Literary Work
Van Kempen's literary work comprises two novels, several collections of short stories and two children’s books. His narratives show how people of different cultural origins are being confronted with the impossibility of essentially getting in touch with the other. In the novel Plantage Lankmoedigheid (1997; Plantation Indulgence) this problem is thematized in a Surinamese setting in the years of the “revolution” and repression following the coup of 1980. Several of the short stories of Landmeten (1992, Land surveying) do have the same décor. The novel Vluchtwegen (2006, Escape routes) depicts the story of the immigrants quarter Bijlmermeer of Amsterdam. In the title story of Pakistaanse nacht en andere verhalen (2002, Pakistan night and other stories) a European couple on a journey through Pakistan sees itself confronted with a retired army colonel, who seems to keep up a hidden agenda. Het Nirwana is een lege trein (1990, The Nirwana is an empty train) is a collection of travel stories on India.
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“This great kindness pervades Chekhov’s literary work, but it is not a matter of program or of literary message with him, but simply the natural coloration of his talent.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)