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The Rattle-Rat
by Janwillem van de Wetering | Mystery & Thrillers
Registered by goatgrrl of New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Tuesday, November 08, 2005
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status (set by goatgrrl): travelling


This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!

1 journaler for this copy...

Journal Entry 1 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Tuesday, November 08, 2005

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The tenth novel in van de Wetering's excellent "Amsterdam Cops" series, featuring the unhappily married Adjutant Detective Grijpstra and his vain, cat-loving assistant, Detective Sergeant Rinus de Gier. These books combine van de Wetering's Buddhism, the hippie consciousness and sexual politics of 1970s Amsterdam and the more traditional elements of police procedurals to make for an interesting, quirky read -- I'm definitely committed to reading the whole series.

(For compulsives like myself, who prefer to read mysteries in the order in which they were written, here's the whole "Amsterdam Cops" series: Outsider in Amsterdam; Tumbleweed; The Corpse on the Dike; Death of a Hawker; The Japanese Corpse; The Blond Baboon; The Maine Massacre; The Mind-Murders; The Streetbird; The Rattle-Rat; Hard Rain; The Sergeant's Cat & Other Stories; Just a Corpse; The Hollow-Eyed Angel; and The Perfidious Parrot.) 

Journal Entry 2 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, November 09, 2005

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Published in 1985, The Rattle-Rat takes the characters of de Gier, Grijpstra and the elderly commissaris back to Amsterdam, where they work to solve the murder of Douwe Scherjoen, a fifty-something man (described up front as an "unpleasant individual with a mean little face") from the northwestern Netherlands province of Friesland. De Gier has just turned forty and Grijpstra, "several years past fifty", seems to have left his loathsome wife (this must have happened in The Streetbird, which I inadvertently skipped). Marriage and the often challenging relationships between men and women are recurrent themes in this book, which was otherwise quite difficult to follow. I also had some trouble with van de Wetering's uncharacteristically stereotypical depictions of Chinese immigrants.

The one area of the novel that didn't diappoint: van de Wetering's Buddhist reflections, introduced variously through the characters of de Gier and the commisaris. Here, for example, de Gier takes a walk through the cattle market, trying to control his temper:

"Breathing deeply, de Gier strolled along. In the past, he thought, a scene like this would have irritated me considerably, but now I know better. It's a matter of tolerating all-pervasive stupidity. The individual cannot change the ignorance of the powerful group, but he can learn to go alone and follow his chosen path. By manipulating my private fate, I will rise to dizzy heights and enjoy myself on the way. Live the good life. Like now, for instance, I think I'll have a snack.

He leaned against the front of a stall. A young woman in a spotless white coat leaned toward him. De Gier ordered fried sole on a bun. Up in the gallery he could look down on the hall. More farmers were slapping hands with each other. What do I see here? de Gier thought. Small-minded greed preyed on by evil. Amused, I follow fateful events that I'm quite free of myself."
 

Journal Entry 3 by goatgrrl at Starbucks - Marine Drive at 17th in West Vancouver, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, November 16, 2005

This book has not been rated.

Released 6 yrs ago (11/16/2005 UTC) at Starbucks - Marine Drive at 17th in West Vancouver, British Columbia Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll be leaving this book on one of the tables in the seating area between 5 - 6 pm today. Best wishes and happy reading to whomever finds it! 



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