OBOC - Belgium

OK i have a confession to make. I was very close to saying Tintin covers Belgium for OBOC! But i decided to try "Chapel Road" instead. Oh yeah talk about extremes! I started with Chapel Road in all eagerness, but it took me 3 days to get through 35 pages, and not all of it was because of the book. I had just been busy with other things and this pace would not do at all as I felt like i would be in the "Boldrums" for a long time.

So i decided to read one of Amelie Nothomb's books and picked up "The Stranger Next Door" last evening and here I am already writing my review! Yes it took me less than 2 hours to get through the book and I found it quite fascinating.

A retired couple (Emelie and Juliette)who've been married for 30 odd years and who have known each other for nearly 60years retire to the countryside to be away from the crowds. They find The House - perfect in every way, and even have a doctor for a neighbor. Their idyllic getaway is marred by the daily visit of their neighbor who speaks in monosyllables and is just a plain boor. Bound by politeness and to some extent cowardice the couple develop numerous coping strategies to deal with these "visits". On meeting the doctor's wife (who reminded me of the mother from "what's eating gilbert grape" without any of her humanity) their sympathies shift from the doctor to his wife and back and forth again. On mustering the courage to chase the doctor out of the house Emelie doesn't get the peace he sought, instead by chance intervenes and stops a suicide attempt by the doctor.

The book starts off by challenging the premise that we come to understand ourselves & become comfortable in our skin a lot more as the years pass. "The more the years pass the less we understand the person in whose name we say and do things."...."What's wrong with living the life of a stranger? Maybe it's better that way: know yourself and it will make you ill"

After intervening in the suicide attempt Emelie finds himself a changed man, his life now intricately bound to that of the doctor's. Was the rescue an act of cruelty, if so should he make amends, how? The rest of the story is about how Emelie no longer knows anything about himself.

The book though short was an intense psychological drama exposing the sometimes hidden terror that resides in human beings.

Off to Belize now and thanks Amelie Nothomb for getting me out of my "reader's block"