Anne Frank House

 

So, finally, after years of living here and being in fact walking distance from this place, I have finally decided to check it out. Can't really explain why I had not visited earlier, probably because its here and I had no sense of urgency - also its usually on top of the lists for tourists visiting Amsterdam so I kinda didn't wan't to be one of them. But now as I just re-read Anne's diary and finished the book written by her helper Miep Gies + I watched several excellent documentaries, now I was ready to see the building. In fact, I was curious to see it with my own eyes because even though informations are online, I did not have clear idea about the rooms and living arrangements of people in hiding. Like with everything else in life, it simply had to be the right moment and now I was ready to visit the famous hiding place. 

And that is exactly what it is - the hiding place - I always find it strange that its called "Anne Frank House" when actually it was not, real Anne Frank House was completely different house on another part of town, a very nice and respectable neighbourhood in Amsterdam South where new spacious apartment buildings were built in 1920s and where many German immigrants found a new start, after escaping Nazi Germany. I have been there and its a very pretty area called Merwedeplein where the old Frank apartment still exist and Dutch government uses it as a safe place for foreign writers who cannot work freely in their own countries. Not possible to visit it, as the place is used but its possible to see it online HERE. Back to Prinsengracht 263 where her father had a successful business and in fact the building was used as the warehouse and the main office for his company that was selling mixes of spices for jam making. The office and work was focused on the street side of the building (a typical Dutch house, completely ordinary from outside) but the Frank family and their friends were hiding in the house at the back which was not really visible from the front. 

Seeing it with my own eyes finally made it clear why hiding was so dangerous and tricky: the rooms where Frank family were using, were actually immediately above warehouse so it was utmost important that the family don't make any noises during the day as workers downstairs could hear them. And let me tell you, the wooden floor is creaky which completely creeped me out and that is why Franks walked around barefoot and in fact preferred to spend their daytime one floor above where was the kitchen/living room (also used by van Pels family as their bedroom in the evenings). Van Pels also had a teenage son, sweet shy Peter who had his own corner next to stairs leading to the attic. All the books in the world can not explain the rooms as good as seeing it with one's own eyes, its just different. Ah yes, the rooms are unfurnished - as Gestapo took everything they found in the hiding place, Otto Frank did not want to put anything else in there - it is enough to see the space and feel the oppressive atmosphere to understand how dangerous their daily life was.

Just before we entered the building, I was suspicious about mostly young crowd and all these kids waiting in line and being playful - I was prepared that they will be annoying and not serious once we go inside. To my biggest surprise, the crowd actually got very subdued and serious as we walked from room to room and once we climbed to the attic people were actually completely silent, some even cried. I started weeping when faced with a little exhibition about Anne's sister Margot who by all accounts was a real sweetheart but ended up eclipsed by her famous younger sibling - than there was a new exhibition (situated in a new building next to Otto Frank's office) titled ‘Who's gone?’ - The Jewish Lyceum 1941-1943 about all the other children from Anne's old neighbourhood who during the war were either arrested & deported or went into hiding: it makes clear point that Anne was just one of the 500 kids who suffered the same fate. In fact, there is a excellent documentary about the rest of the kids who went to same class with her. By this point my eyes were blinded by tears and I could hardly read explanations on the walls in front of me.

 

As the right wing is raising their ugly head again all over the Europe, I am aware of Holocaust deniers and others who are continuously trying to somehow "prove" that this was all just a big conspiracy. I read with alarm how my own homeland is full of history revisionists and nationalists who wrap themselves in a flag and choose to interpret their own version of history - many of them have their own conspiracy theories and repeat often told lie about the diary was a forgery. It bothered me a lot but I was aware that arguing with the strangers online would not help or change their mind if they already decided that the world is conspiracy, so I decided not to engage with them (it was also my New Year resolution, not to feed such people with my energy and time). I was glad that I visited the place and that it all came in the right moment, just as I read the diary so everything was fresh in my head. 

