The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 3/4 Years Old

When I started reading this book The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 3/4 Years Old, simply because the book flaps read interesting, I had no idea that the book is completely nonfiction and that Hendrik Groen is the author and not just an invented character in this epistolary-like novel. Hendrik was a pensioner in a Norwegian retirement home when he decided to keep a journal of his experiences...and the reader can be so grateful to this lovely curmudgeon, lovely-hearted man for doing so.

Hendrik Groen is an alias, and Meulenhoff Publishing released the book as fiction. As Hendrik cryptically explained: There's not one sentence that's a lie, but not every word is true. It turns out, Hendrik Groen is the pseudonym of Peter de Smet, a Dutch writer. The book was published in 2014, leading to several years of speculation about who could be credited with authorship; de Smet wanted no notoriety whatsoever for the book, even after a stage play came out a few years ago. Now, he is out and proud with the second book in this series called On the Bright Side: The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen.

The entire time I am reading the book I'm constantly thinking of my friend Jamie who is a social worker at a nursing home about an hour from me. I knew she would appreciate the humor, the grumbles, the realism, the darkness and the affection of this book. And I was right. It's on her list.


I'm about a hundred pages out at this point. I'll be back with a review in a day or two. Stay tuned.

“Another year, and I still don’t like old people,” he writes. “Their walker shuffle, their unreasonable impatience, their endless complaints, their tea and cookies, their bellyaching.”
~Hendrik Groen