Belgium - Thirty Days

Book #16: Thirty Days - Annelies Verbeke

"Alphonse, funny, observant, and imaginative, is a former musician who has left Brussels with his girlfriend Cat to live near her parents in the buttoned-up rural district of Westhoek. It has open fields, wide, low skies, more World War I graves than almost anywhere in Europe - and one of the highest suicide rates in the western world. Alphonse starts a new life as a handyman. As he paints and decorates the interior of peoples' homes, he gets to know their complex emotional lives - their affairs, family disturbances, messy divorces, everyday cruelties, and unexpected dreams. But when he, Cat, and a client help a group of Afghans and Syrians at a makeshift refugee camp, he learns that not all locals appreciate their work." 

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I really wanted to love this book. I almost did. There was so much promise. The book description sounded so rich and I couldn't wait to start reading it. It just...never quite gets there. I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen. The author would tease - there would be interesting character development, followed by pages of...nothing. Unfortunately, the story didn't really evolve until the last 100 pages, and even then, it happened in fits and starts. I'm disappointed, because I like the characters. I want to know more about them. I want to know what happens after this book ends. But I don't want to read another 300 pages to find out. 

But what of the challenge? Did I learn anything about Belgium? Yes, that I did. I've been to Belgium, and I absolutely loved it. I've even been to this general part of Belgium, to a WWI cemetery. But this book offered a different view. The main character, Alphonse, is an immigrant from Senegal. His interactions with his neighbors are shown through his lens. Also, the book touches on how Belgium is dealing with asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan. I really wish this had been investigated in more detail, but the author wanted to make a point, and she certainly did. Over all, this book left me frustrated, but I did learn a thing or two about Belgium.