"Anne Frank Remembered" by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold (1987)

 

Immediately as I finished Anne Frank diary, I started this book. "Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family" was written by Miep Gies who worked as a secretary for Otto Frank and who (along with several other employees in his office) knew and supported family in hiding. In fact, she was the main person responsible for bringing them food during years in the hiding place. Since she was so close involved in everything, her story very closely matches Anne Frank's diary but with a wider perspective - while Anne was basically describing what the life in hiding looked like, Miep Gies could tell more about the atmosphere in the city during the war, the dangers of everyday life in occupied Amsterdam and her own point of view. While Anne's diary was moving, this was less sentimental, more realistic close look at reality around  them during those years. 

By some incredible accident that later proved to be extremely important, Miep Gies was the right person in the right time: she was born in Vienna and sent to The Netherlands as a child to recuperate from hunger and weak health. That means that she spoke fluent German and Dutch, which was helpful when she came in contact with the rest of Frank family, who often privately spoke German. Because she refused to join Nazi women's group, her Austrian passport was invalidated and she was supposed to be deported back to Austria, until she eventually got married to her Dutch boyfriend. On the day of arrest, it was Austrian SS officer Silberbauer who discovered the hiding place and who also arrested the men working in Otto Frank's office but did not want to arrest a fellow Austrian girl (another girl, Bep have escaped and went into hiding herself). So Miep was let go and it was herself who went quickly in the attic and saved Anne Frank's diary (the rest of what was in the hiding place, all the clothes, personal property and furniture was confiscated). 

I find this book incredibly gripping because, more than even Anne's diary itself, it describes first hand witness to war years in Amsterdam. This is someone who actually biked trough the occupied city every day on her way to work (until it became too dangerous because Germans could steal her bike, so she had to walk) and constantly searched for the food to feed her friends. Miep herself was not completely aware of the tensions between people in hiding and we understand that in front of her they all kept their mutual arguments hidden. She could tell there was some sort of unpleasant atmosphere but this is understandable considering the situation and lack of privacy. After the arrest of Frank family and their friends, Miep went trough a difficult hunger period during 1944-1945 and she describes in detail how hard it was to survive winter without electricity, gas, heat and food. Luckily she survived and even welcomed Otto Frank back when he returned from Germany (he lived with Miep and her husband for a while, as his family perished in concentration camps). There is also a Oscar-winning documentary with the same name as the book and I was glad to find out that Miep was actually given standing ovation during award ceremony. 

"People every-where in Amsterdam were perishing daily of starvation. Sometimes they would just sit down at the side of the road and die. Sometimes they were so weak that they died of diphtheria, typhoid, or just the cold. Neighborhood soup kitchens had been set up, and each day people would line up in the cold to get a bucket of something warm to put in their stomachs.

All day people scavenged for bits of coal in the old coal yards. Railroad ties were dug up for the wood. If you had a wooden staircase standing in the garden or against the wall outside, you might wake up in the morning and find your staircase gone. Any houses left empty were stripped of wood from windows, stairways, furniture, anything." 

"The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank (1947)

 

I have several books written by people in Anne Frank orbit but before I turn to them, it occurred to me that it might be good idea to re-visit a famous diary again - after all, I read it as a teenager myself and most of it probably went over my head back than + I am different person now than I was at 13 so I hoped to read it with better understanding and with a different perspective. This will be the only exception to my decision that in 2026 I read only authors I never read before: everybody else that I read this year was my first-time introduction. To be honest, its been more than four decades between reading it than and now, so its almost as a total new experience.

Sure, I was familiar with the story itself - not only via documentaries and articles online, but a famous Westertoren church tower that she used to see from her hiding place is a familiar spot where I walk into city centre. I have also visited the neighbourhood in Amsterdam South where Frank family actually owned apartment (many German-Jewish families lived there), also saw the bookshop where her father bought her the diary as a birthday present, her school and the sculpture standing in the middle of the square where family used to live. All of this means that the ghost of Anne Frank is always present around the city but since I live here, I didn't feel the urge to either re-read her diary or visit the hiding place. I would if I only visit Amsterdam and than it would be on top of my list of places to visit, but I am here every day and was secretly thinking it would be a depressing experience. However, if I want to read memoirs of people connected to her story, it would just make sense to first go back to the roots of the story, her own diary. 

