Monday, July 12, 2010

Sister Peters in Amsterdam--1969


The Great Betty Neels wasn't a spring chicken when she took up writing. I don't know if she always scribbled here and there. I don't know if she knocked out random chapters of books that never went anywhere and sat in the bottom of some drawer somewhere. (Someday we may uncover a missing manuscript for a Betty Neels space opera, I'm sure of it.) The way she tells it, she simply overheard someone telling a librarian that there weren't enough good romance novels and a switch was flipped on inside her. One day she was a nurse and another day she was a writer. If she was half as hard-working and dedicated to her nursing as she was to her books, she must have been amazing. Her first book, Sister Peters in Amsterdam begins, "It was one o'clock; the corridor leading from the main hospital to the children's unit was very quiet." The rest is history.

Adelaide Peters is the baby whisperer. She's a nice looking redhead of 25 and a capable sister in charge of Children's Emergency and Outpatients. When little darlings are recalcitrant or fussed or inconveniently damp Sister Peters dons her Lasso of Truth and her Deflecting Wristbands, hops into her Invisible Jet and rules that ward. She has a minister father, twin brothers, Matthew and Mark (love it!), for whom she sends school fees and monetary help home and a mother who live off in the country somewhere.
When Baron Professor Coenraad Blankenaar Van Essen visits her ward and tours the facilities he is secretly checking her suitability (and her statistics) for a one-year nurse exchange program. Don't start asking pesky questions like, "But, Betty Keira, wouldn't it be medically unsafe to put a woman in charge of sick children under emergency conditions when she doesn't speak a common language with them or their distraught parents?" To which I answer, 'She's the baby whisperer. Just go with it.'
And then she's off to Holland!
Adelaide has agreed to go because the professor is hot. Sure, sure, international travel, broadened horizons, foreign language mastery...that's all there too. But lest we forget: The Professor is HOT.
The structure is a little unusual in this book so I'll take this in seasons.
Fall:
Arrival and re-acquaintance with hot doctor. We are introduced to the character Freule Margriet Keizer, a shadowy figure initially, who seems to see a lot of the good doctor. Addy struggles with the difficult language and muddles her verbs charmingly but proves herself as a dedicated nurse and a sensible woman.
Winter:
The Great Neels uses this opportunity to chuck every Dutch tradition in the pot like a very well-bred mulligan stew. During the feast of Saint Nicolaas we meet Zwarte Piet, Nicolaas' 'black slave' (okey-doke), and Addy meets Margriet. Addy isn't in love yet so her hopes aren't precisely dashed but she does like Coenraad enough to feel sorry that he's taken. (Girlfriend, a wise woman once said, 'If you like it then you should have put a ring on it. Oh, oh, oh.')
On New Year's Eve she is invited to his aunt's house for a party--the first time he will see her out of uniform! How disappointing then to be looked at as though she were an advertisement for Lawn Aeration or Carpet Installation. She is angry with him--incensed that he is non-responsive to her considerable feminine whiles. Thus she embarks on a curious one-sided courtship. No actual attempts at wooing are made, but she assumes the right to hate him (when he brushes her off) and Margriet (when she...acts like herself) nonetheless. I am put in mind of that movie The Mouse That Roared wherein the tiny country, in a bid to recover economically when a California vineyard knocks off their only export, declares war with America only to have a difficult time being noticed at all.
Or Pepe Le Pew making violent love to a flower pot. I'm put in mind of that too...
Either way, Addy has her moment of flashing realization that night. She is in love with the Professor. (Smacks head) That's why I want to scratch Margriet's eyes out!
The Betty Neels I know and love could wrap things up within days or weeks of such an event but if I may draw your attention to the YEAR-LONG CONTRACT Addy signed...We've still got the better part of two more seasons to traverse.
Addy gets lost in a blizzard (in a city!), is rescued by you-know-who with the medical degree and smashing bedside manner, and weathers some blistering cattiness from Margriet who has attached herself to the Professor like an oxpecker on a rhino's backside (only less willing to eat ticks). Think she's going to roll over and let another symbiotic relationship develop under her nose? Nuh-uh.
Ice-skating also occurs in this Dutch winter and Coenraad engineers some quality time with his best nurse out on the ice.
Spring:
She discovers, by asking her elderly Dutch teacher, the Sad Tale of the Orphan Boy or How the Professor Lost His Eyesight in One Eye. I won't ruin it but it involves Nazis, prison camp, loyal servants and the Late Unpleasantness.
The Professor takes her to tea where she discovers that he is a baron. "...don't you approve of titles?" "Well of course I do," replied Addy in just the right tone for someone hailing from a country governed by a constitutional monarchy. This American Betty might have replied to that selfsame question, "Ordinarily and theoretically, no. Romantically and interestingly, yes." Is there anything more drear and cheerless than those awful French novels wherein they call each other Citizen and Citizeness? Gag.
But this presents a problem for Addy. Bad enough that the Professor is rich. Worse that he's nobility. A country parson's daughter would have to be insane to reach that high. (Had she not heard of The King and the Beggar Maid?)
But then he kisses her thoroughly and she kisses him back.
Had she not just discovered his Adel-ness and wealth, this story might have ended there. As it is, she tells him not to say anything. So much better to be swamped by eddying waves of confusion and doubt when a conversational air blower could have mucked that gutter out in a jiff.
In the spring a young man's thoughts turn to lorries full of scrap iron, oil tankers and bus accidents. (Thank Betty for a stunning visual.) Addy makes a heroic rescue in tight quarters and Coenraad, in turn, rescues her.
Summer:
Coenraad invites all the nurses out to his family compound for a picnic. The cable-knit sweaters, deck shoes, and bon fires practically drip off the page in a sort of amalgam of all the Kennedy clan's more glamorously wholesome activities. Coenraad and Addy swim out to a floating platform where he tells her about his eye and about how he's always hoping for a miracle.
"How did you find out that I knew?"
"You always stand on my good side when we're at work."

