Immobilized by a crippling car accident in 1972, Dutch author Alfred Kossmann turned to even more introspective prose in De seizoenen van een invalide lezer, a collection of four essays. While prior to the accident Kossmann had been a compulsive traveller, his travels now take place in the mind, or in an arm chair. This fate is lamented by the author, and in subsequent work his deformation appears as a trauma.

The writing style of De seizoenen van een invalide lezer is similar to previous work, but, as for instance compared with De smaak van groene kaas, the physical act of travelling is substituted by reading and contemplation. What has remained is Kossmann's extensive introspection, pondering his life in past and present, making connections between his reading, his life and his work. And again, the reader can observe how impressions, this time from reading appear in future work. Thus, while translating Cavafy in the second essay Kossmann contemplates the merit of two translations of a poem by Cavafy, preferring the English translation by Rae Dalven: "perhaps arrogance and drunkenness; but no -- rather like understanding of the vanity of grandeurs" over the Dutch translation by G. H. Blanken: "hoogmoedigheid wellicht en dronkenschap; neen toch -- veeleer iets als een vol begrip van het ijdele van alle grootheid." Hoogmoed en dronkenschap would be the title of one of Kossmann's novels, published in 1981.

The four seasons in De seizoenen van een invalide lezer are Summer, Spring, Winter and Autumn, and the four essays are presented in this achronological order. In the first essay, Kossmann ponders the value of literature as a source of wisdom and experience. He balks at being immobile and bored in Wassenaar. The second essay, describes refers to the accident is a very short paragraph. the accident itself is never described: always only before and after, as if the accident is completely blacked-out. This is remarkable, because almost all of Kossmann's work brims with biographical details.

De seizoenen van een invalide lezer provide valuable biographical details that would be hard to locate, since no biography has been published about Alfred Kossmann. In several of the essays, Kossmann looks back on the publication of his first novel in 1950. This novel, De nederlaag is based on Kossmann's experience of forced labour in Heidelberg for the Nazis during the Second World War. Details described in the essays reveal how the author twisted reality into fiction.

The second essay also brings up Martelaar voor een dagdroom, twee verhalen van Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and an essay by Alfred Kossmann, published in (1962). This early essaistic work by Kossmann explains why sado-masochism often features in some of his later work, particularly in, for instance, De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen.

Kossmann does write about literature in these essays, notably Omar Khayyam, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano and Cavafy's poetry, among many others, but as with Kossmann's previous travelogues, the backdrop is barely of interest. De seizoenen van een invalide lezer is a collection of very personal, autobiographical essays. ( )