Former writer
In Ex-writer the writer is apparently no longer a writer, and his other lives are no longer the same either. He still smokes, drinks, and stares into space at times, and his loneliness is made worse by strange people, including the dream air hostess, the biographer and his sister, the Seagull, a poet, a certain Olympia, a former lover on a world tour, a new girl with an exotic name and a few others. He mumbles, and muses, yes that too. He is in danger of losing his fear. He finds a job in the film world. But first he seeks out the night for a while, and then, as always, he thinks laboriously and deeply. About life as a crime, death as punishment, and the vice versa of existence. Once again his threatening conclusion must be: the world does not stand still, except perhaps mine. However, this is doubted, and that is what this novel, the first part of a trilogy, is about.
Ex-schrijver is the twelfth book by Herman Brusselmans (1957) and it lifts him to the absolute top of Dutch-language literature, in my opinion. In addition to the twelve books, Brusselmans (photo) also wrote this text. He lives and works in Ghent, where he resides.