Marcellus Emants (1848–1923)

A Dutch Underground Man, but nowhere near as scathing and psychologically probing as Dostoevsky's finer work. Still, Dutch existentialism has its own nuances, its own rhythms—and Coetzee is a masterful translator here. Many kudos to NYRB for reprinting this, but, in reality it is best read with the real Underground Man in mind—preferably after a long break away from Dostoevsky's text, or as a prefatory primer for virgin readers to the true Underground Man.

Despite all of his singular and cultural differences, which do make for interesting reading, Emants's narrator, Termeer, is a mere lackey to Dostoevsky's Underground Man, not to mention the Russian writer's more masterful—and even more terse—explorations of alienation, misanthropy, and utter annihilation combined with a psychological insight that makes Emants's work, while groundbreaking in its way, read like charcoal sketches held up beside a dizzyingly taut masterpiece.… (más)