Erwin Mortier

The prose, novellas and novels, of Erwin Mortier are steadily developing to an ever refining style. Mortier does not choose easy subjects. Instead, he is always looking for better telling the story of his family, a deeply rooted story of a dark past during the Great War. This story and Mortier's developing style ties him directly to the great Flemish authors of the past such as Louis Paul Boon and Hugo Claus. However, quite a number of Mortier's novels, including Godenslaap and Marcel are more evocative, while relatively weak on plot. Like wise, this new novella, De onbevlekte, a work closely related to Mortier's debut novel Marcel hardly has a plot. It is therefore a somewhat dark and brooding tale, which does however present the reader with very beautiful prose describing nature and life in Flanders of the first half of the 20th century.… (mais)

Voor de stad en de wereld. De gedichten tot dusver is a collection of poetry by the Flemish author Erwin Mortier. In Dutch language "tot dusver" equals "collected". This usually means a combined edition of several volumes of poetry supplemented with uncollected and perhaps some new poems. While this hold true for this book by Mortier, nonetheless, this collection is very slim.

In Voor de stad en de wereld. De gedichten tot dusver Mortier's poetry of just six years is collected. During these six years just two slim volumes of poetry were published, nl Vergeten licht, which appears last in this collection, and Uit één vinger valt men niet. Gedichten bij foto's van Lieve Blancquaert. For this volume, the poems are reprinted but not the photos. These poems also appear toward the end of the book.

This collection contains two other slim volumes, which have apparently not been separately published, although one of them has appeared as texts with a theatre performance.

The language and stucture of the latest works, appearing first in this collection is very hard to follow, while the later work, previously published in 2000 and 2005 respectively is more accessible.… (mais)

Mijn tweede huid is the second novel of Erwin Mortier. Like his first, very short novel, or novella, Marcel, and several of his subsequent novels, Mijn tweede huid is about his youth and his family. It is a coming of age novel, but the sentiment is very suppressed and understated. Like with some of Mortier's other works, it seems as if his focus is on life in the village in that era, or, as in some of his other books, on the mother, or on the family. Although homosexuality is a motive in the novel, it is not the maoin focus, and is subdued. It is almost as if Mortier is trying to avoid writing about sexuality. By putting the focus on traditional life in Belgium, village life, family life, or particular family members, notably the mother, his work falls into a clear Belgian style of writing, closely related to the work of Eric de Kuyper.

It seems as if Erwin Mortier remains shy to give homosexuality a more central place in his work. Mortier could easily be like the French author Philippe Besson, as is shown by Morrier's novel De spiegelingen.

Many of Erwin Mortier's works have been translated into English.… (mais)

In Gestameld liedboek. Moedergetijden the Belgian writer Erwin Mortier has written a loving portrait of his mother's final years of aging and suffering from Alzheimer and dementia. Almost all of Mortier's early work is devoted to writing about his childhood and the early years of family life. Although this is not what interests me so much, Mortier's exquisite style of writing makes these books wonderfully poetic. Morier has a fine eye for the natural world and longingly writes about past times, traditions and a lifestyle that has all but passed.… (mais)