Gerard Reve, Provocative Author, Dies at 82
from the NY Times
THE HAGUE, April 11 (Agence France-Presse) — Gerard Reve, considered one of the Dutch postwar literary greats, has died, his partner announced on Sunday. He was 82.
Mr. Reve, whose full name was Gerard Kornelis van het Reve
An account of the staunch, oppressive environment of the lower-middle-class Dutch in the postwar years, it is considered a classic of modern Dutch literature.
Mr. Reve’s much reprinted and controversial books “Op Weg Naar Het Einde” (”Approaching the End,” 1963), and “Nader tot U” (”Nearer to Thee,” 1966), in which he openly spoke of his homosexuality and his conversion to Roman Catholicism, established him as a public figure in the Netherlands.
“Nader tot U” sparked controversy because Mr. Reve wrote about having sex with God, who appeared to him in the guise of a donkey. He was prosecuted for blasphemy, but cleared in 1968.
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