Amsterdam

I don't have a whole lot to add to these great reviews other than stating that this book deserves its current five-star rating. The excerpts are well-chosen and they really help the reader see into the lives of the Dutch from multiple angles. The fact that the excerpts are bite-size makes this an especially desirable book to take with you to read on the plane or in your hotel/apartment each night. I am leading a group to the Netherlands next year and this will likely be required reading.

Anyone who has ever visited Amsterdam knows the curious magic of that city, its canal-lined streets, polyglot population, and unconventional mores. But few are aware of Amsterdam's rich literary life. Manfred Wolf brilliantly redresses that cultural gap in Amsterdam, A Traveler's Literary Companion. In what may be the best in an excellent series, Wolf, Professor of English at San Francisco State University and leading expert on Dutch literature, introduces the reader to an Amsterdam of gaiety and sadness, beauty and squalor, hope and despair. The selections are arranged thematically and geographically and include "City and People," "Canals," "Red-Light District," "Gay Amsterdam," and "Jewish Amsterdam." Among the provocative essays and stories are Remco Campert's "Soft Landings," Hermine Landvreugd's "Staring out the Window," and Margo Minco's "The Return."To read this fine collection is to come a step closer to overcoming what Cees Nottebom observes in the opening selection, "Amsterdam": "This is my city, a token for the uninitiated. She will never reveal herself to the outsider who does not know her language and history, because it is precisely language and names that are the keepers of secret moods, secret places, secret memories."

Originality may be the key word about this little anthology of writings about this great city. Bypassing such well known sources as Anne Frank's diary, for example, Professor Wolf acquaints us with a host of relatively unknown writers well worth reading, including Harry Mulisch and Cees Nooteboom. We find what it's like to be a timid young fellow attracted to Amsterdam's famous red-light district, and get some fascinating perspectives on Jewish Amsterdam, gay Amsterdam, etc. This is not only great stuff for future travelers (including me) but also a way to get acquainted with contemporary Dutch literature. This seems to be part of an excellent series. The book is a pleasure to look at, hold, and read. What a great find.

"Amsterdam" has a nice feel to it. It's a handy volume, just the size to pack on one's literary or actual travels. It has a useful Preface by its Dutch-American editor, Manfred Wolf, a map to locate you in the city, and section divisions to lead you in to short fictions about The City and its People, the Canals, the Red-Light District, Gay Amsterdam, Jewish Amsterdam, and so on. But this is not a travel brochure book full of clichés to impress tourists. It is, for one thing, about a city with a painful history (see e.g. Gerard Reve's "The Decline and Fall of the Boslowits Family", about a Jewish family in Second World War Amsterdam), and about a city with more than its fair share of alcoholics, drug addicts, would-be artists and failed poets (see e.g. the fine story "Soft Landings" by Remco Campert). For a lighter-hearted treatment of the city, however, see Maarteen't Hart's "Living in the Red-Lighted District", which gives a behind-the-scenes picture of one of the best-known aspects of liberal Amsterdam life. If, like me, you are in total ignorance of Dutch writing and have only a superficial knowledge of the city, then "Amsterdam" is a fine introduction - not only to seventeen new authors but also to a unique place.

A delightful book! Makes me wish I was headed again for Amsterdam tomorrow. Fortunately, I do have friends headed that way this year and it's going to make a great going away present. This "traveler's literary companion" gives the English-speaking reader a glimpse they usually never get of a complex city. It's like being given the keys to the hidden treasures that most tourists don't see. While the typical guide gives a quick sketch of the main outlines, this book presents an in-depth portrait worthy of an old Dutch master. Enjoy! I sure did.