review
Book review: The danger ?? Jos Vandeloo. In this time with Japan’s nuclear disaster, the book “The Danger” is. an eye-opener by Jos Vandeloo. The summary of “The Danger”: Three men are contaminated by radioactive rays at a nuclear power plant. They must therefore live in a closed space from the outside world. This book describes how they deal with this; different due to different characters. With the theme: the danger of nuclear power plants.
Contents of the book ?? The danger ??
Three men are infected by radioactive rays. It turns out to be very serious. After an examination in the plant, they are transferred to a separate wing in a hospital. The youngest, Martin Molenaar, is the worst. At first they are only nauseous, but soon Martin develops diarrhea, blisters on the skin and on the tongue, hair loss and internal bleeding. In a few days he dies. The others, Dupont and Benhting, are less off; with them the phenomena are present in a much lighter form. They know what’s going to happen to them. Dupont does not agree, he devises a plan to flee and persuades Benting to go along.
They decide to go for real, when Dupont’s wife is waving in the garden of the hospital. One night, when they are left alone for two hours, they decide to leave. They sneak through the laboratory to the elevator, which opens into the garage. There they take an ambulance and drive to Dupont’s flat. On the house phone, he asks his wife to put clothes and money for him and Benting in the elevator. After dressing up, they split up. Dupont goes to a cafe to have a beer. When he gets up to go to the bathroom, he falls. In his fall, he knocked the beer glass off the table. When he picks up the shards, he gets a cut in his hand. Due to the shortage of thrombocytes, the wound does not close and it bleeds to death. For example, he is found by the police, who have been warned by the hospital. Benting went to an old aunt of his, where he used to live with. He gets a room there; after three days he decides to go home. He dies in the train. The cause is unknown (according to the coroner).
Main characters in the book ?? The danger ??
- Benting: resigned, calm type. Can stand looking outside for hours without talking. He sees what happened as an accident: something that can happen every day in a nuclear power plant;
- Dupont: bon vivant, energetic and lively type. Can’t agree that this should happen to him now. I blame Martin – who is probably the culprit for the error – for working so imprecisely. He feels trapped and alone in the white room, which makes him rebellious and stubborn;
- Martin is the youngest and dies first. Little is said about his personality.
Explanation of the book ?? The danger ??
- Title explanation: ‘The danger’ is about the danger to which you are exposed when you work in a nuclear power plant. This danger has killed the three men;
- Theme: The danger of nuclear power plants;
- Motive: The fear, uncertainty, upheaval and sometimes limitless loneliness of modern man in a powerless society.
- Chapters: Three major chapters, which together form a whole; Talking to poplars, The shining tunnel of the night, Living in a stone;
- Layout: In the front and in the back a story that connects together, a pro- and epilogue. About the fear, insecurity, upheaval and loneliness, in other words, the motives.
- Time: With the exception of the prologue, the story is structured chronologically. The prologue is a flash forward. In the prologue, Alfred Benting is already on the run, while the story then begins with the events in the hospital.
Own opinion about the book ‘The danger’
This book is very topical again at this time. The book also certainly gives food for thought about the dangers of nuclear power plants.
The writer Jos Vandeloo
Jos Vandeloo was born on September 5, 1925 in Zonhoven in Belgium. His best-known novels are De Muur (1958) and The Danger (1960).