Has anyone seen the documentary about Joost Zwagerman?

It had been quiet around Joost Zwagerman for a long time. After his self-chosen death, a beautiful themed broadcast of De Wereld Draait Door followed, the newspapers wrote a closing word et c’était ça. At least, it seemed that way. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Maaike continued on and even gave birth to his child. I found it incredible when I heard that. That sadness, that care. And then becoming a mother alone for the first time.

Maaike did not seek the spotlight, but she spoke out for the first time two weeks ago. Because she wanted attention. Not for herself, but about the Joost Zwagerman lecture that will now be held every year on his birthday. So that his broad ideas and interests are cherished.

In that interview, Maaike mentioned that she was also asked for ‘the’ documentary that Coen Verbraak made about her late beloved. She said no to that. She thought he was a good journalist, truly, but she preferred the Volkskrant because it was ‘Joost's newspaper’.

After watching the documentary, I regretted that she did not say yes, to posthumously bring a bit of color to Joost's cheeks. Because quite a bit was lost on Mr. Verbraak's editing table. What remained was a document about a man who ‘was better than he thought, but less good than he hoped’, who emailed ‘madmen’ when he was angry, who was impatient, needed a desert of calm to come to a novel that was disturbed by his family, who immediately threw himself into another relationship after his divorce, who secretly edited the Wikipedia page of arch-rival Michaël Zeeman (and vice versa, I found that quite a funny story), who would have become arrogant after the success of his novel ‘Gimmick!’ and who was furious again when Leon de Winter made a cover for ‘The Right to Return’, which suspiciously resembled that of ‘False Light’.

The only thing that was really nice was the fragment in which Harry Mulisch mentioned Joost Zwagerman as ‘successor’. And precisely that is being vilified on Twitter because Mulisch would have nuanced this statement (during College Tour) immediately and then pointed to Adri van der Heijden. Well, I saw a fragment where you saw both Mulisch and Joost Zwagerman discussing this statement, so... Twitter sourpusses, I don't know.

In my opinion, Zwagerman was so much more than that and that he was afraid of everything, I did not see that substantiated. He was also that boy who once called all TV editorial offices to ask for attention for his book? And the boy who threw himself into nightlife to write a book about it? And in my opinion, his love with Pereboom was a sincere, deep, uncontainable love. Not an affair he suddenly lost himself in.

‘Honestly’, NRC wrote today about the documentary. I would have liked to hear another voice as well. A bit of counter-argument from the other side, from people who cherish another part of Joost. They are there too. Because the line between honest and rude, in my opinion, was just a bit too thin yesterday.