Parents Worry

Pocketbok. Fourth Estate Classic House . 1990. 288 sidor.

Gott skick. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2003
In his native Holland, Gerard Reve is revered, his books are taught in school, etc etc. Over here, he is unknown. As far as I know this is the only Reve novel to have been translated - and of course it's out of print. This is a very sorry state of affairs. There are many reasons to love Reve. He's a) alcoholic, b) homosexual, c) Catholic, d) misanthropic and e) extremely funny. If anyone remembers the early Paul Verhoeven movie The Fourth Man - well, that was based on a Reve novel. Parents Worry is a perfect distillation of all Reve's obsessions: the lonely paranoid poet, boozing, masturbating, going to Mass etc. This may sound dire, but believe me, it's a hoot - if you have a black, twisted sense of humour, that is.