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Hugo Claus. De Geruchten. Amsterdam. De Bezige Bij. 1997 ( 1996). 224 pages. ISBN 90-234-3628-8.
Hugo Claus's award-winning novel De Geruchten (Rumors) takes us back to the sixties, when Belgium had to intervene several times in its former African colony. A captain and a few of his soldiers went AWOL, became mercenaries in some nondefined military action in Central Africa, and have now returned to Belgium. One of them, Rene Catrijsse, goes into hiding in Alegem, the small village in Flanders where his family resides. His mother Alma wants to protect him, while his father and brother remain rather indifferent. Rene often goes to the woods, where he meets one of the other soldiers, with whom he has a sexual relationship. They seem to be expecting a lot from their captain and the diamonds he brought with him from Africa.
The sixties and the provincial mentality in general are beautifully characterized in the...