At the start, young Anne is just an ordinary schoolgirl, a chatterbox preoccupied with boys, flirting and her school friends. But very soon the dark clouds start gathering and when her older sister Margot gets official call to report to Gestapo, the family quickly goes into hiding, sooner than they had planned. Initially I think they were actually fairly comfortable just four of them, but soon they accept other people to join them and this is when real struggle begin, since being locked up in silence and limited space started to put pressure on everybody in hiding. Anne's diary swings between her teenage obsessions and descriptions of life in hiding - while its heartbreaking (and easily understood) that teenage girl feels so passionately about movie stars, boys, her hair or fashion, its the other parts of diary that are much more interesting to me, like stories about survival, bombing of Amsterdam, police on the streets, children breaking the windows and stealing everything  that I personally find gripping.

"Little children, eight- and eleven-year-olds, smash the windows of people's homes and steal whatever they can lay their hands on. People don't dare leave the house for even five minutes, since they're liable to come back and find all their belongings gone. Every day the newspapers are filled with reward notices for the return of stolen typewriters, Persian rugs, electric clocks, fabrics, etc. The electric clocks on street corners are dismantled, public phones are stripped down to the last wire." 

While her teenage musings might seem repetitive, it is exactly because of them that Anne  still touches so many people around the world because we all understand where she comes from - we all went trough the puberty and our own dilemmas, arguments with parents and phases where hormones shift between high and low. However, it was the story about life in hiding and wartime Amsterdam that deeply resonated with me and I read it surprisingly quickly, with greatest interest. I am actually going to visit her hiding place next week. 

Alison Moyet Live, Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam 2026

 

 I was thrilled beyond words to finally have chance to hear Alison Moyet live in concert - she was here a few years ago and I was just too clumsy with all this technical manoeuvring process of buying tickets online - the older I get this seems more complicated. It was not just a matter of finding the ticket provider but than putting down your name on a waiting list and than reacting in a correct time slot, all in all it was like lottery and too much for me. Luckily, this time a friend bought tickets so the whole bunch of middle aged, white haired people went happily together after a nice dinner in a nearby French Bistro. We had a very good seats, right in front of the stage and excellent view on the whole Carré theatre (God, I have witnessed so many completely different things here, musicals, circuses, ballet and whatnot). 

I love the fact that Moyet refuses to be a nostalgia act. Even though frankly her peak days were early 1980s, she continued pretty steadily over the years and probably sees her 1980s material as her concert bread & butter, but her heart is more into later, more recent music. If she really wanted, she could easily just serve the biggest hits and make everybody happy but she makes a point of mixing it with recent material. And this was a little problematic for me. I am very familiar with her music up to say, start of new millennium and everything what comes after that is one big blur. I grew up with Yazoo albums and loved her solo work but around "Hometime" (2002) she lost me and even I gave each subsequent album a proper listen, nothing really registered in my brain. This is not really just about Moyet but about most of the pop singers who have large body of work - I pick and up select my favourite period and stick to that. This means that each time Moyet sang old songs from Yazoo period (that audience just won't let go) my heart leaped from joy because this music is part of my DNA and I listened those darn cassette tapes non stop back in my teenage years, I worshipped on TOP 40 shrine as teenagers do) but than she would turn to something newer and my heart sank because not only I did not know it but I actually did not like it. The lady next to me (part of our group) actually enjoyed new material and I understand why, it was more edgy than Yazoo music that could - because of its simplicity - maybe be perceived as rinky dinky but I loved old staff and was hoping to hear exactly that. And not just the biggest hits but deep cuts like "Bad Connection", "Midnight" or "Winter Kills" - it was like a dream come true to finally listen this live, in Amsterdam, almost like a full circle coming from a place in my head from 40 years ago. 

As expected, Moyet was in excellent voice, looks much better than ever before (she is very slim now and has interesting dance moves) and was warm on stage. Audience adored her and I had fun looking around  and seeing happy faces everywhere - could not help but to notice that everybody got the most engaged when she performed old Yazoo hits and she even finished concert with 1-2-3 disco explosions of "Goodbye 70's", "Situation" and "Don't Go" which explains that she herself is aware this is what audience came to hear. Personally I wouldn't mind if she included more music from some other solo work, like brilliant "Hoodoo" which is my favourite album of hers but it might be that she moved away and simply grew into another direction. And this is just fine, nobody says we all have to love each single album, some things resonate with us more than the others. I am just amused that suddenly this 1980s music that I grew up with and thought "old" still means so much to me. 

p.s.

