The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen: 83 1/4 Years Old
By: Hendrik Goren / Translated By: Hester Velmans / Narrated By: Derek Jacobi
Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
A humorous look at how aging sucks
I got The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen because Derek Jacobi is the narrator (and after The House of Silk, I realized that the man truly rocks!). And honestly, he does a wonderful job here! Let’s just start with that, shall we? I can’t even begin to tell you what or how, exactly, he rocks, but he does. He captures an older man’s whims and vices, his strengths and fears, his loves and his tragedies. And he does all that for each of Hendrik’s friends and foes also. The only problem is that this is one man’s thoughts and observations, which are quiet, and his friends’ actions and observations, which are loud (cuz people get to be quite the curmudgeons when they age!). Normally, all that would just go to show how wonderfully nuanced the narration/performance is, but if it’s saaaaaay, three o’clock in the morning and you’re trying to be really quiet so as not to wake anyone? Well then, volume control can become an extraordinary problem. I’d find myself raising the volume as Hendrik considered something only to have to fly right back to my phone because his boozing buddy started braying something obnoxious and insulting. It makes for good writing, but it also makes for really schizzy three o’clocks in the morning.
Still, this year-in-the-life-of story is wonderful, though it gets to be harrowing… but maybe that’s just me. I’ve seen loved ones wind up bedridden, loved ones wind up with dementia, so I’m kinda looking at Hendrik’s story of aging in a care home with eyes wide as saucers, pupils dilated in fear.
But that’s just me, huh?
It’s not all harrowing. Hendrik and his friends in the care home start a very exclusive club, membership limited to only six people, that devotes time to getting out and experiencing new things, just for the sheer joy and hell of it. They’re a spunky lot, and boy do they like their alcohol, or what? They’re set on living what’s left of their lives to the fullest, and they become very much devoted to each other. We, the listeners, get to know and love each of them very much, especially as we learn their backstories, their lives before the care home. And we get to know some about Hendrik through bits and pieces of memories scattered like so many pebbles upon sand.
Which is why it becomes rather painful: We CARE! So when the worst happens, when aging throws each of them curve balls, it hurts to hear. Aging is not kind, and Hendrik thinks about euthanasia for a good deal of the audiobook (until his best friend frames things for him in a very black and white way, a way that’s utterly philosophically sound, actually). We love their wit and irreverence; we love their bravery and stubbornness; we even love them as they complain about other old folks, about some of the low-paid care assistants (because they’ve gotten to be a bit racist as time went on). But we hate what time does to them. Even as Hendrik delights in his new mobility scooter, we’re sad for him for not being able to walk as well as he used to. Even as his best friend delights in near-alcoholism, we’re aghast to see what effects that has on his body.
Did I like The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen? You betcha; I totally did. It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s charming. It’s just that ya gotta expect a bit of tragedy also. But even as you weep, you’ll be loving Hendrik.
And even as you dash back to your device to lower the volume, you’ll be loving Derek Jacobi’s marvelous, Marvelous, MARVELOUS performance! The not-quite 12 hours flew by!
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