Featuring Arnon Grunberg
Very few authors are awarded the same literary prize twice. That Arnon Grunberg managed such a feat, as well as the unique way he went about his success, are both vital in understanding the author’s personality and his role in the cultural life of the Netherlands.
Arnon Yasha Yves (Arnon) Grunberg was born on 22 February 1971 in Amsterdam to a German-Jewish family. His only education was several grades at a renowned grammar school, which he had to leave due to misbehaviour. He then went through a series of jobs, including a stint working for a pharmacy delivery service. He also established his own publishing house, Kasimir, which went bankrupt after having published a few East European authors. By then, he had started to write his own works.
In 1993, at the age of just 23, he published his debut novel, Blue Mondays (Blauwe maandagen). A semi-autobiographical story, it stirred debate and interest among both literary critics and general readers. On one hand, Grunberg was praised as a child genius and held up as a hope for Dutch literature; on the other, he was repudiated for cynicism and vulgarity. Extreme opinions on Grunberg’s work characterize its reception to this day. Some take him for a classic author, others loathe his books. His debut, however, was awarded two literary prizes, including the Anton Wachter Prize for first ficion, and has been translated into many languages. It seems that the young author then began to like the interest of the media and a cheeky, celebrated literary hoax soon followed.
Grunberg’s second novel Silent Extras (Figuranten, 1997) only confirmed his talent. The autobiographical experience recedes, and later it will disappear totally. Instead Grunberg became occupied with the grotesque, which subverts all taboos. In his first novels, these taboos are Jewishness, fundamentalism in faith and prostitution; in later novels he explores psychological theories, pedophilia and terrorism.
Grunberg’s next novel, Phantom Pain (Fantoompijn), was expected to be “yet another Grunberg” – and so the author invented a pseudonym. The next two novels and two essays were published under the name Marek van der Jagt. However, Grunberg still continued to use his own name. It took two years for the public to discover who was actually behind Grunberg’s pseudonym. By that time, “Marek van der Jagt” had also won the Anton Wachter Prize for his debut, causing a scandal when Grunberg’s identity was revealed.
Grunberg is also a journalist and two magazines and a newspaper feature his column. His style remains the same and raises a lot of controversy. His sometimes sensational remarks deal with everything and body from the Dutch Queen to Grunberg’s (former) friends and/or mistresses.
After publishing Silent Extras, Grunberg left Amsterdam for New York City. He has been travelling widely throughout the world, and has even used his experience in a book of travel sketches, Grunberg Around the World (Grunberg rond de wereld). He has since stopped using his home country as a setting for his novels; he has also started calling himself a Dutch-writing German.
His latest tour-de-force dates from June 2003, when he returned to the Netherlands for the launch of his novel, The Asylum Seeker (De asielzoeker). He travelled by boat, accompanied by 70-year-old woman and a goat loosely symbolizing one of the characters in his new book.
Selected Bibliography
Novels:
Blauwe maandagen / Blue Mondays (1994)
Figuranten / Silent Extras (1997)
De heilige Antonio ("Saint Antonio") (1998)
Fantoompijn / Phantom Pain (2000)
De geschiedenis van mijn kaalheid / Story of My Baldness (2000), as Marek van der Jagt
De Mensheid zij geprezen, Lof der Zotheid 2001 ("Praised be Mankind"/"Praise of Folly 2001") (2001)
Gstaad 95-98 (2002), as Marek van der Jagt
De asielzoeker ("The Asylum Seeker") (2003)
De joodse messias / Grote jiddische roman ("The Jewish Messiah") (2004)
Tirza (2006)
Stories:
Amuse-Gueule (2001)
Grunberg rond de wereld ("Grunberg Around the World") (2004)
Essays:
Troost van de slapstick ("The Comfort of Slapstick") (1998)
Monogaam ("Monogamous") (2001), as Marek van der Jagt
Otto Weininger Of bestaat de jood? ("Otto Weininger or Does the Jew Exist?") (2005), as Marek van der Jagt
Filmscript:
Het 14e kippetje ("The Fourteenth Chicken") (1998)
Plays:
You are also very attractive when you are dead (1998)
De Asielzoeker (adapted by Koen Tachelet, 2005)
Arnon Grunberg on the Web:
www.arnongrunberg.com
