As suggested by the title, this book has an intense and sustained focus on things and objects. Set in the Netherlands during the 1960s, a decade still coming to terms with the lasting effects of the Second World War, fragments of crockery, and inventories of cutlery and tableware is how main character Isabel reconnects with her family past, as she lives alone in the inherited family home. The Safe Keep by Yael Van Der Wouden is a brooding and eerie story of connection, but one that I felt fell short when it comes to style and character creation. Van der Wouden’s book has also recently been shortlisted for The Booker Prize – much to my surprise.
The ‘thingness’ of The Safe Keep was a genuinely enjoyable aspect of this novel, and, despite its flaws, this is definitely a piece of writing that could interact well with Thing Theory. There is no doubt that Isabel suffers from loneliness, regardless of how much she might either deny this, or believe that she is happy in her loneliness. Her solution to this, it seems, is to meticulously organise, record and clean the house’s inventory of plates and silver cutlery. The plates, decorated with leaping hares is a clear and artistic image that recurs throughout the book, and left a lasting impression after reading. The motion of Isabel passing her hands over these prized objects and comparing them to her handwritten lists demonstrates one of the cornerstones of her character – that she is meant to be observed, rather than liked. Isabel isn’t necessarily a likable character, or one that readers naturally warm to, but this is a bold move on Van Der Wouden’s part that does pay off. In not necessarily liking Isabel, we are free to understand her, even if this understanding does boil down to something rather simple.
Once finishing this book, one may look back in hindsight at the entire plot, and realise that not really that much actually happens. This, of course, is not necessarily a negative thing – not much actually happens in Mrs Dalloway, but Woolf’s literary genius still shines through by means of her skillful prose. In the novel’s early pages, Isabel is introduced to her brother’s newest girlfriend, Eva, at a restaurant, a meeting that is intended to demonstrate Eva’s clumsiness in social situations, and Isabel’s coldness. Van Der Wouden does indeed accomplish this, but not with great subtlety. Only sentences after Eva is introduced, she knocks over a vase of flowers in trying to shake hands with Isabel, drinks slightly too much wine, and struggles to keep up with conversation. It is moments like this, that wouldn’t necessarily feel out of place in an American teen rom-com that makes the developing relationship between Isabel and Eva seem inorganic yet predictable. In, again, a slightly unrealistic plot point, Eva ends up coming to stay with Isabel indefinitely, as Isabel’s brother is away travelling for work, leaving the two women alone in the house that still holds so many undisturbed memories of Isabel’s parents and her childhood.
Not long after staying with Isabel, elements of Eva’s prized inventory start to go missing. This, as well as the two women being the antithesis of one another, creates a hostile tension between the two that soon develops into something romantic and sexual. The relationship that develops between Eva and Isabel isn’t itself surprising, but I believe that Van Der Wouden went too far in trying to establish the women’s differences, as I was left feeling that there was something acutely wrong with this particular pairing – they appear to have very little in common. Despite this, I enjoyed seeing Isabel flung into this relationship that delt so intertwined with her attempting to regain control over her world that was starting to be dismantled by Eva’s intrusion – the explanation for which is revealed towards the end of the novel.
