NRC Reading Club Live

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In this 6th edition of the successful series NRC Reading Club Live columnists and NRC editors Elsbeth Etty, Frits Abrahams and writer Sanneke van Hassel together and with the audience read Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories Blind willow, sleeping woman. Editor of NRC Handelsblad's book pages Pieter Steinz leads the conversation.

The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami has an outspoken readership. His multitude of fans can’t hear a word of criticism about him. His critics find him greatly overrated. Now that the translation of his trilogy1q84is published part by part that discussion has flared up. The personally phrased, yet highly critical review by Pieter Steinz in NRC Handelsblad for example aroused many disappointed reactions. High time to ask the question: is Murakami a classic in his lifetime or is it time to take the scales off the eyes of the fans? In Dutch.

Read the book and join the debate! Murakami’s collected short stories can be ordered from NRC Handelsblad's webshop.

Information

Date and time Saturday 22 January 2011 from 14:00 to 16:30 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Line-up

Pieter Steinz

(Rotterdam 1963 - Haarlem 2016) in 2010 published Grote Verwachtingen. Opgroeien in de letteren in 25 schema’s (Great Expectations. Growing up in Literature in 25 Charts). He did the same in Luisteren & cetera, (Listening etc) about 25 1970s pop albums. Somewhat earlier Macbet heeft echt geleefd (Macbeth Really Existed) appeared, on places where literary heroes used to live. In Verleden in verf (Past in Paint, 2011), Steinz sketches Dutch history in forty paintings. Steinz became an art editor with NRC Handelsblad in 1989. From 2005-2011 he headed the bookpages of that paper. Steinz studied ancient history and English. Earlier he wrote, among other books, Klein ABC van de wereldliteratuur (Concise ABC of world literature; 2008), Het web van de wereldliteratuur (The World Literature Web; 2007) and Lezen op locatie (Reading on Location; 2003), sixty maps on which he identifies where masterpieces of literature are set. In 2010 he published De Duivelskunstenaar (The wizard), a journey through Europe in search of Faust. Since 2012 Steinz has been head of the Dutch Literary Fund. He died in august 2016.
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Sanneke van Hassel

(Netherlands, 1971) wrote six collections of short stories, inluding 2019's Nederzettingen (Settlements), as well as the novels Nest (2010) and Stille grond (Silent Ground, 2017). She won the 2008 BNG New Literature Prize for her early work and the 2013 Anna Blaman Prize for her oevre. Van Hassel also writes non-fiction and is a strong promotor of the short story genre; together with Annelies Verbeke she compiled the short-story anthology Naar de stad (Toward the City, 2012). Both her novels and short stories describe people struggling to get a grip on their lives. Van Hassel studied drama and cultural history, was a dramaturge with theatre company ’t Barre Land from 1996-2006, and is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to raise awareness of gender inequality in literature and expand the literary canon with work by important female authors.

Go to website Sanneke van Hassel
Instagram: @sannekevanhassel
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Elsbeth Etty

(Hulshorst, NL, 1951) received the Anne Vondeling Award for political journalism in 2008, owing to her sharp analyses of social problems. She is a journalist in the widest sense of the word. Besides being an editor and columnist with the NRC Handelsblad newspaper, she makes frequent appearances on radio and TV. In 2007 she debuted as a novelist with Maak jezelf maar klaar (Go Get Yourself Off), in which one of the characters from Harry Mulisch's The Discovery of Heaven figures as a main character. Etty obtained her Ph.D. with distinction from Utrecht University with a biography of Henriëtte Roland Holst, Liefde is heel het leven niet (Love Is Not All of Life, 1996). Her newspaper columns appeared in four different books. Her reviews were compiled in Dames gaan voor - Van Hella Haasse to Connie Palmen (Ladies First: From Hella Haasse to Connie Palmen, 1999). Etty is a special lecturer in Literary Criticism at the Free University in Amsterdam, and is now at work on a biography of the late Dutch poet and songwriter Willem Wilmink.
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Frits Abrahams

(Nijmegen, 1946) is a renowned columnist for NRC Handelsblad. Many readers start with the back page of the paper, where Abrahams has had his own niche for eleven years, entitled Dag door de weeks (A day in the week). Writers like Maarten ’t Hart, Ronald Giphart and Jan Mulder are fans of his. Abrahams regularly finds his inspiration in what he hears daily on terraces and in restaurants in his beloved Amsterdam. But he also writes emphatically and with self-mockery about personal subjects. In his columns he likes to elaborate on family affairs and has done that so often that for many NRC readers he has almost become a member of the family. His columns have been collected in among others Familie, wat moet je ermee? (Family, what to do with them?) Barre dagen, Liefde en ander leed (Hard days, love and assorted misery) and Mijn vader vond het mooi geweest (My dad had had enough). Other books include Ben je onze trouwdag vergeten? (Have you forgotten our wedding day?) and the successful Katten & ander gespuis (Cats and assorted rabble).
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