How can someone with such a kind face write such a cruel book, one wondered after reading JJ Voskuil’s novel On closer inspection (1963). In terms of candor and honesty, his now published diaries from the time are not inferior.
With a beautiful but difficult word, JJVoskuil is an idiosyncratic personality, someone with a deviant character. There are so many different characteristics united in it that no rounded personality emerges. On the contrary: a colorful collection of views and psychological peculiarities collide or seek connection. In Almost a man in Capitulation, the two-dean diary that covers the years 1939-1965, Voskuil notes a few times that he slept well on the quarrel with his wife Lousje. Conflicting emotions and views constantly emerge.
Writing, which he does almost maniacally, according to Voskuil, ‘arises from instability. It’s a neurosis, not a cultural expression.’ Voskuil, although he is a sort of folklorist, does not really understand people: ‘only outcasts and underdogs are tolerable.’ The word happiness leads a troubled existence with him, except when it rains hard with a lot of wind and ‘with gray, fast …