These stories are set in 20th century Netherlands featuring a boy that desperately wants friends, but finds himself frustrated and angry when they do not fit into his idea of a friend and a boy that is witnessing the dawn of World War II with the excitement and turmoil that it brings to his neighbors.
Readers that hold a soft spot for the Netherlands, like myself, will enjoy the setting. While the first story that features the boy seeking friends on his own terms may be accurate, I was disturbed by the animal torture and it prevented me from relating to or sympathizing with the narrator, which may have been the author's intention.
TRIGGER WARNING: Incest, molestation, animal torture.

First published in the Netherlands in 1949 and 1950; published in translation by Pushkin Press on March 12, 2019

Childhood collects two novellas that were published a few years after World War II. Both are told from a boy’s perspective.

“Werther Nieland” is the name of a “pale, sallow-skinned boy” who first meets Elmer at the home of Elmer’s developmentally disabled neighbor. Elmer narrates the story. He is also a boy, but unlike the neighbor boy and Werther, Elmer is bossy and cruel. Elmer creates clubs and appoints himself the president, but the clubs never have more than two or three members and all but Elmer are quickly expelled or quit due to Elmer’s testiness.

Elmer is a darkly imaginative child; Gerard Reve’s ability to recreate a child’s imagination is one of the story’s highlights. Elmer’s first club is dedicated to the creation of tombs and the cremation of dead (or nearly dead) birds. Elmer advises the other boys that the club has many enemies, and insists on blind obedience to the club president, who happens to be Elmer. The reader might wonder what kind of adult Elmer will turn out to be, but given the imminent Nazi invasion, it seems likely he will be drawn to the Germans.

The novella is notable for Werther’s home life. When Elmer visits Werther, Werther’s mother makes them stay inside so that she can pretend to be childlike. Werther’s father is obsessed with Esperanto; his mother seems to be obsessed with boys (or “young men” as she fondly if questionably labels them). The story’s “ick” factor begins with the mother’s ambiguously suggestive comments and is heightened when she playfully grabs Elmer’s crotch. Werther’s mother has an obvious mental illness, but Werther’s aunt attributes her behavior to a nervous condition brought on by fatigue. Perhaps that’s the way families in that place and time dealt with emotional illnesses.

“The Fall of the Boslowitz Family” is narrated by Simon, who is seven when the story begins. His parents introduce him to the Boslowitz family at a children’s party. Simon makes friendships within the family (he considers the adults to be his uncle and aunt) that last through Simon’s early teen years, when Germany invades the Netherlands. The adults talk of war, which Simon thinks will be cool to watch, but his exposure to combat is limited to watching airplanes fly overhead on their bombing runs.

The Boslowitz family is Jewish. Simon doesn’t understand and doesn’t pay much attention as Nazis begin to take Jews away, because the adult discussions he overhears do not resonate with his perspective as a child. He pays more attention when the members of the Boslowitz family are threatened. It is only the father’s paralysis that keeps him from being taken away; one of his sons is beaten on a pretext. The family is fearful of going outside and is eventually prohibited from leaving the city. They hope that the father’s physical disability and a son’s mental disability will inspire mercy. The way Simon relates those events makes clear that he is only beginning to understand what is happening.

The two novellas are very different, but they are connected by a child’s unease in a troubling world that the child cannot fully comprehend. Seeing the world from a child’s eyes reminds the reader of how children misinterpret the adult world, or try to frame it in terms they understand.

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Apparently when the author Gerard Reve died in 2006 he was known as one of the Netherlands' foremost postwar novelists.
I am wondering if the translation has in some ways not helped these two novellas but overall I struggled with the concepts of these pre-adolescence tales because of the weird. sometimes disturbing and violent parts of the plot (particularly in ''Werther Nieland'' whereas ''The Fall of the Boslowits' focuses on the trauma and child reactions to the Nazi regime.
The characters are well written even though they are often strange and Elmer in 'Werther Nieland' comes across overtly sexual actions by the mother of a friend and also continues his obsession with cruelty - killing and pulling apart animals and birds and finds in his new friend Maarten a similarly strange young boy.
I struggled to the end and wanted to gain more from the stories which are tightly written and seemed to offer potential but their weirdness cannot overcome any sympathy for the people or plots.