Aww. That's how you know they're meant for each other.
He invites her to travel with him to England. (Does he know she can't afford the fare?) After assuring herself that the trip won't include an overnight stop in Brighton (I heart Betty.), she agrees to come.
Not much time and energy are wasted on England. Addy makes an apple pie. Coenraad charms her parents. Father gives him some advice (we don't find out what) which Coenraad plans on taking. (A handy-dandy Fortune Cookie Generator tells us that it is, 'Your emotional nature is strong and sensitive.' Spot on. Eerie.)
On the trip back we find that her social life in Holland has been a bit dire. She had one ill-fated trip out with two rowdy doctors, one dance and mild chat-up with Brocade Waistcoat Fellow and what she thought would be a safe night out to a concert with Dr. Vos, an aged widower who will probably have his teeth punched in by Coenraad due to some lecherous advances made on the future Baroness Van Essen.
Then Addy, desperate to put some distance between herself and Coenraad, accepts a date with Brocade Waistcoat Fellow. The next day a fellow doctor, upon hearing who her date was, exclaims, 'Couldn't you do better than that?'
Erm.......no.
It's been nearly a year and between three lechers and a bad dresser she chose the lesser of evils. Better a Brocade Waistcoat than Wandering Hands, my mom always said.
But maybe the Professor agrees that Addy should have been able to do better. He asks her to the hospital ball and in a flurry of excitement she spends some carefully saved money on a dress. Her quiet elation is burst when Margriet, laying in wait like a jungle cat, pounces on her "by chance" (fat chance) outside the hospital.
Margriet: Hey, girlfriend. We should hang out more.
Addy: Why are your eyes turning red?
Margriet: I'm so glad that I twisted Coenraad's arm to ask you to the ball. You've only had that Carnival Freak Show asking you out so...
Addy: Huh. Don't mind that. It's the sound of my heart fracturing irrevocably. You were saying...?
Margriet: And I thought this totally uncharacteristic kindness on my part would be rewarded with the Heirloom Sapphire engagement ring! And it was!
Addy: Where is it?
Margriet: Jewelers. I'm having it reforged in the fires of Mount Doom into an exact copy of Sauron's ring--The Demon Lord of Mordor! Bye!
Addy must break the date now. She fakes a toothache--possibly the most unromantic of excuses (short of going nuclear. You know what I mean... Women's problems.)--and cancels. And then she decides she must go home. Even though it is a few weeks shy of her contract, she asks for permission to leave.
She gets all the way to his aunt's house (Where better to kill time while simultaneously avoiding Coenraad and waiting for the train?) when in walks Coenraad. He's furious and ready to drag her back to the hospital by her hair.
But somehow he manages to ask her to stay on until Friday (uh...okay) and has her explain what all that, "I hope you and Margriet are happy together, forever, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" stuff was all about.
White faced and pinched, she allows him to dictate the terms of her dismissal.
On the day of her final departure, he waylays her in the hall, drags her off to somewhere private enough (a city square outside a church?) and gets his proposing over with at last. "I've been in love with you from the start!" Really!? Public snogging and firm wedding plans.
The End


