Volume 41, Number 20 · December 1, 1994
Enigma Variation
By Gabriele Annan
The Following Story
by Cees Nooteboom, translated by Ina Rilke
Harcourt Brace/A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, 115 pp., $14.95
This is the pattern of The Following Story by the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom. He specializes in very short, enigmatic, metaphysical novels. This latest one is so beguiling to read that it convinces one, straight off, that at any rate the translator, Ina Rilke, must have got everything right. When the book appeared in the UK at the beginning of the year, the word 'elegiac' figured in many of the reviews it got. They were nearly all favorable; and sometimes reproachful as well, rebuking the reading public for having neglected a remarkable writer. Nooteboom's work is well thought of in Europe (especially in German-speaking countries) and The Following Story won the Aristeion Literature Prize.
Review, 1282 words
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