Dutch writer Grunberg talks- For Alec and the Dutch-

welsh

welsh

Junkmaster
Ok, most of you won't give a crap about this, but I listened to this show and thought of Alec, as well as Kharn and Sander. For the Dutch generally and for those of you not sure of what you want to do and thinking about writing.

From NPR's the connection

Arnon Grunberg's writing tracks the lives of quirky outsider characters as they grapple with the absurdity and despair of love, writing and politics. His work has been translated in 18 languages and he's won Holland's top literary prizes. But his path to fame is a tribute to all who try, fail and persevere. At 20, Grunberg was a high school dropout, a failed actor and he worked at a dead-end photocopy job. Twelve years and 15 books later he's challenging literary and geographic categories with fiction that knows no limits.

http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/07/20040714_b_main.asp
 
Hmm...interesting, thanks welsh.

PS: I've never ever heard of that guy before.
PPS: I do recognize his face, though. He features in commercials for telephone books as writer of those books. Hilarious, those things.

EDIT: Why does he have a German accent? Tsch. Better than most Dutchies, though.
 
Actually he's originally a German Jew, or at least his parents were. So he's a rather odd duck. Lives in New York now too.
 
I heard about him, he has turned up frequently in the literature section of the (belgian) newspaper i read. Never got to reading any of his stuff though... It's on my 'TO DO'-list, but i'm afraid that list has gotten pretty long by now.
 
Arnon Grunberg's books are... well, not my cup of tea, to be honest. He's a damned good writer, no doubt, but it's just not my thing. I had tea with him in Rotterdam in 2000, during some literary festival. Weird bloke. Funny guy. Witty. Dangerous. But as I said: he's doing other stuff than I am. He writes bestsellers, I write jigsaw puzzles.

And no one likes jigsaw puzzles, gddmnt. :(
 
Could someoen change Alec's name? You know, in case everyone's favorite conservative is actually named Alec and it confuses the hell out of him?
 
Jebus said:
I know one thing: his weekly columns in HUMO are damn boring.
Click to expand...

true, i'm afraid

never read em, but the books are supposed to be different :wink:
 
Well Alec- one reason I thought of you is that he's a Dutch writer who has escaped his localty and is widely translated. It could work, but I thought the stuff on translations was kind of interesting- apparently there is a group of organized translaters.

Interest bit about "blaming Americans for all the world's woes" too.
 
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