Kees Ouwens. Helis' mythe. Amsterdam. Meulenhoff. 1998. 188 pages. 36.90 fl. ISBN 90-290-5845-5.

Kops, Henri

"The body of another you cannot possess because it explains minutely a state of affairs: that you are not the only one. Have you then something to say to one another? Us three. Who needs whom as a guide? One body, two periods, one life, two ways. Who in this shadowy realm decides who is truly engrossed with whom?" Kees Ouwens states the theme of his novel well. However, it is deficient in clarity, in generating interest, and in the resources of his principals. Obertop, Ernoul, and Ziesenis are landscaping a plantation that has a bridged stream and a short road to the Holland seacoast. Ernoul did such work with Obertop ten years ago; Ziesenis is a young forester. The entire book contrasts the differing reactions of the three males to the work in progress, based on age, experience, motivation, and quirks. Fantastic detail goes into describing just how raking sounds, almost anthropomorphizing the tool.

The fifty-four-year-old author speculates on what sort of responses might have been sparked by other, different causes. The labyrinthine narrative, weighed down with if, but, and or clauses, taxes the mind. Instances of unfocused text fall short of conveying meaning to one's intellect. The featured landscape project yields no information as to origins, current circumstances, or expectations. At the end, such as it is, Ernoul perishes in an unexplained solar blaze. Minimal editing has permitted the survival of fundamental inanity, Joycean analytic overindulgence, and compulsive retrospections that exasperate. Wordplay, an obeisance to the occult, hesitant homosexual touches, and inadequate identification of Ernoul's and Obertop's meditations leave a persevering reader with cognitive fatigue.

Henri Kops

Fort Bragg, Ca.