Pulling Stitches: A Story of a Lifetime of Clothing Hassles in 1900 Amsterdam

by Theo Thijssen, Marc Luxen (Translator)

Pulling Stitches is a highly entertaining novel set in Amsterdam, around 1920. Joop, a working-class boy who has become a schoolteacher, looks back at his life and discovers that there always has been some sort of trouble with his clothes. He comes from a poor family, but like everyone, they fight hard to maintain decent clothes, because that was the only means of social survival. The story begins when Joop is about four years old, a small boy living with his parents, (his father is a shoemaker) in de Jordaan, a poor area of Amsterdam. Joop grows up to be a school boy, and after his father dies, he helps out with the shop, making deliveries. The book gives a first-hand insight in the life of ordinary people at that time, which also makes it a fascinating (from the book;) By the way, you are profoundly aware of your overall worthlessness when you are in Aunt Daatje's kitchen. At any moment, like a higher being from heaven, Madam can come down the somewhat creaking steps, and Aunt Daatje instructs you in a whisper how you should behave. Her normal conversation, whether everything is fine at home, whether the girls are doing well at school - her normal conversation is loud enough to pierce the loft floor; it even seems to be meant from time to time to be heard by ‘Well, this week a good order again all together, your Mother should have more customers like that.’ To which I answer, tactically, ‘That is right, Aunt!’ But in between that loud conversation there are the whispered instructions, and they are doubly imposing because of that. ‘You can sit down for the time being, but remember that when Madam comes in, you get on your feet. You will hear the stairs creaking on time.’ Shouting ‘Didn't I also order brown sugar?’ ‘Here, next to the rice, Aunt!’ I shout back. ‘And then also...’ she whispers again, but apparently cannot think of something that quickly regarding what else I should think about, and so she returns to the loud conversation Joop grows up to be a student, needing all kinds of attire they cannot afford, has a brief spell as a conscript where clothes are provided, but a punishable (from the book;) And when we are in line at the square an hour later, and undergo the first stage of the inspection, then we begin to understand how bad Lot really is. We are standing there without mercy in full daylight, and there is nothing that escapes Lot’s attention. ‘Hair too long, chin not sufficiently shaved, and when being made aware of that, murmured something incomprehensible’, Lot dictates to the Sergeant-Major, who writes this down with a serious face in his book. ‘Major, have the front line take four steps forward.’ ‘'Pull up trousers legs one decimetre. Stand still, the rear rank. Well..’. I am standing at the back, and I watch in horror. After that, as a young teacher, he needs to go to balls with all their clothing misery, gets married, and then the First World War when he needs to wear his old-fashioned wedding coat to (from the Who will see you, she said; no one but your colleagues. She just forgets on my whole class! Well, not the boys - boys take something like that for granted, don't care about the master's clothes. But the girls- my girls! My girls from the last school year, that cheerful group that sees every little thing. The book ends with Joop as an middle-aged man, realising that there is ‘this thread of clothing misery’ in his life.

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2020

Reviews

[Jannelies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the original Dutch version times and times again... I can recommend it highly! It's the story of a very, very poor family, living in Amsterdam in 1900. Father dies, mother tries to earn enough money to keep her children fed an clothed. And the clothes, they play the leading role in this story. I think most people have memories about clothing you didn't want to wear as a child, but you mother made you. Too small, too large, not the right fabric or the right brand. Well, the main character in this book has no choice; his mother is happy she can clothe the children and she does everything to keep them happy.
Although the real story behind this all is of course very sad, the book is not a sad one. It's actually a very fun read.