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A review by ezzydesu
Dagen van gras by Philip Huff
3.0
‘Je voelt de behoefte je ervaring over te brengen. Dus begin je te praten. Je zegt: “Abrikoos”, en je houdt een kleine schelp omhoog. Je spreekt over de kleur van die schelp; een schelp die eerst dof was maar nu is opgelicht tot een glimmende, gloeiende abrikoos. Ook de textuur is veranderd: de kalk is een wollige stof vol pluisjes geworden. Woldraden die gloeien.’
- Philip Huff
To start off, I love this quote. This book is about Ben. He is in a clinic due various reasons and he is looking a on moments in his life. This quote is one of them, but I won't tell much about the quote to leave it in it's magic. You can read the pure essence of it in Dutch, but I'll translate it for the English readers:
‘You feel the urge to pass overyour experience. So you start to talk. You say: “Abricot”, and you hold up a little seashell. You speak of the colour of that seashell; a shell that was dull at first but now lightened to a shining, glowing abricot. Even the textur has changed: The chalk has become a woolly matter filled with fluffy. Woolthreads that glow.’
- Philip Huff
The book is a relative short story, easy to finish in a day. The protagonist, telling from a first person perpective, is Ben van Deventer. At the 'present day' point, Ben just left a clinic where he lived for several months after a psychosis. He looks back on memorable moments in his life and his love for music.
The story plays off in several places in the Netherlands for most of the book and somewhere in England for a couple of chapters. The story is set as flashbacks of the protagonist, so you jump from different parts of his life in a non - chronological way.
There are a few characters in the book that return in the whole story and are more presented as how Ben sees them instead of how they really are (which isn't that different, . You really look through Ben's eyes and that was really beautiful.
This book was a fine read, I don't really recommend it to anyone, but I don't regret reading it. I gave it 3 stars as it is not a bad read.
Read other reviews on my blog:
https://ezziesbookshelf.wordpress.com