This month’s English Page tip for a great summer read is ‘Cheese’, by Willem Elsschot. This classic of Flemish literature is a comic tale of entrepreneurial disaster that will be as recognizable and relevant to today’s ‘techno-starters’ as it was when the book was first published in the 1930s.
Who hasn’t dreamt of escaping the drudgery and routine of one’s day job and making a quick and easy fortune as an entrepreneur? This essentially is the premise of Willem Elsschot’s novella ‘Cheese’ (‘Kaas’), whose protagonist, the hapless Frans Laarmans, decides to quit his day job as a lowly clerk at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’ and become an entrepreneurial seller of cheese.
Trade and family are two of the main themes of this novella. Pressure from his family is in fact what prompts Laarmans to embark on his short, unsuccessful career in the cheese trade. The story opens with Laarmans attending his mother’s funeral, where, surrounded by family and friends, Laarmans is portrayed as a shy, inept person . a failure.
Laarmans’ brother and his wife soon encourage him to resign from his poorly paid day job. Laarmans’ children also enthusiastically encourage their father to set up his cheese business, selfishly thinking that the family will soon become rich.
Spurred on by his family and an acquaintance named Mr. van Schoonbeke, Laarmans does indeed quit his job at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’ – a job of which Laarmans says, “there is nothing really sacred about” – for a cheese business career, which Laarmans feels is much better, because “…there is always a market for that, since people have to eat”.
Laarmans quickly devises a business plan. Ever the optimist, he truly believes that people will soon be begging to buy his cheese and the money will pour in. Although a dreamer, Laarmans retains the pragmatic character of the Northern European from the very start of his cheese venture: Laarsman is taking a risk in starting a new business, but before he does, he makes sure there is a safety net beneath him.
Laarmans asks his brother, a doctor, to give him a certificate for a leave of absence from his day job, as this will ensure that Laarmans can return to his old job if his cheese enterprise fails. “Neurosis” is chosen as the reason for Laarmans leave, and ironically enough, Laarmans is neurotic. His fear and anxiety of what other people will say about him and his lack of business knowledge and experience comically undermine him as he delves deeper and deeper into the cheese trade.
Laarmans’ neurotic, self-doubting behaviour is humorously captured during his first attempt to sell his cheese to a shop owner: “I can’t go charging in while all those customers are there and bring the whole business to a halt while I hold forth about my full-cream cheese. Because then it will turn into a lecture. But if I don’t launch straight into it, then perhaps they’ll ask, ‘How can I help you, sir?’ And the roles will be reversed!”
20 tonnes
Elsschot has the gift to cross time and cultures: although the book was written in Antwerp in 1933, the story is relevant for the modern world of ‘dot.com’ start-ups and busts. Sure, dreaming of entrepreneurial success is exciting, but actually selling one’s merchandise – be it cheese or computer chips – is neither particularly exciting nor easy.
Elsschot captures the comedy and absurdity of the first steps of setting up a business. Laarmans begins by painstakingly setting up his office: he buys a desk, typewriter, telephone and, after long and agonizing deliberations, finally decides upon a name for his company and heading for the notepaper. But Laarmans’ business woes really begin when tens of thousands of red-rinded Edam cheese wheels arrive on his doorstep. Thus begins a series of comic dilemmas: where is he to store 20 tonnes of the cheese? He knows he must sell it, but how? And then of course everybody wants to taste the cheese.
Eventually, the business venture fails and Laarmans finally decides, “I’ve had enough”. In fact, he realises that he doesn’t even like cheese. He is in fact happy with his poorly paid job at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’.
The book’s jacket calls ‘Cheese’ ‘a delightful period piece’. Elschot does however portray the darker side of life in the Depression-era 1930s: in his desperate attempt to sell his cheese, Laarmans advertises for salesmen to sell his cheese. The response is huge and many hungry, unemployed men show up at his office: Laarsmans hires some and pities others, giving away free cheese and even a pair of shoes.
Willem Elsschot was the pseudonym of Alfonsus Josephus de Ridder (1882-1960), who worked as advertising copywriter and wrote books in his spare time. Consequently, Elsschot’s style is as concise and crisp as the best advertising copywriting, his humor pithy and dry. The English-language translation is faithful to the succinct style of the original, providing sharp insights into the grimmer realities of starting a business and risk-taking.
‘Cheese’ is a comic novel that escapes its era and culture. Although written seventy years ago, the novel’s situations are still fresh today. There is some Laarmans in all of us: the daydreamer who dreams of quiting his job and getting rich as an entrepreneur. ‘Cheese’ is a delightful appetizer of a book, light and palatable, just like the Edammer cheese Elsschot’s story is built around.
‘Cheese’, by Willem Elsschot, paperback, € 14.75. Available at the American Book Center (ABC), Den Haag. Students and TU staff members receive a 10% discount on all ABC books. Non-students who show a copy of this Delta review will also receive a one-time 10% discount on this book.