I knew nothing about Gerard Reve before downloading this book from Netgalley. But I do trust Pushkin Press and I wanted to read more Dutch authors. Alas, it was not a good fit. This book presents 2 novellas of unequal size, but I couldn’t get into the story of the main one, Werther Nieland. The story is told through the eyes of a boy of 11, who is a bit weird and cruel. The view of an immature child with some degree of misunderstanding about his environment is a classic literary ploy, and it was well executed. Still, the story was dull and depressing, and it seemed to go nowhere fast. The boy was decisively unlikeable, it didn’t help. I was hesitating if I should try the second novella, but at 40% into the book, I decided to stop and move on.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book but I'm afraid it didn't quite do it for me, perhaps it was lost in translation on my part

I have read a few translated books and have generally enjoyed them but unfortunately I didn’t particularly enjoy this one. The first novella is told by a boy named Elmer. He isn’t a very likeable lad, he treats his friends badly and appears to have no empathy. I can’t particularly explain what the story was about but I think that’s because I was so distracted by how horrible Elmer was that I couldn’t see past him.
The second novella was much better as it read better and the subject matter was distinguishable. It’s about the effect of war seen through the eyes of a boy called Simon and events that happen to the people he knows. I felt that in comparison to the first story, this one was much more reader friendly. Overall this book wasn’t for me and I don’t think that I’d read anything else by the writer.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

These two novellas from acclaimed Dutch author Gerard Reve felt rather slight and inconsequential to me. The first one is about a really quite unpleasant 11-year-old boy, and the strange world of boyhood cruelty and unlikely friendships. It’s an unsettling tale but not one I found satisfying or particularly insightful. The second story is about the suffering caused by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, a familiar tale, but here narrated in a cold and episodic way that doesn’t allow the reader to empathise very much with any of the characters. No sustained narrative, but just snapshots of the deteriorating and increasingly dangerous situation. Also for an outsider, the story relies too much on prior knowledge, so although the air of menace is nicely sustained, the actual facts of the occupation are only lightly sketched in. All in all, I didn’t find much to enjoy here.

Both novellas in the collection, Werther Nieland and The Fall of the Boslowits Family, have a strange air of directness to them. Set in Amsterdam in the Nazi occupation, the voice of the child in each instance has a self-absorbed air that distances the narrator, shows them to be too busy with the anxieties of youth to clearly see the wider implications of the situations unfolding around them.

There is almost a psychopathological distance, especially in Werther Nieland, and though both stories observe the lives of others, Werther Nieland has a main character who enjoys maiming and killing animals.

The child’s record of events is an attempt to understand the adult world, to translate it into a series of motivations and actions that hold sense for the child. In this way, it can be rewarding and disturbing for the adult reader to fill in the context the child misrepresents, especially in the second novella, The Fall of the Boslowits Family, where the reader better understands the political situation surrounding the Boslowits family as the Nazi occupying forces move in. The child’s voice heightens the sense of the inevitability of events and limited control of the individual. Different family beliefs, mental and physical illness occur in the world of both novellas and the minutiae of differences between families and individuals is something both child narrators try to comprehend. Whilst they have no control over the world around them (perhaps why the first narrator in Werther Nieland is keen to set up clubs and blow up animals), neither do those they observe. Things happen and that’s the way it is. This level of narrative control – balancing the character’s experiences and expressions whilst manipulating an adult reader’s perceptions – is extremely impressive.

An intriguing and disturbing insight into the confusions of childhood, Childhood: Two Novellas is a fascinating collection. I’m not sure I could say that I enjoyed these stories, but I was engaged.

