Looking for the Other Self. The Work of Kristien Hemmerechts

In a relatively short time Kristien Hemmerechts has become one of the most prominent of her generation of authors, a large group who are innovative in different fields. In the second half of the eighties, that group brought a long period of impasse and hesitancy in Flemish literature to an end. In their lack of control and their failure to view life as a coherent whole, the characters in her novels and short stories testify to a very ‘postmodern' powerless sense of life. The representation of their wry sense of uneasiness in a world full of disjointed dimensions leads to a reading experience that is at the same time fascinating and profoundly disquieting. (with a translated extract from ‘Back' by Kristien Hemmerechts)