Rating: Since this was her first effort some of the Neels-isms are light on the ground. The hero is wonderful (glasses and a depth perception problem!) and the heroine is (she hates this word) sensible. I like it. Still, it takes a long time getting going and the time frame (one whole year) is more reality based than novel based (there's a reason Romeo and Juliette takes less than a week from end to end). I was a little irked that it spanned that entire time and Coenraad didn't make his feelings more plain. However, the last 10 pages make it all worth it even if making her stay for three more days before she could leave was weird and unnecessary. I give it a boeuf en croute for originality and the spot of semi-blindness.

Fashion: Dainty frilled cap, velvet dress with chestnut brown hair bow, a green coat and hat that get serious mileage, a white bathing cap with a ridiculous fringe and a 'despised' black swimsuit, an unused turquoise blue raw silk ball gown. The professor proposes in a 'car coat'.

Food: Savory tidbits, hot chestnuts (I think I need to try some), potato chips, milkless tea, creamy cake, lobster patties, chicken legs, tiny pork pies, apple pie and chicken mousse (hm).

27 comments:

  1. Betty Barbara here--
    Ah yes, some of the things we know and love about Betty Neels' books are there from the beginning.
    I've not had the pleasure of reading this, so I was unaware that our Sister's stay in Holland was so long! A whole year!! Glad Our Betty learned to shorten that in later books. But Doctor, Rich and Dutch and Titled--check. Evil 'girlfriend' --check. Running away--check.
    And that cover! to be cherished in its own right. Maybe you could do a 'caption that cover' featuring it.

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  2. How about we write a Betty Neels inspired space opera? That could be a lot of fun!

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  3. There's so much in this book! Enough material for two or three stories. I'm also glad she shortened up the stories and kept all the necessary benchmarks in each one!

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  4. The only thing you left out was the "rescue" - from the two young "louts" (young lecherous doctors who take her skating and want to force her into coming to a nightclub with them!). This is truly a classic Neels - it has all the necessary elements (young home-supporting nurse, able to work like a horse and charm babies without blinking, in love and selfless about it (only wanting his happiness) and running off, just to be found by him in the nick of time. Who wouldn't love a book like this?

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  5. Oh, dear -- once again the bit you most especially like (here it's the ending) is the bit I most especially have a problem with.

    One thing that The Great Betty got much better at was thinking, "Yes, but what's the RDD got in mind?" There's no suggestion that Coenraad (love that name, truly I do) had a plan of action despite his declaration that he's in the "I Fell In Love With You The Moment I Saw You" class of RDDs. She runs away, having all her luggage right there with her and having already quit the job -- she couldn't have started the ball rolling better if she'd tried. What he should do is propose on the spot and get her settled with Tante Anneke while he works to have the banns read or whatever the paperwork is on the Dutch end for marriage.

    But no -- he sends her back to the hospital. What's that all about? I don't think The Great Betty had a course of action in mind, which makes Coenraad that rarest of RDDs -- the man without a plan.