I almost forgot - this was the very first time that during the concert I was not busy with mobile phone, camera and taking pictures. Somehow touchingly old fashioned, I assumed that I am in the theatre and it might disturb the performance (it turned out music was so loud that nobody could hear my phone anyway) so I switched it off and towards the end when audience started whipping out their mobile phones I just found it too complicated to dig in the pockets and switch it on again, I decided to just enjoy the moment and let it be - there are tons of filmed video clips online anyway - nobody else is me and nobody else will enjoy my particular perspective tonight. So I enjoyed the music and the performance without urge to film it and whatever stays, it stays in my heart. 

"Miss Cayley's Adventures" by Grant Allen (1899)

 

 I always have lists on top of the lists and this is why I decided to read "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach, because it was so highly rated and praised on Goodreads - it also fitted with my decision to focus on authors I never read before - alas, dear reader, I did not liked it at all. I did not hated it, but it was not for me and as result of this, it soured me for a while towards reading, which is really pity because exciting reads usually lead to more exciting reads. After "The Wedding People" I simply didn't want to read anything anymore. Instead, I browsed some reference books about literature and recommended novels and this is how I stumbled upon this obscure and forgotten 1899 book, originally serialised in "The Strand" (which explains its chapter-by-chapter story frame) and it was a perfect antidote - it was delightful from the very first page and I loved it with all my heart, in fact I deliberately read it slow to enjoy it more. 

I have never heard of Grant Allen before so he was perfect choice for my "never read before" reading list and apparently this particular novel is actually one of his lesser known works. It is also one of the very first novels with a female detective, thought it must be mentioned that the main character in "Miss Cayley’s Adventures" does not work professionally as a detective - Miss Cayley is simply a example of modern Victorian woman who does not sit still but throws herself into outside world and welcomes adventures. I mean, just check out the very first sentence:

"On the day when I found myself with twopence in my pocket, I naturally made up my mind to go round the world."

This is not your average Victorian blushing flower who spends her time doing needlework and being all vulnerable and fainting, instead Lois Cayley is not only attractive but brave, athletic, strong minded and possessed of a sharp intellect. And this is how we are introduced to her at the beginning of the novel, when she realised her late stepfather left her penniless: she refuses to accept usual fate of impoverished young ladies (teaching) and throws herself in the outside world, actively searching for adventures that will help her to travel around the world. Accidentally (and we must add, somewhat serendipitously) she meet a "Cantankerous Old Lady" (Lady Georgina) who needs a maid to accompany her on her journey to Germany and is soon travelling together with her, accepting the position as a maid just for a week - her thinking is: 

The Rhine leads you on to the Danube, the Danube to the Black Sea, the Black Sea to Asia; and so by way of India, China, and Japan, you reach the Pacific and San Francisco; whence one returns quite easily by New York and the White Star Liners... the Cantankerous Old Lady was the thin end of the wedge -- the first rung of the ladder!"

And this is how the novel really begins, with our plucky heroine traveling to Germany, than Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, India and all over the place, enjoying various adventures along the way, unmasking greedy antagonists and charlatans, using her sharp intellect to point who is really a bad guy and generally being totally awesome. There is a lot of humour, wit and spark all trough the novel, with some interesting points at the racial prejudices at the time. The biggest mystery for me is why this delightful novel is not better known and how is it possible that its completely covered by dust of neglect and obscurity, I honestly wish there is a whole series of novels with Miss Cayley. Loved this one with all my heart! 

"Slow Horses"

 

I have actually watched the complete first season of "Slow Horses" sometime ago and completely forgot about it, probably because in my mind it got confused with similar "Department Q" - both series are dealing with a police team nobody believes in. While "Department Q" has a police team working from some gloomy basement, "Slow Horses" is more or less very similar premise, here we have MI5 agents banished to decrepit and neglected "Slough House" (hence the title of series) where they are expected to shuffle papers until retirement or voluntary resignation. The agents in Slow Horses" are here as a punishment: we eventually learn that all of them made mistakes that cost them career and instead of being fired, they are sent here in a purgatory. 

