On Saturday 13 August our UITGELEZEN- evening takes place in the open air! Regular panelists Jos Geysels and Fien Sabbe take their guests to the Bijloke site to exchange the most adventurous book tips of the moment. In between, a musician will provide a well-sounding intermezzo. Food for literary wolverines and aficionados of the linen spine!
Together they talk about Bittere bloemen by Jeroen Brouwers, a novel about illusions that wither as quickly as flowers. This is followed by The Candy House by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, a great story about the impact of technology on our humanity. As a special guest, they welcome Professor Jean Paul van Bendegem and talk about his books Noise and din and Wise, Grey & Adolescent.
During the interludes, Josephien brings a mix of pop and soul. Influenced by artists like Alice Phoebe Lou, Amy Winehouse and Alabama Shakes, she tries to tell a personal story in all her songs, all covered with a groovy sauce.
Jeroen Brouwers - Bitter Flowers
Grey is taking a cruise on the Mediterranean against his will. As an ex-lawyer, ex-politician and ex-writer, he has enough to look back on, which he does with cheerful cynicism and cheerful moaning. His past life was by no means without its success, but what was missing determined his lonely aftermath. On board he meets a former pupil. The island of Corsica is the setting for several events that keep the old man and the much younger woman in each other's company for 24 hours.
Light-heartedly written in short chapters, in which Brouwers once again demonstrates his excellent mastery.
Bitter Flowers is vintage Brouwers. Philosophical references and aphorisms about the tentacles of old age, approaching death, the deceptions of memory and the scorching impact of love are there for the taking. Now and then, Brouwers lets loose the polemicist in Hammer, who spits the fulminations around like annoying cherry pits. Bitter Flowers' is a novel of great class in which Eros and Thanatos enter into the ultimate alliance. - Jury report Libris Literature Prize
Jennifer Egan - The Candy House
It is 2010. Successful but restless entrepreneur Bix Bouton is speaking to a professor at Columbia University, who is experimenting with human memory. Ten years later, Bix's new technological programme 'Grip on your Unconscious' gives you access to all your memories, which you can also share with others. The system seduces many - though not everyone.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan weaves the far-reaching consequences of the programme through the lives of several characters, whose paths cross several times. In her spectacular imaginative world, there are enumerators who track down and ferret out human desires, and evaders, who evade the collective consciousness because they realise what the price of 'a bite of the candy house' is.
"Fluent, pointed and funny. No style or genre seems too high for her."
- De Morgen