    Treacle tart. Or, as I rated it back in the 70s, ★★1/2

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  6. I must say that the references to Addy's red hair and how Dutch people don't like it kind of weirded me out.

    Does anyone know anything further about this???

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  7. Betty Ilana -- I can't find it now, but somewhere I commented on this. I had asked a Dutchman in the 1970s and he said, yes, the Dutch people didn't like red hair. But oddly, if you Google that now, you get way more references to the Brits not liking red hair.

    So color me brunette but confused. (And really, it's gray hair now.)

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  8. Sister Peters in Amsterdam - one of my top ten favourits!
    I never had a problem with the story evolving over the course of a whole year. Some of the great Betty's later heroes waited for quite a while before declaring themselves, years in one or two cases (ok: where the lady was involved with someone else and they did most of the waiting before the story began).

    And,of course, Coenraad had to do some quick thinking when he received Addy's note saying she was leaving. Remember, he was supposed to take a clinic, not drive about the city hunting his future intended. (Though I always wondered how he knew she would be at his aunt's house.) I suppose he didn't want to pop the question and then rush right back to work. On Friday, presumably, he had more time at his disposal.

    Betty Keira, regarding the proposal:
    "somewhere private enough (a city square outside a church?)"

    That square was the Begijnhof. It's not an "open" square but quite a large "inner court" and unless it's teeming with tourists it's really quiet and peaceful there. Right in the city's busy centre, almost a place out of time. Though it isn't, of course, it even has it's own website:
    http://www.begijnhofamsterdam.nl/ On the lefthand side search for NL / EN beneath the picture, then click on the EN for the English version. There's a photogallery, too.
    Betty Anonymous

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    1. Thanks so much for the Begijnhof website. I just learn so much from other Bettys! As a eucharistic miracle buff I was surprised to see that this church holds the memory of one such miracle from 1345. I'd never heard of it before. And it was responsible for Amsterdam being called the Miracle City.
      Great processions were held ever year around 3/15. Until the reformation, when the government outlawed public Catholicness. They took away the original chapel and tore it down in 1909 rather than let the Catholics restore it. The women's order that cared for the church were allowed to build the current Begijnhof, but it wasn't allowed to look like a church by order of the city govt. Thus why it look like several houses on the outside. Processions were outlawed. Faithful Catholics started the Silent Walk and it became well known in the 19th cent. and is still done today. This years takes place at midnight on 3/17/12. They walk in silence between 12am and 4am. Thousands of people come from all over. I'd love to participate some day. This is going on my Bucket List.
      Prof VdP and I were even thinking we should go to Holland, MI at the same time (6pm 3/16) and process in solidarity with those in Amsterdam.
      Well anyway, loved the info. Thanks Betty Anon!

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    2. hi.. any idea where i can get the book on internet? plzz help!

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  9. I can't find Dr. Vos anywhere in my book!!!!

    And I have the same cover! I love those old covers.

    I skimmed twice in my book and can't find him!

    help.

    1Francesca

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  10. Francesca,
    We don't actually get to "meet" Dr. Vos, we only "hear" of the regrettable incident through Adelaide. On page 160 in my copy(unfortunately I don't have the same as you, mine has 220p, might be somewhere around page 132 in your copy), Adelaide and Coenraad are on their way back from England after Addy's vacation and are having a picnic somewhere near Ostend. She tells him what sights she has seen and who she's been going out with.
    Betty Anonymous

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  11. Her first book was mighty good for a newbie! This was my first time to read Sister Peters. Loved all the action adventure: ice skating, rescue working-life saving, sea swimming, and the desperate face-saving tooth-ache.

    Great review! Loved the analogy to horse whispering and the ring of power.

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    1. hey can you please send me d pdf/txt/doc of this book?? plz!

