Heart Fever Bob Van Laerhoven
Description
After his much-acclaimed short story collection Dangerous Obsessions, which had war as a common background, Belgian/Flemish author Van Laerhoven surprises again with five stories that shed a piercing light on our most self-destructive impulses. A steroid-spiked Syrian mercenary of Bashar-al-Assad is determined to become a “martyr,” after the loss of his right arm by “friendly fire.” A retired London tube-driver becomes obsessed by his desire to revenge the vicious killing of his parents in Croatia on his half-nephew. A Belgian travel-writer gets entangled in the madness of the Kosovo-war during the nineties and witnesses its dramatic consequences many years later in New York. A jaded art brut painter in Brussels betrays his best friend, a Rwandese art forger, to the Mafia, opening the door to guilt, lust, and murder. A born liar with the nickname Johnny di Machio seeks in the seventies, in Poona, India, salvation in Bhagwan’s ashram for his sexual problems, but gets trapped in a maze of long-hidden violence.
Review: Heart Fever Bob Van Laerhoven
In January, I received word I'd received an early reviewer copy of the book Heart Fever from LibraryThing. A few weeks ago I took time to read it.
I was not familiar with this author but I like details so it is typical for me to review an author bio/profile before I choose to make a move to their work.
I learned this author made his debut back in 1985 and his stories are published in English, French, German, Spanish and Slovenian. I rather like his eclectic style of doing a history of articles, biographies, columns, letters, non-fiction, novels, theatre pieces, travel stories and decided to check out this collection of 5 short stories.
Early on, I was perplexed by its rather directionally degrading tone and for a time I read it aloud in a frenetic cadence. At times, my perplexion was replaced by irritation. In this read, I am taken to places I really don't want to be. I am frustrated, irritated, saddened and angered and I went back and forth like that for a while. But I think a good writer often makes us think outside our norm.
Yes, it is an emotional read. And in all honesty, this author has had experiences I would never hope to. But I feel a read should be more about the story the author, or their subject matter has to tell.
So, soon after I started the first story my initial shock transcended to astonishment. These short stories seem to be a darkly symbolic lesson of our perception of spatial representations. Like a series of sub-maps of observational learning. And, thinking along those lines, it seems aptly titled Heart Fever as the center of the person's thoughts and emotions are perceived to be marred by a disturbed state of mind.
Of note: The collection, which had war as a common background, made me think about how 'Dickens' wrote... we should realize the lessons life teaches us in controlling the shadow of our own growing tree.
After his much-acclaimed short story collection Dangerous Obsessions, which had war as a common background, Belgian/Flemish author Van Laerhoven surprises again with five stories that shed a piercing light on our most self-destructive impulses. A steroid-spiked Syrian mercenary of Bashar-al-Assad is determined to become a “martyr,” after the loss of his right arm by “friendly fire.” A retired London tube-driver becomes obsessed by his desire to revenge the vicious killing of his parents in Croatia on his half-nephew. A Belgian travel-writer gets entangled in the madness of the Kosovo-war during the nineties and witnesses its dramatic consequences many years later in New York. A jaded art brut painter in Brussels betrays his best friend, a Rwandese art forger, to the Mafia, opening the door to guilt, lust, and murder. A born liar with the nickname Johnny di Machio seeks in the seventies, in Poona, India, salvation in Bhagwan’s ashram for his sexual problems, but gets trapped in a maze of long-hidden violence.
Review: Heart Fever Bob Van Laerhoven
In January, I received word I'd received an early reviewer copy of the book Heart Fever from LibraryThing. A few weeks ago I took time to read it.
I was not familiar with this author but I like details so it is typical for me to review an author bio/profile before I choose to make a move to their work.
I learned this author made his debut back in 1985 and his stories are published in English, French, German, Spanish and Slovenian. I rather like his eclectic style of doing a history of articles, biographies, columns, letters, non-fiction, novels, theatre pieces, travel stories and decided to check out this collection of 5 short stories.
Early on, I was perplexed by its rather directionally degrading tone and for a time I read it aloud in a frenetic cadence. At times, my perplexion was replaced by irritation. In this read, I am taken to places I really don't want to be. I am frustrated, irritated, saddened and angered and I went back and forth like that for a while. But I think a good writer often makes us think outside our norm.
Yes, it is an emotional read. And in all honesty, this author has had experiences I would never hope to. But I feel a read should be more about the story the author, or their subject matter has to tell.
So, soon after I started the first story my initial shock transcended to astonishment. These short stories seem to be a darkly symbolic lesson of our perception of spatial representations. Like a series of sub-maps of observational learning. And, thinking along those lines, it seems aptly titled Heart Fever as the center of the person's thoughts and emotions are perceived to be marred by a disturbed state of mind.
Of note: The collection, which had war as a common background, made me think about how 'Dickens' wrote... we should realize the lessons life teaches us in controlling the shadow of our own growing tree.
Heart Fever
by Bob Van Laerhoven
Paperback, 114 pages
Published January 5th, 2018
ISBN139781681143910
Edition Language
by Bob Van Laerhoven
Paperback, 114 pages
Published January 5th, 2018
ISBN139781681143910
Edition Language
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