My Father's War: A Novel (New Press International Fiction Series) [Hardcover]

Adriaan van Dis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 156584033X | ISBN-13: 978-1565840331 | Publication Date: April 16, 2009

Born in Holland after the Second World War, a man grows up as an outsider in his part-Indonesian family and embarks on a quest to discover his family's Indonesian past, their wartime experience in a Japanese concentration camp, and its impact on his own life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Adriaan van Dis employs masterful skill in telling this rich story of a Dutch man who, in midlife, is coming to terms with the losses in his life and their effect on his family. His half sister's death revives memories of his father, a Dutch soldier who spent three years in a Japanese concentration camp only to die in the Netherlands when the narrator was 11. The drama unfolds as he uncovers the complicated history of his family and realizes what he remembers of his father doesn't match the recollections of others. That this book can address themes as diverse as sibling relationships, child abuse, war, and repressed memories with such subtlety and even a touch of humor is testament to both the quality of van Dis's writing and the expertise of his translator, Claire Nicolas White.

From Publishers Weekly

The English-language debut by Dutch novelist van Dis is a grim look at a life rattled by the lasting effects of an old war. A child of refugees from Dutch Indonesia, which was occupied during WWII by Japan, the unnamed narrator grew up perceiving the marginalization of his family from mainstream Dutch society. But deeper psychological scars emerge when he is an adult as, all of a sudden, his family begins to disintegrate. First, his sister Ada dies, leaving behind a husband saddled with mental problems and a son drifting through adolescence. Then another sister, Jana, who fled to Canada years earlier, takes ill. All this trauma prompts a third sister, Saskia, to reveal memories, thought long buried, of the Japanese internment camps the family lived through before the narrator's birth. These in turn force the narrator to deal with memories of his father, a hard, cruel man who joined the family after his mother's first husband disappeared. Van Dis adeptly shows how wartime traumas linger in a society's collective memory, even creeping into everyday vocabulary. But the bleaknesss is unrelieved by humor or even color. The narrator's girlfriend remains a shadowy presence, mentioned but never seen, and moments of fulfillment are few and painfully brief. The novel's tone is so unremittingly somber that, by the end, all emotional resonance has dissipated.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (April 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156584033X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565840331
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,429,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Commentary on Family Relationships, March 18, 2005

By 

spideranansie (Singapore - Manchester) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Fathers War (Hardcover)

I am not sure what to make of this book, as it was all a little disjointed and in the air. I suppose that is the feeling that readers are meant to be given as that is what the protagonist has had to live with, having gotten information on his family in bits and pieces and never really knowing what the reality is. Is reality an absolute or is it subjective and personal? The novel is an interesting piece of work commenting on the legacies of war as well as secrecy within a family - how damaging both are and how it self-perpetuates. When the narrator was not having an amusing aside, the tenderness in his tone came through which symbolised the love-hate relationship he had with his father. Not an easy read, but has valuable insights and comments.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A piece of Dutch History silenced for 50 years, June 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: My Father's War: A Novel (New Press International Fiction Series) (Hardcover)

A hidden past revealed when a son finally faces the silence of the memories of a father and mother who were caught in Indonesia during WWII. Their son describes the horror, the fate, and family failures in a dark story. Excellent translation.