On top of this hierarchy is Jackson Lamb (brilliant Gary Oldman) who is purposely selected to lead this team of losers because he is extremely unpleasant, arrogant and rude - not to mention flatulent - and his task is to make life hell for his agents. He often sleeps in the office, apparently never have shower and you can almost feel cigarette breath reeking from TV screen. Than there are agents: River Cartwright (handsome Jack Lowden), ex- alcoholic Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), computer wizard asshole Roddy (Christopher Chung), sweet couple Louisa and Min, the whole cast of supporting characters and occasional star appearance of sour faced Kristin Scott Thomas (as director of MI5) and Jonathan Pryce (as retired head of MI5 and grandfather of disqualified River Cartwright). Because each season has only 6 episodes, it is actually inviting to watch - I would never approach something that already has many seasons - this doesn't mean its easy to watch, because the stories are extremely complicated and convoluted, just as it should be in the world of spies and double spies. You can't really trust anybody here and if there is one thing you can always count on, its that characters are mostly not who they pretend to be. 

So I re-watched season 1 (with greatest pleasure) and than enjoyed season 2 where the main antagonist turned out to be my very own Croatian actor Rade Šerbedžija who happened to be the star of the very first theatre play I ever saw as a kid. He was probably the biggest acting name during my childhood and I even remember owning the LP album of poetry where he recited and it was a huge bestseller. Nowadays it seems as he found his place in international productions as a token bad guy from Eastern Europe, so if you need a mad professor or a scientist or KGB spy, he is usually the one. Season 2 was actually even better and more complicated than season 1 so now at this point I have really high expectations for season 3 which I will start next week as soon as I have time off. Very enjoyable!

Vacation Time

 

We were already on vacation this year, our winter escape were Canary Islands - but I said to myself why not taking another one - after all, there is no law saying it must be only one a year. After some careful considerations and several changes of plan, eventually we decided not to travel anywhere too far, airports and transportation draining all the energy and fun from vacation. So we decided simply to explore local places that we never visited before, like for example Zeeland which is part of southern Netherlands, almost at the border with Belgium. And I must say it worked out perfectly because nothing was really exhausting, in fact the train ride was very pleasant and we were there in no time.

Our first choice was little coastal town Vlissingen that might be popular in the summer time but in September it was almost completely deserted - a bit strange but fine by us, as we wanted peace and quiet. We walked trough quaint streets and enjoyed local museums, specially beautiful was a long promenade with spectacular view towards the sea, I even caught myself daydreaming how nice it might be to live here. Probably boring as Hell, but sometimes boring is nice. I mean, considering loonies we have to deal on the streets of Amsterdam, Vlissingen sounds like a safe place. 

We also visited a nearby town of Middleburg which is much bigger and I expected that I will like it more - on contrary, it was just bigger and nothing more. It lacked the beautiful seaside of Vlissingen and even though the buildings were very pretty in a frou frou way, I still prefer Vlissingen anytime. There was a interesting museum and a very eye catching city hall but I don't see myself going back.

Than I had visitors and we rented a car to make our explorations easier - it was totally a game changer because suddenly we were not dependant on the public transport anymore but could easily travel wherever we wanted. So first i wanted to show them a pretty little fisherman's town of Volendam which is very pictoresque but was that particular day still reeling from previous night festivites and everything smelled suspiciously on urine and beer LOL. Much nicer was a trip to famous Giethoorn that is celebrated as Venice of North - Giethoorn started as a religious refugee but is now a big business, sort of artificial Disneyland with boats full of tourists who expect a magical village without roads. The place where everybody rows a boat. Not exactly, you can still walk on the roads but boats are there and I must admit it is quite lovely.

Our next stop was Scheveningen beach near The Hague and it was really beautiful place, full of relaxed people just roaming around and enjoying the sea air & zillion restaurants offering fresh fish. A work colleague suggested a visit to nearby Madurodam which was the best - in fact, it might even be the highlight of the whole vacation for me: Madurodam (named after WW2 hero George Maduro) is a miniature park with replicas of famous Dutch landmarks. It was just the prettiest little thing and we were blessed with the most beautiful weather so everything worked in our favour, I enjoyed the whole day and the place is definitely on my visit-again list. 

