Recently Released
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Recently Caught
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Social Links
Bookish Quotes
"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time."
The Mind-Murders
|
The Mind-Murders
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
|
|
|
|
|
|
I read this book all in one shot, on a flight from Vancouver to Ottawa. As a mystery, it was a little all-over-the-map (it actually read like two separate mysteries cobbled together into one book), but it was a relief to have Dutch detectives Grijpstra and De Gier together again in Amsterdam (the last two novels in the series were set in Japan and the USA), and Mind-Murders was wonderfully full of the usual van de Wetering Buddhist consciousness and spiritual/emotional insight. I particularly loved the commissaris' existential rant at p. 51, inspired by the loss of his beloved Citroen:"The commissaris, abruptly transformed from acting object into suffering subject, stared down into a gaping hole. The bright red bricks were replaced by a black aperture that sucked at his very existence. "Then," the commissaris declared, "I doubted the benevolence of the creation and I haven't dared to stop doubting since. Another loss that added, in a way, to my liberation. To lose may be frightening, to know that you have nothing can be encouraging." "And the car, sir?" Grijpstra asked. "The car? It returned. There is always a superficial explanation. I forget what happened exactly, ... But who cares? I'm talking about something else. We don't have earthquakes here, which is a pity. To be reminded that even the ground isn't safe, that we are forever suspended in undefinable space; very heartening, adjutant. To assume that we rest on gravity tends to make us dullish. The Mind-Murders was published in 1981, and I have to assume it was written in the several years following van de Wetering's move from The Netherlands to Maine, USA. The book is full of reflections on the liberatory potential of big moves, or as Mr. Hyme characterizes it, "The Great Clearing": ridding oneself of everything (possessions, job, spouse and/or nationality) as a kind of reincarnation in this lifetime. Anyone who's been through any kind of fundamental change in mid-life will find much to relate to here. (Photo: arrivals area in Ottawa airport.) |
|
|
|
|
Released 6 yrs ago (7/21/2005 UTC) at Parl. Hill Famous Five Monument in Ottawa, Ontario Canada WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES: I left this book on the chair beside Nellie McClung, at the Famous Five monument on Parliament Hill. It was a beautiful summer evening, around 10 pm, and by the time I returned to the Famous Five half an hour later (after watching the Sound and Light show -- see left), the book was gone. I hope whomever got it enjoys it, and that it makes a good souvenir. Best wishes! |
|
|
|
