Author-artist Hugo Claus, 78
Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 10:33 pmBRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Writer Hugo Claus — an artist, poet, playwright and novelist whose books painted a scathing picture of repression and hypocrisy in bourgeois Flanders — died Wednesday by euthanasia, his wife said. He was 78.
Claus, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died at Middelheim Hospital in Antwerp. “He himself picked the moment of his death and asked for euthanasia,” not wanting to extend his suffering, his wife, Veerle De Wit, said in a statement. …
Claus produced some 200 works during his career but was best known for his classic, “The Sorrow of Belgium” — a scathing attack on social injustice, stifling family relationships and Roman Catholic repression in his native Flanders in northern Belgium.
The partly autobiographical work defined his career and shot him to prominence on the international scene. … Read full obituary
