{"id":272036,"date":"2009-06-19T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2009\/06\/19\/latest-review-the-twin-by-gerbrand-bakker\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:10:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:10:07","slug":"latest-review-the-twin-by-gerbrand-bakker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2009\/06\/19\/latest-review-the-twin-by-gerbrand-bakker\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Review: The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our latest review is of <em>The Twin<\/em> by Gerbrand Bakker, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, and published earlier this year by Archipelago Books. Larissa Kyzer&#8212;who has reviewed a number of books for us&#8212;wrote this piece, which makes the book sound both quiet and compelling:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Penetrating, beautifully sparse, and eerie in its stillness, Gerbrand Bakker\u2019s The Twin tells the story of Helmer van Wonderen, an aging farmer whose life has been characterized by passivity, inaction, and a profound sense of isolation. Having begrudgingly taken over the family dairy farm after the accidental death of his twin brother Henk, Helmer finds himself, after 55 years, suddenly and unexpectedly the master of his own life\u2014if only he knew what to do with it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>For years, Helmer has been \u201cdoing things by halves,\u201d living the life that was intended for his brother, a monotonous existence at the beck and call of his tyrannical father. As the story opens, however, Helmer has moved his father, close to death, to a bedroom upstairs, an act of self-assertion that pushes him to reassess his past and the decisions\u2014or lack thereof\u2014that have left him stagnated and alone. \u201cWhy did I let it all happen like this?,\u201d he wonders. \u201cI could have said \u2018no\u2019 to Father and \u2018do it yourself\u2019 or just \u2018sell up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>But while Helmer may not be satisfied with the life that he has accepted for himself, it is a routine that if not fulfilling, is at least familiar. \u201cI\u2019ve milked the cows, day after day,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/index.php?id=2033\">Click here<\/a> for the entire review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our latest review is of The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, and published earlier this year by Archipelago Books. Larissa Kyzer&#8212;who has reviewed a number of books for us&#8212;wrote this piece, which makes the book sound both quiet and compelling: Penetrating, beautifully sparse, and eerie in its stillness, Gerbrand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67456],"tags":[1836,21686,5256,21676,14766,1646,21666],"class_list":["post-272036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-cwp","tag-david-colmer","tag-dutch-literature","tag-gerbrand-bakker","tag-larissa-kyzer","tag-review","tag-the-twin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313356,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272036\/revisions\/313356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}