According to the author, Chapel Road "is the book about the childhood of Ondine [. . .] about her brother Valeer-Traleer with his monstrous head wobbling through life this way and that." But the book is about a lot more than that. It is also the story of Louis Paul Boon, an author working on a novel entitled Chapel Road, surrounded by his colorful group of friends. His readers and companions include the painter Tippetotje, who habitually works a naked woman into her paintings, and Johan Janssens, the journalist and poet who is fired from the paper for refusing to agree with the Capitalists, the Socialists or the Ultra-Marxists. Beyond that, Chapel Road includes a retelling of the myth of Reynard the fox and Isengrinus the wolf, a tale that underscores the greed, stupidity, hypocrisy, pride and lust motivating the other characters of the book. Chapel Road is "a pool, a sea, a chaos: it is the book of all that can be heard and seen in Chapel Road, from the year 1800-and-something until today."
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Book Description
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Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Dutch
Original Language: Dutch
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chapel Road,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chapel Road (Paperback)
A complex but very rewarding book. There are 3 story lines, all at different times in history, but all set in the same part of Flanders, in Belgium, and all portraying a similar image of injustice and despair. Although they may seem unrelated, the attentive reader will soon discover the links. It is one of the most important books of contemporary Dutch literature. However, readers who dislike modernist may want to stay clear of this one. Personally, I do not care much for modernist fiction, but for Louis Paul Boon I am willing to make a big exception, as this is an exceptionally warm and at times humerous book
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply a masterpiece,
By Bartolo (New York City, New York USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Chapel Road (Paperback)
This is major literature, or, to put it more personally, one of the best novels I can remember reading. Forget "best Flemish" etc.: this is world-class, as revealed by the fact that Boon was shortlisted many times for the Nobel Prize. He has the social awareness and compassion of a Tolstoy or Steinbeck, the literary sophistication of a Kafka or Beckett. You will be dazzled even while you are moved. As one critic said, this has the authority and intensity of a novel written out of psychic necessity, out of passion; Boon was enough of a student of human behavior that everything about his heroine rings true.
The other customer reviews here are all accurate, with one exception: the second volume in this set has by now been translated into English, as "Summer in Termuren," and will be coming out in the summer of 2006. It is reputed to be even better than than this one, though that is hard to imagine. I for one will be standing in line.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book in Dutch literature!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chapel Road (Paperback)
Together with its successor, Zomer Te Ter-Muren (not translated!!), this is THE highlight of Dutch literature. Translators/ publishers where are you? It's time for a new print.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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msieu colson, little ondine, johan janssens, pretty lucette, sister jeanneke, pretty wife lucette, chapel road book, brother valeer, book about chapel road, mother zulma, achilles derenancourt, miss ondine, ondine laughed, reverse exploration, socialist band, weekly journalist, offertory box, flowering broom, sick fund, dirty houses, old hunchback Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Madame Berthe, Louis Paul Boon, Rabbit Hill, Iron Casket, Grey Mouse New!
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
msieu colson, little ondine, johan janssens, pretty lucette, sister jeanneke, pretty wife lucette, chapel road book, brother valeer, book about chapel road, mother zulma, achilles derenancourt, miss ondine, ondine laughed, reverse exploration, socialist band, weekly journalist, offertory box, flowering broom, sick fund, dirty houses, old hunchback Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Madame Berthe, Louis Paul Boon, Rabbit Hill, Iron Casket, Grey Mouse New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
6
books
cite this book:
See all 6 books citing this book
- Handbook of Narrative Analysis (Frontiers of Narrative) by Bart Vervaeck on page 82, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Michelin the Green Guide Belgium/Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Michelin Green Guides) by Michelin Travel Publications on page 59, and page 87
- Antwerp & Ghent (Footprint - Pocket Guides) by Clare Thomson on page 236
- The History of Holland (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) by Mark T. Hooker in Back Matter
- Lonely Planet Belgium & Luxembourg (Lonely Planet Belgium and Luxembourg) by Leanne Logan on page 11
See all 6 books citing this book
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