Scan barcode
lovegirl30's review
4.0
"He held his hands to his face as if to keep his skin in place and for many nights he lay clutching his body, feeling time sweeping through it like little explosions. The palms of his hands were quivering and he tried to resist time and hold it back. But nothing helped, and with every pop, he felt himself getting older. he cried, and said to his mother: 'I don't want to get older. I want to stay like I am now! Six and a half, that's enough, isn't it?"
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is a sweet little novella. This book gives us readers various snippets of the life of a boy named Arid, who lives with his parents in the country of Norway in the early 1960s. His father is a man who works in a shoe factory, while his mother is a Danish woman who works as a cleaner. This is life through the eyes of a sensitive and imaginative child.
The book is extremely insightful. Throughout the book, we get triumphs and lows. We learn that Arid wets his bed at night, and has nightmares but also that he is a little boy that is beginning to really piece his world together. He is learning to figure things out. I thought the stories in this book were insightful and poignant. The writing had such a beautiful prose and was super breathtaking.
I am super glad that I picked up this short little book at the library and gave it a read. I can't believe it was only recently translated into English. I will be purchasing a copy for myself to treasure forever. I hope you will check this book.
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is a sweet little novella. This book gives us readers various snippets of the life of a boy named Arid, who lives with his parents in the country of Norway in the early 1960s. His father is a man who works in a shoe factory, while his mother is a Danish woman who works as a cleaner. This is life through the eyes of a sensitive and imaginative child.
The book is extremely insightful. Throughout the book, we get triumphs and lows. We learn that Arid wets his bed at night, and has nightmares but also that he is a little boy that is beginning to really piece his world together. He is learning to figure things out. I thought the stories in this book were insightful and poignant. The writing had such a beautiful prose and was super breathtaking.
I am super glad that I picked up this short little book at the library and gave it a read. I can't believe it was only recently translated into English. I will be purchasing a copy for myself to treasure forever. I hope you will check this book.
2shainz's review
4.0
Original review here: http://www.shainareads.com/2015/05/what-im-reading-lately-readathon-reviews.html
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is a teeny-tiny collection of short stories about a Norwegian boy named Arvid Jansen coming of age in the 1960s. The prose is spare and serious, much like Arvid himself, and it meanders through his memories of his grandfather's death, the night terrors and bedwetting that haunt him into his pre-adolescence, and the quiet, desperate horror of the Cold War. Arvid leaves school early one day after his teacher warns of impending nuclear war:
If we're being honest, I'm flipping through its 120 pages right now looking for sentences that jog my memory about the larger stories within. I blame this not on Per Petterson's ability as a writer and more on my failure to take notes. This was my first read on Readathon day, and there have been five or six books on my mind since then. Regardless, I remember enjoying the collection at large, and it is absolutely worth reading for passages like these:
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes is a teeny-tiny collection of short stories about a Norwegian boy named Arvid Jansen coming of age in the 1960s. The prose is spare and serious, much like Arvid himself, and it meanders through his memories of his grandfather's death, the night terrors and bedwetting that haunt him into his pre-adolescence, and the quiet, desperate horror of the Cold War. Arvid leaves school early one day after his teacher warns of impending nuclear war:
"He wasn't frightened, his body was just so suddenly tired that he had to concentrate on every step he took, and the tiredness grew and grew until it lay like lumps beneath his skin, he could almost feel them with his fingers, and his boots were heavy, as if filled with blue clay. He didn't cry because he and his dad agreed he would not do that so often now, but his face felt as dry as old cardboard and just blinking was an effort of will.
When he got home so early, his mother gave him a puzzled look but said nothing, and he thought that was fine, for when you'e about to die there's nothing really to discuss." — pg. 97, Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes
If we're being honest, I'm flipping through its 120 pages right now looking for sentences that jog my memory about the larger stories within. I blame this not on Per Petterson's ability as a writer and more on my failure to take notes. This was my first read on Readathon day, and there have been five or six books on my mind since then. Regardless, I remember enjoying the collection at large, and it is absolutely worth reading for passages like these:
"[His mother] looked the way she always had for as far back as he could remember, and she still did right up until the day he happened to see a photograph of her from before he was born, and the difference floored him. He tried to work out what could have happened to her, and then he realised it was time that had happened and it was happening to him too, every second of the day. He held his hands to his face as if to keep his skin in place and for many nights he lay clutching his body, feeling time sweeping through it like little explosions. The palms of his hands were quivering and he tried to resist time and hold it back. But nothing helped, and with every pop he felt himself getting older." - pg. 43-44, ibid.
sjhaug's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
forkdogforkfruit's review against another edition
4.0
A sweet short read. Wonderful insights from the perspective of a young boy. There is no central story and this alone makes it feel cozy. This allows the story to be just a story without the pressures of a distinct narrative so it flows easily.
A nice read and worth it.
A nice read and worth it.
theatlantean's review against another edition
2.0
Funny, I was just dismissing as irrelevant a critique of The Slow Regard of Silent Things which stated it didn't have a plot, when I finish this and my main critique is, it didn't have a plot...
The difference is, whereas TSRFST has some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and is a character study of an amazing and unique voice and takes you deep inside a special person, what you get here is a series of unconnected events with a subtext that is indifferent to the point of occasional banality.
Yes, there is a thread that connects them, and a plot in that the coming-of-age is there, but it kind of jumps straight from childhood into a final event which is not borne out by character growth. Maybe if this had been a further hundred pages with seeds being sown, it would have done what it intended to. As it is, it is slight. Sorry.
The difference is, whereas TSRFST has some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and is a character study of an amazing and unique voice and takes you deep inside a special person, what you get here is a series of unconnected events with a subtext that is indifferent to the point of occasional banality.
Yes, there is a thread that connects them, and a plot in that the coming-of-age is there, but it kind of jumps straight from childhood into a final event which is not borne out by character growth. Maybe if this had been a further hundred pages with seeds being sown, it would have done what it intended to. As it is, it is slight. Sorry.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
3.0
Set in 1960s Norway, we follow Arvid, a young boy, in his daily life with family and his school. Brief glimpses of larger issues (family dramas, world history and looming nuclear threat), but told through the simple eyes of a child. An endearing and short read.
liisae's review
3.0
I'm looking forward to reading Petterson's other Arvid Jansen novels. These short stories were published first but translated last, so I'm curious about how the whole collection goes together. (I'm wondering if these short stories from when Arvid is young would have more resonance after I've read more about his later life.)
adrianasturalvarez's review against another edition
4.0
I just loved this short collection of interrelated stories. They all cluster around a young boy named Arvid and a lot of them deal with his relationship to his father, a strong and physically imposing character, in contrast to the sensitive and thoughtful son. These stories are tender, vulnerable and absolutely heartbreaking considering they were written before the real life tragedy that would claim Petterson's father, mother, younger brother and niece (victims of the Scandanavian Star ferry disaster).
Petterson has a way of describing intimate moments that occur when we're alone that are so insightful but he writes them so clearly, as though they were the easiest observations. This is a short book but a significant one.
Petterson has a way of describing intimate moments that occur when we're alone that are so insightful but he writes them so clearly, as though they were the easiest observations. This is a short book but a significant one.
bethbooks's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0