Arnon Grunberg

No sex, no violence

Beer

During my first public appearance at Leiden University on September 1 a journalist from the student newspaper approached me. He said to me: “You were embedded with Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan and with US soldiers in Iraq, do you want to be embedded with students in Leiden? And write about your experiences for our newspaper?” There was something appealing about this request so I answered: “Why not?” Last night I was “embedded” with students; pleasant, friendly and sometimes even charming people. No violence, no sex, no ugly remarks. Some of the students were singing a little bit too loud to my taste but the same is true for some people in synagogue.
Yes, some students threw beer, but even that was carefully orchestrated.