I am sorry, but I found this book far too slow for my liking. I thought I would enjoy it but sadly I didn't. Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read it.

The stark egocentricity, violence and naivety of the child narrators in Reve's two short stories are both alarming and all too familiar. As Elmer and a boy from the Netherlands during the nazi invasion, attempt to navigate their lonely ways through a cruel and wondrously disturbing world, the reader is party to their active imaginations and lively internal monologues.

For me, the real magic in Reve's writing is his gift for characterisation. When teaching children to mould characters on the page, I advise them to waste not a word- 'Do not tell me their eyes are brown or their hair is long unless it SHOWS me something about their personality'. These story use that skill in spades:

"At the age of 4 he still had not learned to speak; until the age of three he walked on all fours... When requested to do so, he would eat horse manure from the pavement."
"She had a strange look about her. The mouth in her wrinkled, oldish face seemed incapable of closing completely; her coarse yellow teeth remained visible."

These coupled with a talent for capturing the language with which children address one another makes the characters leap off the page.
"If you know a lot of things, you can stay in the club...members who are stupid are no use to us."

Consequently, I highly recommend this book and am grateful to Netgalley for providing me with a downloaded copy in return for an honest review.

Two vivid stories of childhood in the Netherlands, during and after the second world war. The first, longer story, Werther Nieland, is very good on the cruelty, impulsiveness and powerlessness of children with an admirably unsentimentalised and unsympathetic central figure (who is not Werther). The second story, The Fall of the Boslowits Family, tells the story of a family during wartime fairly dispassionately, adding indignity to horror until the cumulative effect is disarmingly effective. Originally written in 1949 and 1950, these stories were probably more innovative at the time than they seem 70 years later and have a quiet power in their depiction. They probably won't change your life but are worthy of your time.

I very much admired the only other novel I’ve read by Gerard Reve, ‘The Evenings’, so was intrigued to receive these two earlier works, originally published in the years after the end of WWII. I can’t say I enjoyed either of them very much but the author’s writing held my interest - the understated, seemingly simple style of story-telling from a child’s perspective is very effective.

In the first story, we feel how scary childhood can be. It’s the loneliness Elmer endures, being left too much to his own devices and developing alarmingly cruel tendencies as he tries to exert some control over his own life, and also Werther’s experience of his mother’s barely articulated mental illness. All very depressing.

Even more depressing, though, are the events of the second story as a younger child witnesses but cannot understand how a Jewish family, including two vulnerable people, suffer the Nazi invasion of Amsterdam. Reve’s message comes across more poignantly through the eyes of a child, I think, and leaves a lasting impression.

I’m grateful to Pushkin Press via NetGalley for the opportunity to read these novellas and am pleased that they are being republished for a 21st century readership.

I struggled to get into this story. I felt like it jumped around a lot and that there was a bit of a language barrier.

This contains writing that makes you despair for the future of humanity – not through the writing being at all bad, mind, for I speak entirely of the characters. The narrator of the first piece is a little shit – a needy brat who just goes around demolishing things, trying on friends for size to see if they wish to join a Club with him he's forever inventing rules for. And the lads his age that he meets with then kicks out the club are similarly weird – one seems to be simple, another likes to blow things up, the other has a kiddly-fiddler for a mother. You get the drift – it's all life-affirming stuff. Actually, getting the drift is very much an issue here, for despite the sarcastic close to the piece, once you see the bleak world portrayed there's not really much reason to continue reading. It's an interesting world, and the writing is fine, but it's more about mood and message than plot, and once both are conveyed you see this for a sophomore effort.

It's accompanied by the third piece Reve had published, which concerns a different kind of bleakness, or a bleakness with a single source. Once again people aren't completely well off, the weather is poor and the child narrator isn't aware enough to be careful of what he wishes. Here plotting is a bit more satisfactory, and it might be the better of the two pieces, even if the story is an oft-told one. All told, a strong book and a decent introduction for me to this author.

