First and foremost are the complex depictions of Louis and his parents. What makes this novel, however, is the detailed portraits of the various hypocritical Belgians – from the aunt who seduces the young Louis to the grandfather who lives with and sleeps with his wife but won’t talk to her, from the nuns at the school who mock rather than teach to Rock, the priest, who is completely lost as a priest. Staf nearly pays the price for his involvement with his life and only gets off because of the intervention and efforts of Constance, his strong-willed though somewhat flaky wife. Staf, Louis’ father, is associated with various Flemish pro-German groups while Louis joins the Flemish equivalent of the Hitler Youth. The Seynaeves are Flemish nationalists and, therefore, pro-German and anti-French and anti-English.
However, though the war is hovering in the background, it seems to be more a mild annoyance than a serious disruption to their lives, till almost the very end. Of course, this book is set primarily during the war, when Belgium was occupied by the Germans. During the course of the book Louis discovers sex, the hypocrisy of adults (particularly but by no means exclusively his parents) and the role of convention in a closed society. Louis attends a Catholic school, where he and his close friends have a secret society called the Apostles whose main activities seem to be reading forbidden books.
We see things mainly through the eyes of the teenage son, Louis. It focuses on one village and one family in particular in that village – the Seynaeves. Its aim is fairly clear – to show the hypocrisy and pettiness of the Flemish Belgians during this period, not in a satirical or bitter way (though both aspects have their role to play) but in a relatively straightforward, almost sympathetic manner. This long novel is set in Belgium from shortly before the beginning of World War II to shortly after its end. Home » Belgium » Hugo Claus » Het verdriet van België (The Sorrow of Belgium) Hugo Claus: Het verdriet van België (The Sorrow of Belgium)
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