Two Old Men and a Baby: Or, How Hendrik and Evert Get Themselves into a Jam (Hendrik Groen, 3)

When you pick up this novel, you are picking up a farce. And that is not at all a bad thing. TWO OLD MEN AND A BABY is a geriatric romp through the land of farcical situations. This novel has a Keystone Kops police force, a nosy neighbor, incompetent and self-important government officials, and hapless protagonists who are really decent folks you can't help but root for. It’s all there.

In all honesty, I was more into this text in the last 140 pages than I was for the first 120. It was never bad, it just failed to grip me. However, I was never irritated while reading it.
A strength of this novel are the characterizations that are concise and on point. Almost immediately after a character is introduced you know if they are one of the good guys, or one of the bad guys. Again, an element of any good farce.
Also enjoyable is some fun social commentary, especially with those in so called positions of “authority”.
Quotes:
• “People in distress tend to grab on to the first thing that’s at hand…”
• “The veneer of civilization is often quite thin. Too thin for hot coffee spilled all over one’s dress.”
• “Language is so hopelessly inadequate sometimes.”
• “There aren’t many who enjoy being proved wrong.”
• “There wasn’t much he did like, in fact, except for cars, soccer, beer, and money. A manageable set of priorities, he thought.”
• “Wil didn’t much like talking to people, but he made an exception when it came to talking to himself.”

Apparently there are quite a few Hendrik Groen books out there. I doubt I will pick the others up, but I am not at all displeased that I read this one.

I really liked his 1st two books w these characters but 3rd, which someone else said, was not good. Story wasn’t even plausible for fiction and language unnecessarily crude. Hope #4, if is one, follows 1&2, not 3.

Nine years before the events in "The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old", best friends Hendrik Groen and Evert Duiker find themselves in an unexpected adventure when Evert decides on a whim to take a baby for a stroll. The baby, who was left unattended in it's stroller for a few minutes while waiting to play baby Jesus in a school play, is then the subject of a frantic search by the police, while Evert & Hendrik try to figure out how to undo what Evert unwittingly did, without causing him to get thrown into jail for kidnapping.
I love the Hendrik Groen books. They are so much fun and keep me laughing with all of their crazy adventures. This is the third book in the series, although it goes back in time to before Hendrik and Evert went into assisted living together. It was a bit different than the other two books since the chapters alternated between the two men and the other people in the book. I have to admit I enjoyed the other two books more, but this was still good. This is definitely something good to read if you want something light and humorous.

I kept waiting for something big to happen and it really never did. It was too far fetched for me but a cute read.

I bought this book for my Mom after she read the first one in the series- she absolutely loved it- could not put it down.

I know at the end of "On the Bright Side" Hendrik mentioned he would write a fiction piece about himself and Evert, but I'd prefer to read one that really seems true to their characters. This whole story made no sense and didn't seem like anything Evert would do.

I do hope we get more diaries! I love books 1 and 2 so much.

The other books in the series were wonderful. This story is awful. If I read this book first I would have never read the others. Awful.

After chortling through The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, I had high hopes for this one, but had to bail early on. The narrator was great (I have the Audible version) but this painfully contrived tale was loaded with enough treacle to induce a diabetic coma. Big disappointment.

Yes, it’s different than the others, but still just simple fun. I’m sharing it with people that I know like Hendrik.

I was very disappointed in this story. I think I enjoyed the first two books too much and thought this was the third. You can imagine how surprised I was to find out that this was the first book. Had I read this one
first, I don't think I would have continued with the others.