional, realistically rural remarks was truly authentic, and the end was heartbreakingly beautiful! Everything else was sub-par to say the least, and 95% of the paragraphs did not serve any purpose to the book overall. Imo the author could have done justice to the literary purpose they were following by focusing more on the main plot idea and not on some unnecessary side events, that were nothing more than creepy, horrible, and honestly do not teach anyone much about anything.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Enthralling and unsettling this Dutch gem is grim and brutal to its bones and sprinkled with the very blackest of humour. It lives in the head of 10-year-old Jas, a farm-girl whose strict Christian family is rocked by the death of her older brother. The family slowly fractures as the deaths creates new pressures and emphasises old ones. Jas records the cruelties and madnesses of their (and her) grief in the simple, unvarnished language of a child and it hits twice as hard. Jas's own response is to live in her increasingly repellent red coat, finding comfort in its constant embrace even as it shrinks and smells and frays. Her brother hurts himself and others (animals and humans), her mother starves herself. And in the midst of all this darkness Foot and Mouth threatens everything. There is a nastiness to some of the things that happen that many readers will (reasonably) find too much, particularly thoughts and acts of adolescent sexuality. But it is written so well and honestly, an unashamed warts-and-all exploration of grief, rigidity and the seamier sides of human nature with grotesque but vivid descriptions that are brilliantly translated by Michelle Hutchison. It's not perfect, some of the jokes and themes never really hit home and it drifts towards an end but I am eager to see what Rijneveld does next.

Maytal

Hooooweee that was dark and disturbing. Can't wait to see what they write next.

Kylie Pace

** spoiler alert **
           ...............................why?

I felt ashamed of the character Jas on her behalf and alternatingly embarrassed for and upset with the writer for feeding us the readers so much child incest. I get that these child characters are confusing all of their undealt-with feelings which include horniness but please I got the picture halfway through. The writing is good, but I am so done with this book.

Marieke Rijneveld, I hope you are OK.

Rachel

As the title says, this book causes discomfort at times as a reformed Dutch family deals with trauma. It’s weird and disjointed, but well written and unique. 4/5!

Gary Homewood

Narrated by the 12 year old daughter of a reformist God fearing cow farming family who undergo loss and grief. Pretty nasty, with an unflinching portrayal of cow farming, disturbing emotional cruelty, explicit physical adolescent experimentation.

The narrator's point of view has a warped, grim poetry. Plenty of imagery I won't be able to forget.

Hard work, and sad.

Audrey

Kellie Cohoon

"Jas lives with her devout farming family in the rural Netherlands. One winter's day, her older brother joins an ice skating trip; resentful at being left alone, she makes a perverse plea to God; he never returns. As grief overwhelms the farm, Jas succumbs to a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies, watching her family disintegrate into a darkness that threatens to derail them all. "--Publisher.

The Discomfort of the Evening

Reviews

Highlights