Customer Reviews

Only In Holland, Only The Dutch

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Marc Resch makes a particular point, in the book that " whacky " the Dutch are NOT!! He quotes the Dutch saying: "Doe maar gewoon. Dan doe je al gek genoeg." (Act normally. That's crazy enough.) As a Dutch-born Australian. (Actually, I seem to have kept my Dutch nationality as well.) I am very happy with this description of the Dutch from an American's point of view.
I certainly thoroughly enjoyed the book. It did not make me chuckle, like The Undutchables, but it gave me lots of food for thought. Consolidated things I knew and echoed many of my thoughts about the Dutch way of doing things, after living 50 years in Australia, and visiting the Netherlands briefly four times, since leaving there, in 1956, when pillarization was only just beginning to wane.
Whacky? No!! Unique people? (Mmmmm.) By the way, Mr Turnbull, it's "its"!

What a great insight into the wacky world of the Dutch! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in first hand experience with The Kingdom of the Netherlands (the what??). This book covers Dutch history, it's cultural ideologies and of course it's very unique people! Change up your reading list and pick up this Xpat's very unique view of the Dutch in all their glory!

Fantastic read - really helped me to understand the Dutch and their culture and was especially relevant since I was visiting Amsterdam for the first time. Gave me a interesting insight into the history of the Dutch, the architecture and definately made me appreciate my few days there having had that background knowledge. I would certainly recommend it, not only was it informative but it was fun to read also. Made my trip more pleasurable - thanks.

One mustn't be too unkind. This seems on the whole to be a well-meaning book, though his sudden impassioned defence of Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond, in one of many weird digressions, gives one pause. It's just baffling that he should have felt himself qualified to write such a book when his grasp of the English language, and of European geography, for example, is so tenuous. And the edition I read was the "third revised"!

Just a few examples of the former: "... the proud RECIPIENT of being the creators of the world's largest cheese ..." (p52), " ... the Dutch rebels FORFEITED THEIR LOYALTY to the Spanish monarch ..." (p71), " ... they certainly experienced many of the SPOILS OF war ..." - he thinks this means the damages caused by war (p87), " ... this precious mineral LIED somewhere to the west of Holland ..." - a mineral that speaks untruths! (p103), " ... Nazi CORROBORATION was rampant ..." - i.e. collaboration (p151) ... one could go on and on.

As for the latter: " ... after Charlemagne's death ... the eastern lands continued as the Kingdom of the Franks, or France, and the western lands ... as Kingdoms of Germany ... " (p61), " ... Holland, the most northwestern portion of continental Europe ... " (p300) ...

Then there are curiosities such as " ... gezelligheid ... can be evoked while sitting in an open fire ..." (p229), and historical nuggets such as " ... the Dutch either discovered or dominated ... Japan ..." (p102).

Nit-picking? Perhaps, but before asking people to part with money for such a book, you simply have to do your research and your checking. Only a wealth of new information and insight can counterbalance the lack of these, and alas, though it has some interesting bits, this book is in the main, for a European reader, a long statement of the commonplace, often attributing uniqueness to the Dutch on the basis of features and history shared with many of their neighbours.