Lucas Rijneveld, formerly known as Marieke Rijneveld, was born thirty-two years ago as a woman. In the past, however, he stopped identifying himself as such, and two years ago he switched to the male gender from the original oniking, which is usually used by people of undetermined gender. So much for explaining why the heroine of the autobiographical prose is a fourteen-year-old girl who remains anonymous.
The Czech audience is already familiar with his literary debut S večerem łajte sięne, for which he won the prestigious international Man Booker Prize in 2020. In prose, he describes a difficult childhood in an orthodox Protestant family marked by the loss of a sibling. A secondary character is a veterinarian who regularly visits the farm where the author, who was still the author at the time, grew up.
That vet gets the main word in the book You, My Beautiful Pet. He becomes the narrator of their secret love affair, using the second person singular when the addressee is the unnamed Marieke. She is a pure Nabokov nymph. In some ways childish, in other ways a fully aware adolescent with an uncomfortably sharp judgment.
REVIEW: Disappear under the ice without giving hope
Christmas
Against the more moderate and clear first work, Rijneveld fully indulges in uncontrolled writing in the second effort. He violently spews long sentences at the reader, which seem to copy the rapid, almost unstoppable process of the veterinarian’s brain. The musings keep pouring in without being too overwhelming except for a few more obscure chapters.
The thought processes of the protagonist, maneuvering between a pervert and a victim of illicit tenderness, represent a thoroughly accessible and reliable reflection of the soul. They mix sexual obsession with a forbidden object of passion, feelings of falling in love in a collision with rising guilt or inscrutable references to contemporary pop culture, especially the grunge band Nirvana.
A comparison is offered with Lolita, who opened up the topic of the forbidden relationship of age-distant lovers seven decades ago. In contrast to the similar novella Svolení z pena Vanessa Springoraová, which clearly condemns it with its concept, in Rijneveld’s work we once again embody the predator himself.
With his gaze, laced with both magical and offensive language, sinful acts cannot be unanimously condemned. Because it seizes our deep feelings, in which evil and good receive an equally defined place. It is precisely in this aspect that the undeniably strong tone of the novel lies.
| Lucas Rijneveld: You my wonderful pet |
|---|
| Argo, translated by Veronika ter Harmsel Havlíková, 272 pages, 388 CZK |
| Rating: 80% |
REVIEW: Manazuru’s novel exudes Japanese emotional coldness
Books
REVIEW: I’ll be there for you. Thriller author Michael Robotham is incorrigible
Books
