Moving forward while looking back. "Angel" by Arnold Jansen op de Haar

              After winning the lottery, Tijmen Klein Gildekamp has a normal reaction. He takes off. Tijem and his girlfriend, a masseuse named Angel, run from everyday life or is it from their past?

Readers who identified with Tijmen in Arnold Jansen op de Haar’s King of Tuzla will enjoy catching up with him, but Angel does not feel like a sequel. In fact, an underlying theme is that Tijmen seems to be wrestling with his identity, but he starts by recognizing that he is focusing on a post-Bosnia Tijmen. Still, he and Angel both look to their families past to discover connections in the Dutch underground, and in Angel’s case, with German collaborators. Together they reach a point of recognition, an understanding, perhaps even an enlightened view that who they are in the here and now is what matters most. It is clear they could succeed in finding happiness, if only the       rest of the world, perplexed editors and former boyfriends, would leave them alone.

Jansen op de Haar continues to demonstrate a rare talent of writing succinctly, yet with impact. His chapters are short, but they draw the reader in and keep one moving through the story. The most refreshing aspect of Angel is that like Tijmen, one can sense they are reading Jansen op de Haar again, his voice is recognizable, but Angel does not feel like the same formula revisited, as is sometimes common among authors today. Angel makes a nice edition for those who enjoy books of romance, adventure, and self-reflection.

Book Review: A soldier-poet's memoir of Bosnia - King of Tuzla by Arnold Jansen op de Haar

            Peacekeeping and stability operations present the solider with challenges that are in the moment tactical, but return later on an emotional front. Arnold Jansen op de Haar describes this viscerally in his debut novel, King of Tuzla. The “King” is Captain Tijmen Klein Gildekamp, commanding officer of a company of Dutch Grenadiers deployed to Bosnia in the Muslim dominated city of Tuzla, specifically to secure the international airport so that humanitarian aid can flow into the region.

            Tijmen wrestles with his assignment, and thus his identity as an elite Dutch “red beret,” as he faces the visceral ordeal of ethnic war. Jansen op de Haar includes the Bosnian Muslim point of view through a number of characters which strengthens the reader’s understanding of Tijmen’s experience. This is supported by an interesting literary device, as the second half of King of Tuzla, which covers the hardest part of Tijmen’s deployment, is relayed a year later as one of Tijmen’s comrades reviews the officer’s diary. It is as if what Tijmen has seen is so horrible, it cannot even be shared directly with the reader.

            Though written as prose, the author’s talent as a poet can be felt in many lines. Translated into English, his style seems initially ethereal, but then it suddenly grabs you, pushing one right into the armored vehicle, or next to sandbags in the mud. Thus, King of Tuzla tells the story of service in the Balkans vividly, as only a soldier who served there can relay. King of Tuzla is a must for the library of any military enthusiast or historian.