Book Review: "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden

“She was not wanted. That was the long and the short of it: she had learned want, briefly and hungrily. A span of a day, two days. She had learned the shape of it, the quick taste of it. She had reached out, foolishly, and she was not wanted in return.”

- "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden

Okay, so I have gone and read another popular read. I was not actually going to read this one because it did not simply seem up to my tastes but I have been reading a lot of fiction set in or slightly after the Second World War era lately. This book by Yael van der Wouden was supposed to be a quick one for me and hopefully, I would get it done in a day or so. Instead, I ended up dragging it on for almost four days and that's because the book's story is not nearly as interesting as the writing style within. I don't really know how to put it into words but the writing is beautiful, yet the story is a bit bland. There's simply too much fluff there and yet, I somewhat enjoyed reading it. Beautiful writing can really make a book more interesting to read.

The novel is set in the rural Dutch province of Overijssel during the summer of 1961, a time of peace after the turmoil of WWII. The region, though quiet and seemingly recovered, retains traces of its wartime past, such as bomb craters now filled and buildings reconstructed. There is an essence of rebuilding that is everywhere in this book which kind of juxtaposes the destruction and paranoia that we will see later. Clever and well-written? Yes. Obvious? Also yes. I have to say though, the descriptive writing in the setting was something to be admired when it did happen.

Whilst Isabel lives a routine-based life alone, she is visited by her brother Louis and his new and destructive, impulsive girlfriend who seeks to turn her life upside-down. Isabel is almost like this Jane Eyre kind of figure but in no way is Louis' girlfriend Bertha Mason. I have to say that though this felt like it should have been set in the 1960s, the characters felt almost Victorian at times and it took away from that modern feel. Be that as it may, I did like how the two characters were contrasted to give the reader a taste of what differences there were between women of the era. Not everyone was Sharon Tate or Twiggy, some women were actually normal people as well.

Isabel’s fixation on order is extreme. She is meticulous about her home’s possessions, constantly checking and cataloging them to ensure nothing has been disturbed. When Eva arrives, her disruptive presence throws Isabel into a fury, which soon develops into an obsession. This becomes part of the high tension of the novel. It builds like a slow-burning anger throughout the base of the text which adds something to it, but also takes away. I feel like it simply may have gone on for too long. Kind of like one of those long Stephen King novels where the slow-burn keeps happening and everything that was meant to happen unfolds in the final 100 pages. It's not bad, but it makes the story pretty boring because there's only so much repetition of things disappearing and high tension whining from the main character that a reader can take. I get it, but I don't know how I feel about it.

Objects in the house begin to disappear—items like a spoon, a knife, and a bowl go missing. These disappearances push Isabel into paranoia. She believes Eva is intentionally disrupting her world, feeding her growing suspicion and mistrust. This is probably the more interesting part of the book in some cases. The question of whether things are going missing or whether Isabel is actually just mistrusting Eva (Louis' girlfriend) so much that she convinces herself that Eva must be taking them. The writing is also good here, it keeps the reader plunging into Isabel's world. But again, I will say it gets rather repetitive. It's good, but it's not perfect - not a lot of books are perfect.

The ending is a revelation yes, but it is also one that if the reader is paying attention, they can kind of see coming from a mile away - so it is not much of a revelation. To conclude, I will say again that though this book had some great examples of descriptive, atmospheric and high tension writing, it simply fell a little bit flat in the department of being a book with a very strong storyline.