{"id":2362,"date":"2016-02-25T13:35:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T12:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=2362"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:01:04","slug":"fuenf-viertelstunden-bis-zum-meer-ernest-van-der-kwast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2016\/02\/fuenf-viertelstunden-bis-zum-meer-ernest-van-der-kwast\/","title":{"rendered":"F\u00fcnf Viertelstunden bis zum Meer \u2022 Ernest van der Kwast"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

For a long time, I paid little attention to thin books. Only after a few novellas managed to convince me did I begin to embrace shorter stories, and by now, I truly appreciate the pleasure of being captivated for just a few pages. This form was perfected by Maupassant<\/a>, who, with his novellas<\/a>, entered the realm of world literature. I hesitated for a while before picking up Five Quarter Hours to the Sea<\/em>, but after stumbling upon it repeatedly, I finally decided to get it. Simply because I love love stories. And because I have never once been disappointed by literature from the mare publishing house.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a time before the bikini, three months after the end of the war, Ezio falls in love with the beautiful Giovanna, whom he meets for the first time with his brother on a typically Italian beach. She wears a midriff-baring two-piece that reveals her lovely navel and completely turns the brothers\u2019 heads. A love story unfolds that gradually reveals itself to the reader. Ernest van der Kwast does something that only works truly well in books: he jumps freely between different time levels\u2014between youthful experiences, the reflections of old age, and the many in-between moments of a human life. Always with a focus on feelings, on the emotions of the two main characters, and with a side glance at the beauty of Italy and its unique atmosphere. The typically Italian flair, which I have never consciously sought out in literature, keeps finding me nonetheless. And I must say, I really enjoy dreaming of the beautiful landscapes, the sea, the beaches, and the sun, which in books have a charm all their own. That\u2019s also the case in this short book\u2014within just a few words, it conjures up sunny days by the sea, with their very own mood.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Five<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I really liked both the pace and the style. The book is pleasant to read, never gets boring, and its events unfold gradually and linearly throughout. I enjoyed some of the metaphors, and the first encounter between Ezio and Giovanna is told with both sensitivity and humor. Certain words, certain thoughts come at just the right moment, and thus resonate beautifully.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“At the age of twenty-three, he had closed a door behind him and never wanted to think about the room beyond again. But what he left behind there was larger than the room itself\u2014it seeped through the cracks, through the keyhole, gladly carried by the wind over the silver-green seas of olive groves and vineyards, swept away by a swarm of bees, and comfortably transported on the back of a train between Carpi and Mantua.” (p. 19)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What kind of story can unfold across just 96 pages? In my view, a very lovely love story that did captivate me, though it didn\u2019t completely sweep me away. The course of life it depicts is sad, but neither extraordinary nor deeply moving\u2014although the lovers\u2019 fate did touch me somewhat. Ernest van der Kwast explains quite beautifully at one point what the central theme of the story is:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Ezio, however, did not yet understand the film playing inside him. The image was blurred. The film was about time, and about a vague sense of what melancholy might be.” (p. 24)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are books where the protagonists simply can\u2019t get moving. I call them can\u2019t-get-going books, because the characters just can\u2019t seem to get their act together. The king of the can\u2019t-get-going type has so far been Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Moreau from Sentimental Education<\/em> by Gustave Flaubert. But Ezio certainly ranks high in that league. I\u2019m someone who is anything but phlegmatic in the face of fate, and when someone falls in love, well, you\u2019ve got to go for it\u2014and only give up once you truly believe you\u2019ve done everything you could. \u201cEverything,\u201d in this case, is precisely as much as it\u2019s worth to you, and in the end, you shouldn\u2019t resign yourself but rather respect your own struggle for happiness, even if it didn\u2019t work out. And most of the time, it doesn\u2019t\u2014especially when you\u2019re as young as Ezio. But he doesn\u2019t seem to be the most determined or quick type, and because of this difference in temperament, he wasn\u2019t entirely sympathetic to me. Perhaps that was exactly the author\u2019s intention\u2014to create such a character. But my empathy reached its limits with these traits.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> Five Quarter Hours to the Sea<\/em> is a short love story that managed to draw me in but didn\u2019t completely thrill me. Ideal for a beach chair, this short tale of just 96 pages reads quickly, entertains well, and\u2014with its fluid style, time shifts, and sensitive look at its protagonists\u2014makes for a pleasant read. However, the way the two lovers act, their decisions, and their fates didn\u2019t fully convince me. What stands out instead is the atmosphere of the Italian sun and sea that van der Kwast evokes so vividly with few words. The book thus offers a pleasant kind of distraction\u2014perfect for a sunny day by the sea.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> F\u00fcnf Viertelstunden bis zum Meer \u2022 Ernest van der Kwast \u2022 mare Verlag \u2022 96 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783866482050<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a long time, I paid little attention to thin books. Only after a few novellas managed to convince me did I begin to embrace shorter stories, and by now, I truly appreciate the pleasure of being captivated for just a few pages. This form was perfected by Maupassant, who, with his novellas, entered the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “F\u00fcnf Viertelstunden bis zum Meer \u2022 Ernest van der Kwast”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"F\u00fcnf Viertelstunden bis zum Meer \u2022 Ernest van der Kwast - lesestunden","description":"Lange Zeit habe ich d\u00fcnne B\u00fccher wenig Beachtung geschenkt. Erst nachdem mich einige Novellen \u00fcberzeugen konnten, habe ich mich immer wieder der kurz gefassten"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-2362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-ernest-van-der-kwast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/fuenf_viertelstungen_bis_zum_meer_beitrag_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}