Just as my visitors left, the perpetual rain started again and that was the end of our travels - initially we did had some more trips in mind but everything changed once we faced weather outside. There was simply no point of travelling anywhere if its just raining all the time, we might as well sit at home instead of being locked up in the hotel room. But it was nice while it lasted and I feel refreshed and good now. 

"The Wedding People" by Alison Espach (2024)

 

Branching into other genres that I normally go for sounds like it could be fun - in theory. 

And than, there are mistakes, misconceptions and simply wrong choices.

Note to myself: remember not to follow blindly any random suggestions by "The Guardian" or even "Goodreads" whose audience gave this book a "Goodreads Choice Award" for the "Readers' Favorite Fiction of 2024". In short, do not pay any attention to what other people read and simply follow your own intuition, choose your own reading path and never mind awards. I don't remember when was the last time I disliked the book so much (maybe "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock that I threw away across the room in disgust back in 2016), I really suffered with this one. You see, I expected something fluffy, a light summer read and perhaps something entertaining or witty that would even make me smile. After all, it earned widespread acclaim as something refreshing, clever and very funny. It was not and I disliked it immensely, but found myself stuck with it and didn't want to admit defeat so I read the darn thing to the end (halfway trough I switched to audio book just to speed it up little bit). While I understand that the author invested her time and energy into this + there are obviously readers who love this type of book, it was not for me. 

For the sake of reminding myself of what I just suffered trough, I will write down just the frame of the story, just so it never ever cross my mind to read it or this author again. A middle aged literature professor Phoebe checks in a luxurious hotel (that she admired in some brochures a while ago) with intention to kill herself. You see, her life, her career and her marriage are all falling apart and she disappears without saying a word to anyone, with only one wish, to enjoy the last night on this earth in a luxury. What she does not know is that the rest of hotel is full of week-long wedding party and somehow she got sucked into it, mostly by efforts of incredibly selfish, egoistic and self-centred bride Lila who insist that her wedding must be perfect and nothing, absolutely nothing should spoil it. Phoebe not only ends up being invited as maid of honour but - being an outsider - has a different perspective and soon everybody starts confiding in her, like she is some wise woman full of knowledge and wisdom, not a depressed suicidal frump she was in previous chapter. The book is built on totally chick lit premise but nothing here worked for me, probably because I am not a target audience - most of the plot and characters were simply either unconvincing or annoying to me. It even baffles me how on earth anybody could find this "favourite fiction of 2024" but than again, as I said, my reading path is uniquely my own and perhaps I should just continue following my own guts.

"Destry Rides Again" by Max Brand (1930)

 

OK so 2026 is definitely a year I started exploring a genre I have never ever even approached before and that is western. In the past, I associated it with a pulp novels my stepfather used to read and I guess it fits with his generation (he was post WW2 child, raised on John Wayne movies) - honestly, before 2026 the only western novel I ever read was "Betty Zane" by zane Grey. Funny enough, as I started my reading in January 2026, it was exactly revisit to that same "Betty Zane" (a few decades later) that gave me lots of joy and inspired me to explore the genre a bit more. Being systematic Virgo as I am, I made a list of what are classic examples of the genre (in chronological order) and carefully started exploring some more. I suffered a bit trough now extremely dated writing style of both "The Virginian" (1902) and "Hopalong Cassidy 1: Bar-20" (1906) although I enjoyed them both once I disciplined myself into reading - I simply knew that I have to continue until I reach something published in more recent times. So I totally skipped 1920s (something to explore?) and jumped straight to 1930 when this novel was published.

Just as I expected, writing is much more to my liking and to be honest, this might be one of the most enjoyable westerns I have read so far in 2026. Even though Owen Wister and Clarence Edward Mulford are celebrated as classics of the genre, I doubt that anyone reads them for pleasure these days. Max Brand (the pseudonym used by writer Frederick Schiller Faust) on the other hand, is a full blown western pulp fiction told in a exciting, much more modern language (I didn't get a headache like previously with above mentioned novels) and therefore easier to follow. In fact, it was just a perfect escapism, with lots of posturing, shooting, horse riding and all. 

