The Assault

Anton, “a fair-to-middling student” (79), continues in medical school. In 1953, he leaves the house on Apollolaan and rents a “small, dark [apartment] above a fish store” (79) in the center of town. The Haarlem of 1945 sinks deeper into the background of his psyche. He suffers from daylong bouts of migraines every few months, which force him to lie down in the dark. He reads a lot, but judiciously avoids any materials related to the war. He plays the piano and enjoys attending concerts—his preference is for Schumann. He even publishes a few poems about nature in a student magazine under the name “Anton Peter.”When he sees a staging of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, he becomes overwhelmed with such an “elusive” (79)emotion that he flees the theater. Once on the street, his emotions “disappear[ ][so] quickly and completely” (79) that he wonders if they had ever actually been there.

Every week, he goes to Apollolaan on his motor scooter with a bag full of dirty laundry. As he does so, “he [begins] to notice the extreme orderliness of his uncle and aunt’s well-to-do middle-class life” (80)where “everything is in its place” (80), nothing is “second-rate” (80), and all food and drinks are served with formality.