Friday, July 11: Bandersnatches
AMSTERDAM COPS, KYOTO DICKS, SEALS AND PORCUPINES
by Steve Steinbock
Janwillem van de Wetering passed away one week ago, today, on the fourth of July. I was saddened not only because Janwillem was a nice guy and a good writer, but also because he owed me a lunch.
For those unfamiliar with van de Wetering, he was the author of fourteen police procedurals about an unlikely pair of Dutch cops, Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier. Grijpstra and de Gier appeared in a number of short stories (which appeared in EQMM and AHMM). Van de Wetering also wrote a series of short stories featuring Kyoto’s Saito Masanobu, a sort of Zen Dirty Harry.
Born in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1931, van de Wetering skipped out of the country as a young man to avoid military service. As a motorcycle bum, he rode through several continents. He lived in a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan where by accident he discovered the mystery novels of Robert van Gulik. Eventually he found himself back in Holland, doing his national service as a cop. In the 1970s he moved to Maine. Quite a life.
I first came in contact with van de Wetering in the mid-1990s when I began reviewing his books for the Portland Press Herald. Somewhere in the earlier annals of Bandersnatches I’m pretty sure I’ve told how van de Wetering’s quirky writing is an acquired taste. But here’s a recap:
Reading my first “Grijpstra and de Gier” novel left me scratching my head. Who were these odd-ball cops with unpronounceable names and why are they playing jazz in the commisaris‘ office? The second novel had me still scratching my head, as well as chuckling unaccountably and feeling existentially happy. By then I was hooked.
In 1997 I drove up the Maine coast to the town of Surry, along with my pal Dikkon Eberhart (son of poet Richard Eberhart and himself a novelist) to meet with van de Wetering and interview him for the British magazine CrimeTime. (Sorry, the interview doesn’t appear to be available on their website). I met his lovely wife, Juanita, his cute poodle-terrier Tootje, and his amazing studio, nestled beside his home on a hillside overlooking one of the many Atlantic bays that mark the Down East region of Maine.
The studio was decorated with plastic dinosaurs, antique rifles, and if I remember, one wall had a shrine to his three deities: the Buddha, Miles Davis, and large-breasted women.
Here are a few interesting info-bits about Janwillem van de Wetering:
- His middle name is Lincoln, named for the sixteenth American president. Compare that name to the name of our resident Scribbler: they’re both J. Lincoln W.
Van de Wetering wrote three children’s novels about an existential porcupine named Hugh Pine.- Van de Wetering told me that he knew his wife in a previous life, when the two were students together in a nineteenth century Eastern European yeshiva. (He explained that in that incarnation, they were both male and both Jewish).
- In 1985, van de Wetering quit drinking and found that he could no longer write. It took him seven years to re-learn the art.
- He never met his countryman, Robert van Gulik, author of the Judge Dee mysteries. He fantasized a meeting in his one-act play, “Judge Dee Plays his Lute.”
The interview was quite fun and memorable. He was entertaining, paradoxical, iconoclastic, and extremely hospitable. Over the years I saw him several more time. But in that first meeting he told me several prescient things. “In my family,” he said, “men don’t get all that old, 73 is the average age and I’m 67 now.” And he told me of his admiration for George Carlin, whom he saw as a “kindred spirit.” Van de Wetering’s death followed Carlin’s by twelve days.
Goede reis, vriendin!
Fascinating story. It’s a pity we all live so far apart, else I’d suggest we share libraries.
Hmm. Did James deliberately plan each corner of the continental US be anchored by a CBer?
Requiescat in pace, J(anwillem) L(incoln van der) W(etering). I am flattered to share initials and a middle name with such an important and gifted author. He will be greatly missed.
Did James deliberately plan each corner of the continental US be anchored by a CBer?
Not exactly, but I did take our locations into account—I very much wanted the mix of contributors to be as representative of the U.S. as possible, and in fact at one time was looking for a British correspondent as well. But the importance of displaying as broad a spectrum as possible between seven people was why the original mix was four men and three women.
When Angela left, I originally sought to replace her with a woman on the East Coast, preferably in New York, but once I thought of the inimitable John Floyd, put that notion to rest. I was afraid John would say no, he was too busy, and we’re all very fortunate that he said yes instead.
I confess, however, to cheating a little when it came to inviting Melodie, who like me, resides in Southern California. I justified that one on the grounds that I’m a liberal Democrat and she’s a conservative libertarian. All right, I admit it, that was just an excuse. I invited her because I love her writing. (As I admire all the CBers.)
I’ve actually lived on all four corners of the US. I started out in the Pacific NW, then (after a year overseas) I moved south to California for four years. From there I moved to Virginia (not exactly on the SE corner, but the southern part of mid-Atlantic), and for the past seventeen years in Maine.
I like to think that James picked me for my magnetic personality.
I haven’t been around as much as van de Wetering. When I said he had biked all over, I wasn’t exaggerating. He spent time in Africa, Japan, South America, and God-knows where else.
Anyone else out there read van de Wetering? I’d like to hear other people’s experiences. I really did find his writing difficult and weird at first. But by the time I’d read three books, I was hooked.
I stumbled on two of his collections years ago and have bummed my way through them. Talk about a writer using life experiences! He did!