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A review by andrewspink
Ik ga leven by Lale Gül

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I found this book hard going. It doesn't really have a plot, but it is more of a long diatribe. It jumps back and forth in time so that sometimes it is not clear if you are in the present or the past. Points are made by discussions between the characters, but they all sound the same; a group of teenagers swearing and making dirty jokes all of a sudden switch to long articulate paragraphs, for instance. 
An odd aspect of her use of language is that she has invented her own word for parent, 'verwekker' (conceiver). That is ok when it is the narrator/protagonist, but is very odd when it is in speech marks from other characters who would never say that. Once or twice she forgets and uses the normal word ('ouder'). 
There are some internal contradictions. There is no internet in their holiday village, but later we hear that the mother video-phones with her mother there every day. She says they never watched Dutch TV as children, but only a few lines later on says that they watched Dutch cartoons. 
The worst is that it is one long rant. I feel that someone is banging a sledgehammer against my head the whole time. The same points are made time and again. There is little pleasure to be had in the story. 
Ironically, it is a very Dutch story. Typical Dutch literature centres around a miserable childhood caused by a strict religious upbringing. Her experiences could easily be transplanted to Maasluis a few decades ago (and perhaps Staphorst today). The difference is that Maarten 't Hart wrote, beautifully, she doesn't. The coarse language is probably a deliberate style choice, designed to ram her points home with anger, but it doesn't make for fun reading.
It is, of course, a tremendous accomplishment to break free of such a restrictive controlling environment and even more of an accomplishment to write her experiences in a novel like this.