W.F. Hermans: Beyond Sleep

[Anna van Gelderen]

I know it’s a disgrace that as a Dutchwoman I had never read anything by W.F. Hermans, but I have a degree in English literature and that is where my priorities have been for the past 32 years. Fortunately our own Lizzy Siddall managed to persuade me to get Beyond Sleep from the shelves and about time too, for this is a great book.

Beforehand all I knew was that this novel is set in the north of Norway and that the main character is plagued by insomnia and midges. What I did not know is that it is also funny and very intelligent - an irresistible combination.

Our young protagonist, Alfred, travels to Norway to do geological research. He is woefully under-prepared, but reckons that with the recommendation from his professor nothing can go wrong and all doors will open for him. Unfortunately this recommendation fails to produce the aerial photographs that are essential for Alfred’s research, so that he arrives with some delay and without photographs at his destination in the north where he meets up with his Norwegian fellow travellers, young researchers like himself. Alfred is already becoming slightly apprehensive, but he still is confident that his research will be a success. And here the book really became interesting.

Alfred is very determined to make good on the scientific promise that his father was never able to fulfil due to a fatal accident when Alfred was only a boy. Alfred, therefore, is going to deliver a brilliant PhD thesis (based on the brilliant research he is about to start) and after that he is going to be a brilliant professor. Everything now depends on the spectacular finds he is bound to make in the next couple of weeks, but that will simply be a matter of keen observation, for Alfred, after all, is a smart scientist - unlike his younger sister, who is stupid enough to believe in god. The little sister did give him an excellent compass, though, which turns out to be the only decent piece of equipment he has with him.

As tends to happen with people who move into the wilderness for the first time, Alfred is confronted gradually but relentlessly with his own limitations and ignorance. The three Norwegians are experienced mountain-hikers; Alfred is a klutz from an overpopulated flat country, who has nothing but his perseverance to pull him through, as soon becomes apparent. Even the expensive compass of his religious sister cannot help him in the end. His camera stops functioning. Alfred loses his sense of direction and is unable to see clearly anymore – literally and figuratively. Because of this, however, he does for the first time start to think seriously about what life really means, what truth is, what man’s part in the universe is, who he himself is and what he wants. His conviction that you can achieve anything in life as long as you want it badly enough evaporates completely:

The veil of mystery shrouding life in its entirety lifts momentarily and I know that at all times and in everything I do I am defenceless and powerless, as replaceable as an atom, and that all my resolve, hopes and fears are nothing but manifestations of the mechanism governing the movements of human molecules in the fathomless vapour of cosmic matter.

On the way back, after a gruelling trip, he has become a different person: no longer an untried student, but a grown-up – disillusioned, but also determined to go on, because ...

But then what? What would I have done? Become a flautist after all? How will I ever find out? No-one can start at the same point twice over. If an experiment can't be replicated, it ceases to be an experiment. No-one can experiment with their life. No-one can be blamed for being in the dark.

Pessimistic? Maybe, but I rather like Hermans’s somewhat illusionless but honest vision of life, especially when he manages to convey it in such an interesting way and with the self-deprecating humour he displays in this novel. In Beyond Sleep he has created a marvellous mix of metaphysical musings and physical discomfort, scientific questions and ironic events, tragedy and comedy – it’s just like life itself. A great novel.

[LizzySiddal]

Ah, ah - so that's what all this was about!

Still working on my review - but isn't it funny how I've pulled out the very same extract for quotation. (i.e the first one.)

[nnyhav]

My take was, um, more personal, or idiosyncratic:
Stochastic Bookmark: My own private Zembla

[Beth]

Looking forward to your perspective as well, Lizzy. Three great reviews of one very tempting novel. It must be Valentine's Day!

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by Anna van Gelderen

I know it’s a disgrace that as a Dutchwoman I had never read anything by W.F. Hermans

Don´t Worry Anna, same thing happens to me being Mexican and haven't read Carlos Fuente's The Crystal Frontier, but I'm planning to fix that this year.

Regarding Hermans novel, it sounds really appealing and it goes to my waiting list for sure. Being honest, it's the first time I've heard about this writer.

Do you recommend to start with this novel or should I begin with another one?

[LizzySiddal]

Originally Posted by Daniel del Real

Do you recommend to start with this novel or should I begin with another one?

Now that is a leading question! There's only one other been translated into English - The Darkroom of Damocles, which has its own WLF thread here.

The BIG debate is about which is the greatest novel - Beyond Sleep or The Darkroom .... But you have to read them both to be able to decide that.

If I can work out how to put a poll up on my blog, I'm going to pose the question and see what kind of debate ensues ....

[LizzySiddal]

Originally Posted by Anna van Gelderen

I know it’s a disgrace that as an Dutchwoman I had never read anything by W F Hermans, but I have a degree in English literature and that is where many of my priorities have been for the past 32 years.

We all have our shameful secrets. I'm an English woman and I still haven't read anything by Anthony Trollope, Anne Bronte, Elizabeths Bowen and Taylor, M E Braddon etc, etc. I'll get round to some of them this year.

[Anna van Gelderen]

Do you recommend to start with this novel or should I begin with another one?

Well, Daniel, since this is so far the only W.F. Hermans novel I have read so far, I can't really tell. Beyond Sleep was recommended to me because I like hiking in the wilderness .
I recently purchased The Dark Room of Damocles as well and plan to read it somewhere during the next couple of months. I promise to write a review that includes a comparison with Beyond Sleep.

[A Common Reader]

A brilliant review Anna, persuading me to read the book