harry mulisch

harry mulisch died last night.
it seems to be the year of the passing of some of my personal heroes.
it started with j.d. salinger whom i obsessively - i know, it's so cliché - read in my youth. some months later theatre director and social critic christoph schlingensief died way to young. last night it was mulisch's term. he was not too young, he was 83. but like schlingensief he died of cancer.
harry mulisch's novel de ontdekking van de hemel / the discovery of heaven was the first book i read in dutch. a few times i doubted if i would have the strength to finish it. but i did and i actually enjoyed the struggle. harry mulisch was an elitist. he expected his readers to be able to read latin, french, english, german and obviously dutch. but his use of the dutch language made it totally worth to overlook this - in my opinion - character flaw. i don't think i would have been able to learn to appreciate and love the dutch language had it not been for him.