Book Reviews - Review 368

Belcampo was the pen name of Herman Pieter Schönfeld Wichers, a Dutch author of H G Wells-style fantasy stories.

Het Verhaal van Oosterhuis is the tale of a Dutchman who, on a professional expedition to the Indian subcontinent, falls down a ravine, miraculously survives, and is nursed to recovery among a tribe that lives in the bottom of the ravine. The tribe was driven into the ravine by invaders, and ekes out a living from the meagre resources of its dark and unfruitful environment. In fact though, not only does its survive, but it seems the happiest community Oosterhuis has met. The inhabitants of the ravine lead a leisurely life in an egalitarian society that has abandoned family ties. In the brief period of each day when the sun penetrates their home, they strip naked and soak up the rays.

The ravine-dwellers are a "people without sin", says Oosterhuis to the narrator of the story. Or so he thinks - until one day he uncovers a dark secret, the source of a collective guilt that weighs upon them underneath their carefree day-to-day lives.

The story is not a simple imaginative exercise, but an allegory of the human fall from divine grace. The inhabitants of the ravine are guilty - but they know they are guilty. Oosterhuis tells the narrator, back in Holland,

The main interest for me of Het Verhaal van Oosterhuis is that it is the first work of fiction I've read in Dutch. It's no masterpiece, and as often with fantasy fiction, there is a certain paucity of sensory detail. However, it is readable and short, and its vocabulary is straightforward, so it was a good piece to use to further my learning of a new language.