De Wetten
Connie Palmen
193 pages
published in 1991

I got De Wetten (which translates as The Laws) out of the library out of curiosity, because i'd resolved to become more knowledgeable about Dutch literature. I'm glad I did so.

De Wetten was Connie Palmen's debut novel and was an overnight succes, comparable in scale to the success ofd Donna Tartt's The Secret History. The edition I read was the 24th printing, which came out in 1994 or only three years after first publication. There are far too many writers who would be pleased if their books would even get a second printing. It's rare that the first novel of an previously unknown writer becomes an immediate succes, even rarer that it becomes such a huge succes. Having now read the novel I can understand why it became such a huge succes though.

De Wetten is a well written, easy reading book about one of the great literairy themes: the meaning of life. It revolves around the questions we all struggle with: how to be happy, is my life significant, are there rules to be followed to be happy, that sort of questions. Beyond this, this is also a book about writing itself and a book about the writer herself.

For one thing, De Wetten is written in first person singular, which always lessens the distance between the writer and the reader, for another the protagonist and her writer have a lot in common. Both were young, intelligent women interested in philosophy, intending to become a writer. It's natural to wonder if perhaps this novel is a little bit more autobiographical then Connie Palmen had intended

The plot of De Wetten revolves around the main character's relationships with seven men who each in their own way have found or created the Laws of Life: the astrologer, the epilectic, the philosopher, the priest, the scientist, the artist and the psychiatrist. She tries to find the meaning of her life in each of their theories. With each of them she ultimately fails; she has to create her own rules.

It's hard to put into English what's so good about this novel. From the above you may get the mistaken impression this would be a pompous and difficult book about abstract philosopy, which is far from the truth. If anything, it's an exhubirant book, a book that manages to infect you with its own ethusiasm. Connie Palmen is the first writer to even make me curious about philosophy, to make me want to read Derrira or Foucault. De Wetten is a wonderful book and has been translated into English, so there's no excuse for not reading it.