More about me. You never met me?
This is not my first novel and will not be my last. Yes I like writing. Especially I liked writing Weinkrampf! I hate books like Ulysses from, you know who it’s from. James whatever…. O.k. Joyce. Offcourse he’s a great writer. But in his later works he seemed to play with the patience of his readers. That’s what I disgard very strongly. I also play with you, my dear reader, but at least you can understand what I write. Understanding a writer is a very high good. Beware of the riddle-writers in this world. They not only write riddles, they turn you from a reader into a puzzler with their words of mystery. See Finnegans wake, and you have the ulti-ultimate example of riddle-writing. You can’t read these books, you can only wonder why it was ever written.

More about my book at: About books

Therefor an short introduction of the novel Weinkrampf!
First we tell something about the cover and after that we tell something about the central figures in the novel.
At last but not least we introduce the writer of the novel Weinkrampf!

You can read more about Weinkrampf! at About-books.

The saying: “You can’t judge a book by its cover”, is maybe true for the most novels but not for Weinkrampf! To put it more strongly: the cover of the novel Weinkrampf!, whether one likes books or not, is an almost perfect reflection of the content. And thats what’s important for the book and it’s cover. One must have a good idea, by looking at it, what the novel is all about. In one way, the way of the eyes, the title is suddenly less important, and also the name of the author. A good cover attaches the attention of a potential buyer of the book. You can even say that this is maybe the most important thing in the decission making process of a potential reader: the attraction of the cover. Without this attraction the book is probably not being sold all.
But when one opens the book it’s suddenly all about the quality of the written prose, but that’s of later concern.
First we take a closer look at the cover of Weinkrampf!, designed by dutch graphic artist Klaas Hiddinga. It’s a perfect way of introducing some of the more important characters of the novel.
Of course we also tell you in due time more about the writer of the novel and the choosen title: the german-sounding Weinkrampf!

You can read more about Weinkrampf! at About-books.

A novel has a cover. More often one sees only the title on it and of course the name of the writer. On the cover of Weinkrampf! you can see an artistic reproduction of the content.

For instance In the rubber dinghy of Survival.org, at the bottom of the cover, you can see the headcharacters of the story: people with a jewish background paddling through some dangerous whirlpools in the river they are navigating on there survival-journey.

It’s saying something about the novel. But the other persons on the cover along side the river are of maybe more importance for the story: they are the leading characters who are discussed in the dialogues. (Next to writing down of the atmosphere Weinkrampf! consists for a great deal of dialogues, so that the story sometimes looks like a cutting edge written play).

Who are those leading characters repeatedly returning in the conversations of the persons on board ot he big rubber dinghy.

First and foremost there is queen Beatrix. An important part of the conversations is about the House of Orange, the Dutch royal family, whit head of the state Beatrix as the most important representative. She symbolizes the rest of the in the story criticaly discussed family. Namely her three sons, her mother and husband: Claus von Ambsberg. And she also symbolizes for the newest gain in the Dutch royal family: Maxima Zorreguita. Daughter of a member of the Argentine junta.

More about the Dutch royal family in the novel Weinkrampf! in About-books.

Pim Fortuyn

Another leading character in the novel Weinkrampf! is the in may 2002 murdered Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. Just like queen Beatrix he can be seen as a central character in the novel. On the cover he is portrait in a characteristic pose: smoking a little cigar in a stately costume.

Sometimes the emotions in the boat run very high when the person of Pim Fortuyn is being discussed. No occupant who doesn’t have a opinion about him. Especially the manner he was killed ensures the conversation. On more then one occasion the company in the dinghy of Survival.org threatens to collapse arguing, but everytime it’s the guide who manage to keep the case together and is leading the occupants to the springs of evil, where the mysterious river originates, somewhere in the hearth of an obscure kind of Europe. Maybe not a real existing place, but occurring as fiction in the heads of the participants. Who knows.

On the covert, standing under Pim Fortuyn, we can see the figure of the murdered moviemaker Theo van Gogh. Also his life was abruptly ended by a crazy fanatic. Just like the murder on Pim Fortuyn an event that draw deep tracks in the Dutch society. By the conversations in the boot about this the religion of the Islam plays an important role. No one of the particpants on the boat trip can have any sympathy for this: You do’t kill a defenseless
artist for the sake of any religion, and certainly not to reserve for yourself a place in heaven. It must be the most backward motif for a religious person one can imagine.

There’s also a spot on the cover for the deceased, after a short but turbulent life, folk singer Andre Hazes. Just like the depicted Herman Brood, rocker in eternal rest, symbol for the tabloids culture in Holland. The content of tabloid magazines like the Story and the Prive are feeding the discussions in Weinkrampf! about the Dutch artists, but also about the before mentioned royal house with the pre-eminently exponent of glamor, glitter and gossip: princess Maxima.

See more about Weinkrampf! in About-books.

Peter Schlemihl

Dear reader,

First let me introduce myself. My name is Peter Schlemihl. I’m born in Amsterdam on the 12th of July 1964.
After finishing my study pschology at the Free University of Amsterdam I’ve worked as a free established psychotherapist. During the evenings I’ve also studied history on the university of Amsterdam, whereby I went deeply into the study of the second worldwar with a special interest in Adolf Hitler, the major instigator of this war.
I realy have red nearly everything about this macabre man: biographies, war books, diaries, historical memoirs, psychological and medical works, and of course Mein Kampf, the political testament of Adolf Hitler. From this interest I wrote Weinkrampf!. A story that grew more and more into a treatise about the Netherlands in the new centuy, about the murder on Pim Fortuyn and the killing of Theo van Gogh, about Dutch royalty and tabloids.
A story so to say about a country adrift, commented by a select company of jewish people, who on a big rubber dinghy during a journey, organized by Survival.org, dwell on past, present and future. All this against the background of Hitlers book Mein Kampf, which as a blood-red guidance wraps around the story.
Meet a book which is called, by a leading Dutch critic: ‘The ultimate madness on paper’.

Signed,

Peter Schlemihl

The writer Peter Schlemihl, leads as an hermaphrodite guide serving Travel Association ´Diaspora´ a particolored company over a mysterious river.
The voyage upstream to the spring of ´Evil´ is not without danger and appears metaphorically to stand for a journey through ´Mein Kampf´. Hitlers novel is being crossed from the end to the beginning.
This appocaliptic journey is ending in this first part of ´Weinkrampf!´, where the second part of Mein Kampf is starting. This, literal, ´roman fleuve´ has besides moments of a weighty nature also the necessary episodes in which humor predominates.
How, as ´jews´ to deal with matters like the Holocaust, Israel, de ´jewish identity´, the multicultural society, the Royal house of the Netherlands?
Through the ego-events of Peter Schlemihl the reader of the novel is being kept in mind the dangers of populism and ‘divine election thoughts’ of being the best. Therefore one might ask himself if the laughter of the reader shall perish towards the end of story.

More about Weinkrampf! in About-books.