Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Though a tireless explorer of distant cultures, Cees Nooteboom has also been returning to the island of Menorca, "the island of the wind," for more than forty years, and it is in his house there, with a study full of books and a garden taken over with native plants and fauna, that the 533 days of writing take place.
 
533 Days is a meditative rhapsody that is nonetheless haunted by the threat of a disintegrating Europe and other worries of being a global citizen. With thoughts ranging from his suffering hibiscus plant to the death of David Bowie, Nooteboom meditates on how despite the avoidance of current events, he finds himself forced to reckon with today's world because, as Candide says, one must cultivate one's own garden, and one's own garden is in the world, whether one likes it or not.
Synopsis
Cees Nooteboom reflects upon the life of the mind through a reexamination of books, music, art, travel, and gardening Though a tireless explorer of distant cultures, Cees Nooteboom has also been returning to the island of Menorca, "the island of the wind," for more than forty years, and it is in his house there, with a study full of books and a garden taken over with native plants and fauna, that the 533 days of writing take place.
533 Days is a meditative rhapsody that is nonetheless haunted by the threat of a disintegrating Europe and other worries of being a global citizen. With thoughts ranging from his suffering hibiscus plant to the death of David Bowie, Nooteboom meditates on how despite the avoidance of current events, he finds himself forced to reckon with today's world because, as Candide says, one must cultivate one's own garden, and one's own garden is in the world, whether one likes it or not.
Synopsis
The noted Dutch poet and novelist Cees Nooteboom reflects upon the life of the mind through a reexamination of books, music, art, travel, and gardening Though a tireless explorer of distant cultures, for more than forty years Cees Nooteboom has also been returning to Menorca, "the island of the wind." It is in his house there, with a study full of books and a garden taken over by cacti and many insects, that the 533 days of writing take place. The result is not a diary, nor a set of movements of the soul organized by dates, but "a book of days," with observations about what is immediately around him, his love for Menorca, his thoughts on the world, on life and death, on literature and oblivion. Every impression opens windows onto vast horizons: the Divine Comedy and the books it generated, Borges' contempt for Gombrowicz, the death of David Bowie, the endless flight of the Voyagers, the repetition of history as a tragedy, but never as farce. 533 Days is a meditative rhapsody that would like to exclude the noise of current events, yet must return to them several times, and skeptically contemplates the threat of a disintegrating Europe. Reading these pages is like having a conversation with an extraordinary mind.
Synopsis
The noted Dutch poet and novelist Cees Nooteboom reflects upon the life of the mind through a reexamination of books, music, art, travel, and gardening "Nooteboom's real subject is the one that's defined his career--mainly, the persistent strangeness of existence and its refusal to be fully resolved by religion, philosophy, or science. . . . His journal . . . can seem like a medieval bestiary, a nature chronicle with the vividness of a dream."--Danny Heitman, Wall Street Journal
Though a tireless explorer of distant cultures, for more than forty years Cees Nooteboom has also been returning to Menorca, "the island of the wind." It is in his house there, with a study full of books and a garden taken over by cacti and many insects, that the 533 days of writing take place. The result is not a diary, nor a set of movements of the soul organized by dates, but "a book of days," with observations about what is immediately around him, his love for Menorca, his thoughts on the world, on life and death, on literature and oblivion. Every impression opens windows onto vast horizons: the Divine Comedy and the books it generated, Borges' contempt for Gombrowicz, the death of David Bowie, the endless flight of the Voyagers, the repetition of history as a tragedy, but never as farce. 533 Days is a meditative rhapsody that would like to exclude the noise of current events, yet must return to them several times, and skeptically contemplates the threat of a disintegrating Europe. Reading these pages is like having a conversation with an extraordinary mind.