Gerard Reve (1923-2006) was one of the defining writers of the twentieth century. In 1969 he received the P.C. Hooft prize for his entire oeuvre and in 2001 the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Prize). In 1998 he was designated commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
De avonden (The Evenings), 1947
Press on The Evenings:
Reviewers have compared it favourably to J .D. Salinger’s 'The Catcher in the Rye,' Albert Camus’s 'The Stranger' and Karl Ove Knausgaard’s 'My Struggle'. - NEW YORK TIMES
The Evenings is a canonical work of postwar European fiction, capturing the age’s spiritual alienation through an acidly comic style that reads somewhat like an extended monologue from Beckett, but one riddled with morbid jokes and mock grandiloquence. - WALL STREET JOURNAL
It may sound dire, but Reve’s sparkling collage of acute observation, droll internal monologue and pitch-perfect dialogue keeps the reader breathless right through to the grand finale. - THE GUARDIAN
In all fairness to Salinger, 'The Evenings' is so much better. - IRISH TIMES
Gives Kafka a run for his money. - BIG ISSUE