Not to be confused with 1939. Hollywood movie of the same name, "Destry Rides Again" is basically a revenge novel, kind of western Count Monte Christo. At the very beginning we are introduced to swaggering and hotheaded Harrison Destry who is jailed for a crime he did not commit and the local jury of twelve men (all of them holding a grudge against him) sentence him to ten years in prison. Its clear they simply hate him for who he is and to be honest he was a troublemaker who loved to get drunk and fight, but surely this is not deserving ten years in prison. The novel really gets going when Destry gets out the jail and how he searches each single person from that jury to punish them for what they did to him. There is also a intriguing fact that the man he considers his best friend is secretly the main antagonist, so this works out very well. For once, we have no Indians, though they are some black slaves mentioned (in a extremely derogatory way that today we consider offensive, but it was obviously accepted in 1930). I enjoyed this a lot and read the book in a short period of time. I am also glad that I left the historical ancestors behind and now arrived at the point where I can easily follow the language. It's not a high literature, but a very very pleasant pulp fiction and a pure escapism. 

"The Hollow Man" by John Dickson Carr (1935)

While browsing excellent crime fiction guide "Crime fiction: A Reader's Guide" by Barry Forshaw I noticed the name John Dickson Carr mentioned in the same breath as Agatha Christie and other authors of the golden age of detective fiction - to be honest, I don't really know much about anybody else except Christie from that period (I have read one single novel by Ngaio Marsh) so this name got stuck in my brain + he was unusual as being perhaps the only American celebrated amongst his British colleagues - enough for me to become really curious and to give his most famous novel a try.

"The Hollow Man" (titled The Three Coffins" in US) is today his best known work and often mentioned as example of who Dickson Carr was as an author. It is also an example of so called "locked-room mystery" where detectives are facing a seemingly unsolvable crime and what at the first glance appears impossible case (no traces, no fingerprints, etc). I guess both Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie used this form, though Dickson Carr is the one mentioned as a prime example today. At first, I was intrigued - there is a murder in a house full of witnesses (but no one really saw what happened) and the policemen helped by sharp investigator Dr Gideon Fell are trying to connect the dots. The writing was solid, mysteries piled on top of mysteries and Dr.Gideon is entertaining as someone who often pulls conclusions out of the thin air. 

However, at certain point I became a bit exhausted by Dr.Gideon - yes, he is sharp and yes he glances in the corners and suddenly realises how pieces of the puzzle fit in much bigger picture, but the plot is so ridiculously confusing that at certain point all these "red herrings" feel almost like a parody. Almost like Dickson Carr wanted to use every single locked room cliché there is. Tunnels! Chimneys! Masks! Ropes! In fact, at one point Dr.Gideon suddenly gives a lecture about locked room novels and usual possible solutions to mysteries. (Almost like turning to a reader and talking directly to us instead of his policemen friends) He notes that audience often gets upset when finding out how exactly they were cheated and I find this very interesting because it shows that Dickson Carr was very much aware of his public and what they expect. On one hand, they wanted to be entertained but they will get disappointed once they realise how it was done. And yes, correct, eventually I found myself thinking that the road to the mystery was actually more entertaining than the solution itself, which felt rushed up and clumsy. 

Another thing that bothered me was that (with exception of the victim and Dr.Gideon) I could simply not remember who is who. At first I found this embarrassing and blamed my own lack of attention, but later found out that many readers agree that characters and the names were simply there as props and there were absolutely no development that could help us remember or understand who is who and why are behaving the way they are. You know, servant comes in and out of the room, the end. Various characters are floating around without any real distinction between them and I had to even look up the list of characters online to check who is talking. 

"'I will now lecture,' said Dr Fell, inexorably, 'on the general mechanics and development of the situation which is known in detective fiction as the "hermetically sealed chamber. All those opposing can skip this chapter. To begin with, gentlemen! Having been improving my mind with sensational fiction for the last forty years, I can say -' 

'But, if you're going to analyse impossible situations,' interrupted Pettis, 'why discuss detective fiction?

'Because,' said the doctor, frankly, 'we're in a detective story, and we don't fool the reader by pretending we're not. Let's not invent elaborate excuses to drag in a discussion of detective stories. Let's candidly glory in the noblest pursuits possible to characters in a book."