The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Published 2024 · 288 pages · 77,503 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction

How hard is The Safekeep to read?

The Safekeep scores 72 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
The prose employs a refined, descriptive vocabulary that is generally accessible but occasionally introduces less common words like 'vitrine,' 'nonplussed,' or 'saccharine.' While avoiding archaic or invented language, the author's precise word choices elevate the text beyond simple contemporary fiction, requiring a slightly more engaged reader than a book like 'The Great Gatsby.'
Sentence structure: 68 out of 100
The text features a moderately high syntactic complexity, characterized by frequent use of compound-complex sentences and extensive subordination. Sentences often string together multiple clauses and descriptive phrases, creating a flowing, sometimes meandering rhythm that demands sustained reader attention. This complexity is more demanding than 'The Great Gatsby' but less extreme than the hypotaxis of a Jamesian novel.
Abstraction: 70 out of 100
While grounded in concrete narrative and sensory details, the novel consistently delves into profound psychological and emotional abstraction. It explores themes of identity, ownership, repressed desire, and the subjective nature of memory through Isabel's intricate internal world, often leaving motivations and symbolic meanings to the reader's interpretation. This level of internal probing is more pronounced than 'Remains of the Day' and approaches the thematic depth of '2666'.
Information density: 72 out of 100
The narrative is highly information-dense, layering Isabel's immediate perceptions with deep psychological subtext, unresolved trauma, and subtle emotional shifts. Each interaction and observation is imbued with significant meaning, requiring constant reader engagement to decipher unspoken motivations and the intricate interplay of past and present. This demands more attention than 'Austerlitz' and approaches the detailed layering of '2666'.
Narrative indirection: 75 out of 100
The narrative heavily relies on inference, particularly regarding Isabel's repressed emotions and Eva's ambiguous motives, forcing readers to piece together meaning from subtle cues and unspoken dynamics. Isabel's limited perspective and the fragmented family history demand constant reader interpretation beyond direct statements, similar to the inferential demands of 'Lolita' (72).
Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
The text is rich with recurring symbols like the house, the hare china, and stolen objects, which consistently carry layered meanings beyond their literal presence. These motifs, alongside the contrasting imagery of gardening and wildness, invite deep thematic interpretation of identity, ownership, and disruption, placing it above 'The Great Gatsby' (75) in its pervasive symbolism.
Ironic distance: 75 out of 100
A significant gap exists between Isabel's often naive or self-deceptive perceptions and the author's implied truths, especially concerning her relationships and desires. The narrative subtly critiques Isabel's judgments and reveals Eva's complex performance, requiring readers to discern the underlying reality, akin to the ironic layers in 'Lolita' (75).
Resolution withholding: 82 out of 100
The excerpt concludes with a dramatic turning point but leaves fundamental questions about Eva's true intentions, Isabel's emotional future, and the house's ultimate fate deeply ambiguous. The lack of clear emotional or narrative closure compels the reader to grapple with persistent uncertainty, exceeding the open meaning of 'The Great Gatsby' (60).
Structural complexity: 62 out of 100
The narrative employs frequent, emotionally charged flashbacks that interrupt the present timeline, requiring readers to actively connect past events to Isabel's current state. While the primary POV remains consistent, Isabel's subjective interpretations add a layer of psychological complexity to the otherwise linear progression, making it more intricate than 'The Great Gatsby' (55) but less fragmented than 'Midnight's Children' (68).

How The Safekeep is regarded

The Safekeep holds a literary regard score of 33 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where The Safekeep sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (146 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, The Safekeep scores 66 out of 100. A second mythos, comedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.3. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
Isabel rearranged her dress, pinched her stockings into order. When she returned to the table, her breath was even, her hands steady.
Symbol: Formal
She counted them: eleven. She counted them again: eleven.
Mythos: Irony IV (tragic pathos) (irony iv)
“You were never supposed to have it.” She said, “It was never yours.”
Genre: Novel + Romance
If found, said the single line on the opening page, return to:

Where the story of The Safekeep takes place

  • Zwolle countryside house and Den Haag/Utrecht/Amsterdam, summer 1961 to winter 1962 (1961 to 1962), the main setting
  • Eva's hiding years in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, 1942-1946 (via diary) (1942 to 1946)
  • Hunger Winter and postwar settlement in the eastern Netherlands, 1944-1946 (1944 to 1946)
  • Amsterdam diary years, 1960-1961 (1960 to 1961)

5 things that are true of The Safekeep, with the passage for each

  1. Isabel counts the spoons on consecutive nights and the number drops from twelve to eleven.

    She counted them: eleven. She counted them again: eleven.

  2. The letters EDH are carved under the drawer of Isabel's late mother's secretary, a detail that later identifies the house's original owners.

    There were initials carved into the bottom of the drawer: EDH.

  3. On the diary's first page, Eva's real surname is given as de Haas.

    If found, said the single line on the opening page, return to:

  4. Isabel's uncle tells her that returning owners of a house will knock.

    “They knock.”

  5. The book ends with a bare citation of Isaiah 56:7, the verse about a 'house of devotion for all'.

    Isaiah 56:7

Scenes in The Safekeep that Frye would name

28 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Anagnorisis, untitled
If found, said the single line on the opening page, return to: Isabel discovers Eva's true name on the diary's first page and recognizes whose house she keeps.
Confession, untitled
She’s been gone ten years today. New diary. A sustained first-person diary register opens, giving Eva's introverted autobiography.
Hamartia, untitled
You’re a thief. You came here to steal from me. Isabel's fatal misjudgment: she accuses and expels the rightful heir, which repeats the original dispossession.
Cognitio, untitled
It’s mine. And it’s yours. If you want it. Isabel restores the house to its rightful heir, and the lovers reunite through recognition.
Pharmakos, untitled
Isabel said, “Out of my house.” Eva is driven out as the scapegoat, carrying the household's guilt away with her.
Point of epiphany, untitled
Isabel lay on her back under the secretary desk and put her fingers to the etched initials: EDH. The hidden place of the house where Isabel touches Eva's childhood carving is where two histories meet.

Books that share these scenes with The Safekeep

About the author

Yael van der Wouden