M HKA Ensembles

Book, 21.5 x 13.5 cm, 389 p, language: Dutch, publisher: Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, ISBN: ISBN 9789023428435.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2024/835).

Literary synopsis In *Ik, Jan Cremer* the writer fuses auto-biography with the skillful unraveling of fantasy identities. The lead character, as a child, sees great turmoil, hardship and suffering during World War II. When after 1945 The Netherlands becomes stable and more prosperous, he cannot adjust and is placed in various institutions for juvenile delinquents. As a young man he becomes a smuggler, a marine, a beatnik artist in Ibiza, a merchant seaman, a criminal, an art student with a bursary in Paris, an amateur actor, complete with a series of love affairs. The novel reflects a sense of splintered identity, there is an endearing mixture of humor, brutality, rebellion, told in a large number of short chapters which seem to swerve between identities. Cremer declared war on double standards, challenged authority and taboos at any given opportunity; *Ik, Jan Cremer* depicts explicit love-making, hash smoking, bar brawls and a chapter on the author's bowel movements. [Novel website](http://www.jancremer.com/index.php?subpage=books/&page=book6)