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  12. hey, i ihv read more than 20 betty neels and i really wish to read this one! but i can find it anywhere on the internet for a download.
    can anyone help???

    where can i download the book - doc/txt/pdf/epub....any would do!!!
    please respond!!
    email- iridescent.1392@gmail.com

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  13. I stumbled onto your website today, and this is the first review I've read. I LOVE IT!!! lol! This is so awesome. :) I've never read this particular novel, but I'm really excited to go through all your reviews to FINALLY nail down the one I vaguely remember the ending to, but not the name of the book. :) You guys are totally wonderful.

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    1. Welcome, Betty Margie! Good luck in your search. If you could give us the details of your vaguely remembered ending perhaps there is a Betty who has a clue to which novel it might be.

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  14. I was searching the Internet for "authors like Betty Neels" when I stumbled upon your site, and I absolutely adore the whole idea of it. I first came across her work when I was in high school, but I wasn't at the right time and place (intellectually & emotionally) to appreciate it. I tried reading it again on a whim in my early thirties, and that was it. :)
    Hope to come back here soon to share my thoughts on SPiA (but first I'll need to do a reread; it's been a while). :D

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  15. Hello Marian. I don't think there is another author like the Great Betty. I started reading her books back around 1972ish, and now have all of them. I love reading all kinds of books, but murder mysteries are a great favourite. I collected Agatha Christie and have just about all of hers too. I like political biographies and have a few, mainly Australian pollies. Take a wild guess where i am from!!!! Lovely to ssee a recent comment added. Cheers.

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    1. Betty Marian, Betty Del -- are you part of our Facebook group as well? Do, please, take a look. We'd love to have you along.

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    2. I don't do Facebook. Got involved once and was nearly driven mad with it! Mainly from my granddaughters! Love anything Betty. Merry Xmas, and thanks for the thought.

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    3. Well, Betty Del, you could be sneaky and secretly open a Facebook account just to participate in the group, without telling your family. And you could use a pseudonym instead of your real name. That way your family won't find you by chance. Some of the Bettys use aliases. They use their "Betty name" (Betty + first name), e. g. Betty JoDee and Betty van den Betsy, or they invented a name Betty something van der something.
      The only reason I am on Facebook is because I wanted to participate in our Facebook group.
      I hope you had a lovely Christmas!

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  16. I remember my parents reading this in the mid 1970s. They really enjoyed it -- how many Harlequins referenced saving Jews in WWII? -- so my tween self read it too, and we stayed Betty fans for many years. (Once I had a stopover in Romania in the 1980s and one of the other travelers said he was Friesian; I think I scared him with my excited questions about his country and Betty.) But then my parents -- and I-- got turned off for a while by the number of Nasty Reilof types. Too many silky suave insults, too many "yes I am getting married [to YOU]"s, too many swooping fierce premarital kisses. A few years ago, though, I saw that my library had a lot of Neels ebooks, so for nostalgia's sake I read one, then another, ... They were funny! Well-written (but poorly edited/proofread)! And the heroes were mostly very nice! I don't know how it happened but a lot of the books I chose offered quite a bit of hero POV. But since I don't have time to read them all again I come here and read these posts and laugh and learn a lot, too.
    Ok, maybe I missed something, but what prompted Addie to ask why Coenraad wears glasses? Most people wear glasses but you don't usually wonder, Hm, are they farsighted or nearsighted or is there a more sinister reason for those lenses? Were they particularly strange looking? Was his eye noticeably deformed or something?

    B. Baersma

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    1. Yes, Betty Baersma, you did miss something. 😊 Adelaide gave an explanation in that conversation.

      'Why does Professor Van Essen wear glasses?' Mijnheer de Wit took off his own spectacles and looked at her sharply.
      'Miss Peters, I find that a most peculiar question.'
      'Yes, I know, but I don't mean to be impertinent. You see, it isn't just curiosity. I've noticed he doesn't use one of his eyes...' She added apologetically, 'I work with him every day, and I look at him quite often.' She went a little pink.

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  17. Thank you, Betty Anonymous! Library ebooks are handy for a quick read but they aren't always available to check when questions like this arise.

    B. Baersma

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  18. Love this review and the whole site! What a wonderful way to honor a vast body of work that’s brought joy to so many people!

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