My husband and I had a little argument about this book. He insists that I had a conversation about it with his father once, regarding that the book, so steeped in Dutch history and culture, was written by an American in the 1800’s. I don’t remember any of that, and most of the story felt completely new to me- is this another thing I have simply forgotten, or was it someone else who had that discussion with my father-in-law? Regardless, it was a very good read, I stuck with it even though some parts were a bit tedious (the histories). Apparently it is so accurate in describing the country, that one reader (who authored the forward in my edition) when visiting Holland for the first time as an adult, felt surprised at how familiar things were. She’d never been there before, but the traditions and sights had been so well described in this novel (which she loved as a child) that she recognized it.
Well. The story has two main parts. One is about two poor children, Hans and Gretel, whose mother struggles to make a living while their father is incapacitated from a head injury he sustained at work on the dikes a decade ago. He’s not been in his right mind since, and they worry about him constantly. Hans hopes he can convince a famous doctor to come treat his father, even though they have no money to pay for the services. Another main thread of the story is about a grand race among all the local children; the prize will be a set of new silver ice skates. Hans and his sister long to participate, even though they don’t have good skates to race on- theirs are awkward, slow hand-made wooden skates. I thought the book would be mostly about these two narratives, but actually a great part of it is about a group of older boys who go on a trip together, skating from Broek to the Hague (fifty miles) and back. One of the group is a boy visiting from England, so the locals are eager to show him all the sights and explain things. This was a great way for the author to share a ton of Dutch history and culture, and it mostly didn’t feel forced, though sometimes I got a bit tired of it. It amused and impressed me how proud these boys were of their country, excited to tell tales of heroes and deeds from the past, to show off paintings and treasures in the museums. There’s a lot of joking and teasing among they boys, directed a lot at the English visitor, and also at another boy who is heavier that the others (the frank way they address this would not be acceptable today). There is also in other parts of the story, mocking and sneering at Hans and his sister for being poor, but this is shown up by other children and adults who are kind and considerate instead. And the poor family has their own sense of pride, refusing to accept any kind of charity, only wanting what they have honestly earned. Also woven into the story is a bit of mystery- some missing money the poor family desperately needs, but their father can no longer tell what happened to it, because of his memory loss. And more- about some old wrongs, the doctor’s son who left town long ago and was never heard from again, a watch that is in Han’s mother’s safekeeping but she doesn’t know why . . .
All round it was very interesting, far more complex than I had expected. Well-written and lively dialog, even though sometimes I puzzled over the meaning of what people said. Not only because of archaic words and usage. I asked my husband about some of the terms and phrases, and even he couldn’t explain them so I had to go look things up further- because the words had fallen out of common use long ago. But for all that, mostly of it is still very accessible and easy to relate to, which is what makes this a classic of course. A great show of human character, good nature winning out over all. The honest and hard-working getting their due reward in the very end. (And here, too, is the origin of that legend about the boy who stuck his finger in a dyke to stop a leak- this author made it up!) I did really enjoy the scenes of skating, and the scene of this race was much better IMHO than the roller skating event in Skating with the Statue of Liberty (which it reminded me of). I was so intrigued with the description of sailboats built to glide across the ice, and sleds being pulled along dry streets (with oiled runners) as a matter-of-course, and how everyone used the canals and other frozen waterways as regular conveyance, it wasn’t just children out there playing.
I asked my husband about some of this (he’s from Holland). He remembers ice skating on a large body of water when he was a kid, you could just go miles and miles. He tells me it’s not like that anymore, the ice doesn’t freeze solid and thick enough now. That his generation is probably the last that will have actually skated on open ice for such distance in Holland. And he’s never seen an ice boat with sails, though heard of them. Wouldn’t I love to see that someday (if they’re still around). Just for fun, I looked at the route from Broek to the Hague, on google maps. It tells me that distance is 58 minutes by car or 16 hours on foot (walking). It doesn’t give an option for skating, or navigating waterways. In the story the boys covered that distance in two days, but they did make many stops along the way, in hotels and people’s homes and hours spent in museums and such. They had quite a few adventures along the way -including foiling a robbery- but I still liked the quieter parts of the story about Hans and his family, better.
Borrowed from the public library.
