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| Wednesday, 11 August 2004 |
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Springer's 'Kandy' - a journey back to a first love by Carl Muller Born in Batavia (Jakarta), Carel Jan Schneider - who publishes under the name of F. Springer - was interned in Japanese prison camps during World War II. In 1946, he returned with his parents to Holland, where he studied law. He then served as District Officer in the former Dutch New Guinea. Springer published his first book, "Berecht uit Hollandia" (News from Hollandia) in 1962, then entered the diplomatic service. He had postings in many countries including the USA, Thailand, Bangladesh and Iran, and was the Netherlands ambassador to Angola and the former GDR. When he retired in 1989, he had written his eleventh book - "Kandy" - and, in the Hague where he now lives - also wrote "Verzameld Werk" in 2001 and "Allemaal Gelogen" in 2002. His early books did not raise the universal appeal he richly deserved. He gave us "Schimmen rond de Perula" (Spirits around the Parula) in 1966; "De Gladde Paal van Macht" in 1969; "Tabee, New York" (So Long, New York) in 1974 and "Zaken Overzee" (Overseas Affairs) in 1977. It was with the publication of his first novel, "Bougainville" in 1981 that he claimed a world audience that he so richly deserved. Today, his novels and stories have a unique place in the Dutch literary tradition of ironic realism. His characters are stationed in far-flung outposts of the world, or go there to combat their restlessness and rather vague feelings of longing. At times, and as seen in his early work, they re slick operators, tuning any wheel possible to get to where they want; but in his later books, they are dreamers and creatures of destiny. Personal experiences play a large part in "Bougainville" and in his 1985 work "Quissama" (Angola); "Sterremeer" in 1990; "Teheran: Een Zwarenzange" (Teheran: a Swansong) in 1991; and "Bandoeng-Bandung" in 1993. He tells of the former Dutch East Indies and of his experiences is Japanese internment camps. But it is in "Kandy" that one sees how well be sets his books, capturing and conveying local colour vividly, yet with a cool, ironic humanity. Always, his main characters are intelligent, but plagued with self-doubt. Their intentions may be honourable, but their well-meaning cautiousness leads them to hopeless entanglements in situations that are as awkward as they are funny. Springer does not garnish his work. Indeed, he is a master of understatement. Haunting tale In "Kandy" we have a retired Dutchman, Fergus Steyn, who was repatriated from the Dutch East Indies when he was just 14. The fascination of this book is that it is not set in Kandy at all! In Springer's haunting tale, Kandy is a revivification of teenage memories in dusty old diaries. When back in Holland with his parents, there comes a day when Steyn agrees to address a congress about his personal experiences as a young boy during his journey back to Holland. He needs to go back to the past - so he goes to his family and retrieves his old ship's trunk he had left with them. The contents of the trunk would bring back the past. He takes out his old diaries, begins to read and is suddenly caught in the enchantment of that age - episodes near-forgotten. How could he have forgotten Kandy? The boy, Fergus Steyn, had not sailed directly to Holland. His father had not yet been traced. The British had transferred men from the Japanese camps to Ceylon. Fergus and his mother came to this island first, brought here on board the HMS Venerable, then taken to a camp in Kandy. There, while his mother and other female internees tried to trace their husbands, Fergus met a small dark-eyed girl called Pinkie. She was his first love. They played in the wild country around the Mahaweli, leap-frogged, swing in trees. He told her he loved her more than anything else in the world and she would make faces at him and scamper into the thicket, her hair flying around her face. There was a wretched servant, too, who kept screaming at them to behave themselves, treating him with contempt. On the day he had to leave Kandy, go with his mother and father to Colombo, then sail for Holland, he had had his revenge. Both Pinkie and he called the servant "tea cow". Hiding in the corner of the house, bow in hand, he shot tea cow in the leg! Pinkie had tears in her eyes when he said goodbye. He had tears in his eyes on the way to Colombo. He thought he would never know these twin enchantments again - Pinkie and Kandy. One thought plagued him as the ship rolled around the Cape., even when he found a new home in Holland. Did Pinkie love him? Wild beauty The old diary entries are marvellously fleshed out. Kandy becomes a place of wild beauty, the setting for a first young, wild love and longing - puberty and passion.... racing barefoot through the love-grass... half-adult, sweat-rimmed lips... wind-blown hair and skirts. The diaries tell Fergus of Pinkies contacts in England and how she had told him that some day she would go to London. With rekindled fire, Fergus goes to London, driven by longing for his childhood love - and he does find Pinkie again. Her eyes still dance and her smile still captivates. She is married, says she is happy, but the magic of Kandy still warms their blood. He is now the arrow, she the quiver. The rose and green of their childhood world crashes around them when Pinkie's husband storms in... Springer ends on a melancholy note. Loves of childhood need to remain within childhood years. When sweethearts of a bygone day brush past each other, how subtly can they recapture those innocent days of first love, first realization? The book is perfectly balanced, but there can be no easy solutions. The dialogue is subtly - the hallmark of a marvellous writer. Colonial childhoods have never been so well captured. The resilience of the child is yet another thing we are rarely reminded of unless we think of David Balfour in "Kidnapped". What holds the reader is the Springer touch - unadorned, yet always felt. Springer wrote "Verzammel Werk" in 2001 and "Allemaal Gelogen" in 2002. He still lives in the Hague - was he the Dutchman who found a first love in Kandy? Is this his story? One cannot say, but he was also brought back from Jakarta to Holland and was also in a Japanese internment camp. Did he come to Kandy on his return journey? After all, much of his work is inspired by personal experiences. To us, his "Kandy" must remain a moving tale of first love, loss, friends from a circle of colonial childhood, again finding and again losing. But around it all is that Kandyan enchantment that grips two palpitating hearts. **** Back **** |
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