Who hasn’t dreamt of escaping the drudgery and routine of one’s day job and making a quick and easy fortune as an entrepreneur? This essentially is the premise of Willem Elsschot’s novella ‘Cheese’ (‘Kaas’), whose protagonist, the hapless Frans Laarmans, decides to quit his day job as a lowly clerk at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’ and become an entrepreneurial seller of cheese.
Trade and family are two of the main themes of this novella. Pressure from his family is in fact what prompts Laarmans to embark on his short, unsuccessful career in the cheese trade. The story opens with Laarmans attending his mother’s funeral, where, surrounded by family and friends, Laarmans is portrayed as a shy, inept person . a failure.
Laarmans’ brother and his wife soon encourage him to resign from his poorly paid day job. Laarmans’ children also enthusiastically encourage their father to set up his cheese business, selfishly thinking that the family will soon become rich.
Spurred on by his family and an acquaintance named Mr. van Schoonbeke, Laarmans does indeed quit his job at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’ – a job of which Laarmans says, “there is nothing really sacred about” – for a cheese business career, which Laarmans feels is much better, because “…there is always a market for that, since people have to eat”.
Laarmans quickly devises a business plan. Ever the optimist, he truly believes that people will soon be begging to buy his cheese and the money will pour in. Although a dreamer, Laarmans retains the pragmatic character of the Northern European from the very start of his cheese venture: Laarsman is taking a risk in starting a new business, but before he does, he makes sure there is a safety net beneath him.
Laarmans asks his brother, a doctor, to give him a certificate for a leave of absence from his day job, as this will ensure that Laarmans can return to his old job if his cheese enterprise fails. “Neurosis” is chosen as the reason for Laarmans leave, and ironically enough, Laarmans is neurotic. His fear and anxiety of what other people will say about him and his lack of business knowledge and experience comically undermine him as he delves deeper and deeper into the cheese trade.
Laarmans’ neurotic, self-doubting behaviour is humorously captured during his first attempt to sell his cheese to a shop owner: “I can’t go charging in while all those customers are there and bring the whole business to a halt while I hold forth about my full-cream cheese. Because then it will turn into a lecture. But if I don’t launch straight into it, then perhaps they’ll ask, ‘How can I help you, sir?’ And the roles will be reversed!”
20 tonnes
Elsschot has the gift to cross time and cultures: although the book was written in Antwerp in 1933, the story is relevant for the modern world of ‘dot.com’ start-ups and busts. Sure, dreaming of entrepreneurial success is exciting, but actually selling one’s merchandise – be it cheese or computer chips – is neither particularly exciting nor easy.
Elsschot captures the comedy and absurdity of the first steps of setting up a business. Laarmans begins by painstakingly setting up his office: he buys a desk, typewriter, telephone and, after long and agonizing deliberations, finally decides upon a name for his company and heading for the notepaper. But Laarmans’ business woes really begin when tens of thousands of red-rinded Edam cheese wheels arrive on his doorstep. Thus begins a series of comic dilemmas: where is he to store 20 tonnes of the cheese? He knows he must sell it, but how? And then of course everybody wants to taste the cheese.
Eventually, the business venture fails and Laarmans finally decides, “I’ve had enough”. In fact, he realises that he doesn’t even like cheese. He is in fact happy with his poorly paid job at the ‘General Marine & Shipbuilding Company’.
The book’s jacket calls ‘Cheese’ ‘a delightful period piece’. Elschot does however portray the darker side of life in the Depression-era 1930s: in his desperate attempt to sell his cheese, Laarmans advertises for salesmen to sell his cheese. The response is huge and many hungry, unemployed men show up at his office: Laarsmans hires some and pities others, giving away free cheese and even a pair of shoes.
Willem Elsschot was the pseudonym of Alfonsus Josephus de Ridder (1882-1960), who worked as advertising copywriter and wrote books in his spare time. Consequently, Elsschot’s style is as concise and crisp as the best advertising copywriting, his humor pithy and dry. The English-language translation is faithful to the succinct style of the original, providing sharp insights into the grimmer realities of starting a business and risk-taking.
‘Cheese’ is a comic novel that escapes its era and culture. Although written seventy years ago, the novel’s situations are still fresh today. There is some Laarmans in all of us: the daydreamer who dreams of quiting his job and getting rich as an entrepreneur. ‘Cheese’ is a delightful appetizer of a book, light and palatable, just like the Edammer cheese Elsschot’s story is built around.
‘Cheese’, by Willem Elsschot, paperback, € 14.75. Available at the American Book Center (ABC), Den Haag. Students and TU staff members receive a 10% discount on all ABC books. Non-students who show a copy of this Delta review will also receive a one-time 10% discount on this book.
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