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This is an infuriating book.  How can one man have lived a hundred lives?  A hundred lives!  And not dull – get up in the morning and brew coffee – lives, like mine.  These are amazing lives: comic, heroic, epic, tragic and sometimes futile.  Here is his story and, by happy coincidence, Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema was born with a fierce and fluent talent for writing.

Nothing stops him, whether it’s a ticking bureaucrat or a ticking time-bomb, Erik the amateur pilot flying countless missions over wartime Germany or the short-sighted applicant surviving countless physical examinations in order to join the RAF’s most elite Pathfinder Force.  Equally gripping is Erik’s postwar encounter with an American employment agency, and his misadventures in the jungles of Hollywood.  But he always emerges apparently unscathed; like a plastic duck plunging over Niagara Falls he surfaces and darts away to new waters.

Erik’s life story, which covers the twentieth century both in time span and much of its turbulent content, provides many truthful insights.  They contradict the glossy and simplistic history of these times that books and television present.  But his writing talent feeds most voraciously upon his love for flying aircraft.  He glosses over his courage which took him back to occupied Holland as a secret agent again and again, but for me it is his many adventures in the air that are most vivid and memorable.  His descriptions of flying a de Havilland Mosquito over snowy Northern Europe or a tiny Republic Seabee over tropical jungle, are graphic and poetic.  And it’s always “we”.  For even when flying solo Erik includes his plane.

But I won’t go on and on;   here is Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema’s life story.  Or one hundred of them to be precise.

(Len Deighton author, 'The Ipcress File'))

Pedro Blas Gonzalez
Reviewer

There are "intellectual" biographies and autobiographies, works that purport to demonstrate cultural pedigree, and then there are vital autobiographies. The latter type signifying more than a mere succession of events instead the pulse of a conscious vitality that recognizes itself as passing through life. Erik Hazelhoff: In Pursuit of Life is a trek through the Dutch writers' diverse encounters with life. The work is a tale that, in juxtaposing life's most vexing and sublime aspects, also succeeds in demonstrating its unity. Len Deighton writes in his introduction to the book: "How can one man have lived a hundred lives? A hundred lives! And not dull."

Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema was born in Java in 1917. Amongst his long catalog of exploits we can count MI6 agent, RAF De Havilland Mosquito pilot, Director of Radio Free Europe, co-creator of NBC's Today and Tonight shows, and writer, including Rendezvous in San Francisco and Soldier of Orange. In Pursuit of Life showcases a life of diligence, discipline, and the self-assuredness that comes from resolve. The reader comes across this resolution early on in the work. Hazelhoff writes: "At the age of six I thoroughly approved of life." But the book is also sincere, witty, and consistently comical. The work is not stuffy, and heavy-handed as is the case with so many autobiographies. Hazelhoff's cavalier manner is also made known in his many instances throughout the book where he pokes fun at his shortcomings. Concerning his failures on the domestic front, he tells us: "Perhaps I wasn't cut out for it, for in the course of this period all these elements somehow vanished my job evaporated, my wife took off, my son became a hippie, my cat was run over, my dog got heart worms, my cars were sold and I found shelter in the old Lambs Club on West 44th Street, New York."

From the outset In Pursuit of Life proves to be a reflection on the nature of self-discovery. Early on the reader witnesses someone who, even though, aware of the role of chance, nevertheless remains cognizant of the importance of taking control of his life. In the first couple chapters we encounter Hazelhoff trying to deal with the stratified Dutch society of the 1930's. Irony, too, is a staple characteristic of this book. One day, as a teenager, he decides to move out of his upper class life. He attempts to accomplish this by becoming a writer. He then goes off on extended travels through the world. He becomes a deck hand on a fishing trawler, contemplates studying law, and tries his luck at making a living as a sidewalk guitar player. As a ranch-hand in Argentina he learns from his employer, Don Mauricio Pieper that, on balance, "You will gain more in life than you'll lose." This was to become a valuable lesson for one who would soon risk his life in the European skies. The middle chapters of the book describe his experiences as a pilot in World War II. This section of the book details his military training and flying exploits with the same relish that Zorba the Greek, Katzantzakis' greater than life character reserves for dolphins. The latter chapters are a reflection on the nature of business and the pleasures of private life. But regardless of the subject matter, the book is well balanced, displaying equal attention to the diverse aspects of his experience.

The final chapters convey a sublime sense of a man running out of time. In fact, the book reads like an adventure tale infused with a profound pathos. In the finale chapter titled Grande Finale Hazelhoff says a final farewell to his friends and family. Concerning wisdom, which he describes as unteachable he has the following to say: "Scriptures seminars, books lectures, tracts, sermons, nothing can convey it except silence, through meditation, contemplation of nature, introspection and similar profound practices. Wise men don't speak, and if they do it's usually in obscure terms merely hinting at an area to be explained. If you are searching for wisdom, only listen to people who keep their mouths shut."

Erik Hazelhoff: In Pursuit of Life is more than a sterile recounting of his dealings with strange people, places, and events. In the midst of adventures and worldly discoveries we find an individual who is consumed by the thought of passing time. And perhaps still more significant is the depiction of a time when the world was fresh, embracing the whims of visionaries and the vital energy of individuals. In Pursuit of Life laments the loss of a world of possibility where mobility both, vertical and lateral was once sanctioned by freedom and imagination.
 

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