Piet Vroon: From Bestselling Author to Tragic Story

I read this book a little while ago in October mainly because it was short and I was behind on my reading target for 2025. It is barely 50 pages thick and I read a couple of other books by Piet Vroon long ago that I liked very much. Unfortunately, the quality of the book is in line with its title, which in English would be something like botch job. It was written as a companion to an exposition in very short time and is not very coherent. Piet Vroon was a Dutch psychologist that became famous and wrote a couple of best sellers about the human brain. His thesis was that the human brain is composed of 3 different parts with a different evolutionary age that don’t work together harmoniously. Two books became famous and I did enjoy reading them : de tranen van de krokodil and Wolfsklem. When Vroon wrote Wolfsklem in 1992 he was at the height of his fame but the book was attacked by a reviewer and is the start of his demise. Vroon sinks into a depression and finally commits suicide early 1998. When I read his bestsellers I was not aware of the controversy and criticism but after reading this article (in Dutch) I am tempted to reread at least de tranen van de krokodil to see if I still think it is a good book. Regardless, I recommend not to spend time on Prutswerk, even if it would take you only one afternoon. Better read de tranen van de krokodil instead. Prutswerk. Veertig klachten aan de schepper by Piet Vroon, ISBN 9789026315046, published by Ambo.