In the first novella, Werther Nieland, Dirk, Maarten and 12-yr old Elmer are all Dutch childhood neighbors. Elmer is the main character here, and his violent tendencies and will to dominate thwart his attempts at forging friendships. The degree of contrast between the boys posits Werther at one end (he is accommodating and protective of his rather damaged parents), and Elmer wholly void of empathy at another. I don't understand why the title wasn't Elmer's name since he's the one we follow throughout this hazy story which seems full of ominous foreshadowing, but then just ends.

The Fall of the Boslowits Family is about a different sort of boy, 7-yr old Simon is more helpful and engaged than Elmer was, yet still the narrator seems shrouded in a bit of mystery. The setting is 1930's Netherlands, as Britain and France are at war with Germany, and the Boslowits family tolerates physical and mental disability with panache.

Both stories share incidents of violence against fish and animals, and institutionalized mental patients, which leads me to make inferences about Gerard Reve's own childhood.

I didn't know what to expect going into this but it fits my goal of reading more translated works so I thought I'd give it a go.

The first novella was around 100 pages and almost felt like non-fiction. The protagonist was a horrible little boy but in a way that I feel most children that age could be in their inner thoughts. It was definitely compelling but the story didn't seem to come to any sort of conclusion.

The second story was about the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands during WWII. This was definitely the more emotionally impactful of the two but there was a distance created between the story and the reader because the novella was so short. It covered several years of plot but in just 60 pages. I think it would have greatly benefited from being longer.

Overall, I was a little disappointed in these stories. The book didn't feel cohesive as the two novellas were completely different. On the whole, I would recommend if you are looking to read some translated work but this wasn't for me unfortunately.

Reve's novellas accurately portray the Zeitgeist of the era, the 1940s, during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, in a subdued and monotone prosaic style that definitely captures the reader's interest.

I had not read any of Gerard Reve's works previously and I know nothing about Dutch literature so Childhood: Two Novellas was a new reading experience for me. Sadly, it's not an experience I wish to repeat.
Werther Nieland was a dull, depressing tale of a strange, lonely boy, Elmer and his odd friendships. I found this story a real struggle and only finished it as I had been provided the book by Netgalley.
The second story, The Fall of the Boslowits Famiy, dealt with the German invasion of the Netherlands. I would not say I enjoyed this story but it was an easier read.
Although I did not enjoy this book, it was well written. It's just not for me.

2.5 stars

The vibrant and beautiful colors of this cover would make you think that you're about to read a happy story, but that certainly isn't the case. I mean, how can any story about the war truly be a happy one?

Other than that, nothing was really happening in this book. It was a whole bunch of nothing, honestly. I don't know if I was supposed to perceive the stories as something more, but I certainly wasn't impressed.

Aha, thought so. Turns out read Reve before, didn’t like him, forgot the name. Didn’t forget the slow plodding nothingness of the book, though. And this one was much the same. Actually someone commented on my other review of Reve, saying it’s meant to be that unexciting, it’s a deliberate choice to accurately represent the zeitgeist of the era. But seriously, no, I don’t buy that. This is still literature and as such it is meant to excite the mind, engage, entertain. Not just drone on stylistically subdued and monotone. In all fairness this book is superior to Evenings, this one at least attempts to draw the reader in, however tepidly. It isn’t the writing’s fault, the writing’s quite good, but there’s just nothing or next to nothing going on. No conventional plot, not arcs, no character development…these are like very very plain slices of life, meant to represent the magic of childhood that shines under any circumstances including wartime. Actually the second story set directly during wartime is the best of the two, because well, because it has more of a story to tell. But other than that this collection of two novellas is flat, muted, turbid. If it were a color, it would be a very washed out gray. Maybe that is what Scandinavian fiction of the time was. Funny that, seeing how now it’s all the rage for all the thrills and excitement of their suspense thrillers. Time change. This book might have its readership and it was quick enough to get through, but for me it was pretty much a waste of time. Thanks Netgalley.