De Republyk by Hans van der Heijde

Abstract

w w Z w Pi P H w H O O iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiii key femalemember ofETA who has gone into hiding and her ten- and thirteen-year-old son and daughter, abducted by their fatherand taken to live in Caracas, Venezuela. Hav ing only recently learned of their whereabouts after some seven years without any contact whatsoever with her children, she writes a series of detailed, personal memories of theirprior lifetogether ina rednote book, which she entrusts to a friend topersonally deliver to them. Entries from the notebook are intertwined with a description of this friend's attempts to locate the children and safely convey their mother's notebook to them. As she and the reader together examine the contents of the notebook, it gradually becomes clear thatwhat is at issue is not merely the rela tionship between a mother and her young children but the connections between language and identityand the complicated ways inwhich the touchingly mundane personal sto ries of individuals and families are inseparably bound up with broad er political and cultural questions. Urretabizkaia manages to dramatize these questions?for instance, with regard to the status of Euskara and the connections between the Basque language and Basque identity?in an understated yet effective way. The novella's final pages, in particu lar, invite serious reflection on the relationship between an intimate yetmarginalized language such as Euskara and attempts to translate it into other,more widely spoken, idioms. The Red Notebook is the fifth title to be published in the new Basque Literature Series edited by Mari JoseOlaziregi at theUniver sityofNevada, Reno. It is aworthy addition toan already distinguished collection of recent Basque writing llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll in English translation. Any reader wishing to get thepulse of contem porarywriting inEuskara would be well advised tobegin here. David Laraway BrighamYoung University Hans van der Heijde. De Republyk. Amsterdam/Antwerp. L. J.Veen. 2009. 440 pages. 19.90. isbn 978-90-204 4320-2 Within the twenty-seven countries that are currently members of the European Union, there are dozens of European ethnic minorities of long, even ancient standing. Almost every country in Europe has them: there are the Sorbians in Germany, thePomoks inGreece, theCornish in England, theMaronites inCyprus, the Sami in Scandinavia. Of all the European minorities, the Frisians of theNetherlands are widely per ceived as a model of healthy social and linguistic identity.The Frisian language, unlike many other Euro pean minority languages, enjoys official status: it is taught in schools and universities, its authors are sup ported by the state, and ithas an academy that sees to its furtherance and well-being. So what could lead the contented Frisians to revolt, to break away from theNetherlands and set up a republic along the ide als of theancientAthenian model? InHans van der Heijde's witty and satiric novel De Republyk, it is a simple soccermatch that triggers the secession, a game between the world-class Ajax champions from Amsterdam and Heerenveen, Fries land's foremost team. In a rollick ing twist of fate, the local team wins. This victory triggersa series of reprisals from irateAjax fansbused in forthe match, followed by retalia tions fromtheFrisian side.Ajax fans on theirway back to Amsterdam llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll topple a monument commemoratH ? ing the Battle ofWarns, where in hH 1345 the Frisians had defeated the jHB Dutch. The monument is a symbol iHlll of Frisian liberty,and the toppling isperceived bymany of the characWilli ters in the novel as an outright act Bmmm ofwar. (A Frisian farmerpassively HH watches the hooligans destroy the MBM monument but only calls thepolice jHH^H later thatday, afterhe has finished HHH milking his cows.) The Frisians seize HHh Dutch buses and set them on fire, HH cars are ambushed, and theDutch HjjjH fans are relieved of their clothes, jBHH cellphones, and banners. The triumBl ^^ phant Frisians cartoffthe loot to the HmWIH site of the ancient battle,where it is SlfBI hurled froma cliffinto the sea. HHB Van der Heijde populates the 9sH9 book with interesting characters: BWil Sybe Sybesma, a poet and classicist M||iHH who setsup thenew republic's conHjjj ^B stitution, and amix of fictional and HfflH real-lifeFrisians,who appear under ^H?M their actual names, or...