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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This was a book club book. We were trying to get away from Nordic Noir but this turned out to be a Nordic Noir after all. It's one of the better ones. More literary and a bit philosophical but still very dark.
Interesting book about a teenage boy and his father (who was part of the Norwegian resistance during WWII). Told in flashbacks.
"You decide for yourself when it will hurt."The image of an egg falling from the top of a tree and then of a nest destroyed in some seconds. The image of life being shattered in the space of some seconds. These two images got imprinted on my retina while reading this book. They haunted me and they still haunt me even now after having finished the book. I don’t know if it’s Petterson’s unique style of writing that gives these images such strength or putting them in the context that he did. Or maybe both.
The experiences that are part of young Trond’s coming of age, remembered by a 67 year old Trond and filtered through his later experiences highly impressed me. There is so much sadness in this book, but it’s a kind of sadness that cannot be confined within the limits of definitions. It’s maybe the sadness determined by the realization that everything we do represents choices that determine chain reactions, the sadness felt by someone who has experienced betrayal and loss, the longing for solitude after you find that you have lost all the anchors in this world, but in the meantime for human compassion, the longing for resting your tired soul, the feeling of experiencing freedom or rather relief only when surrounded by nature. But “we do decide for ourselves when it will hurt.” This is what Trond had learnt from his father and this guides him even now in his old age. Or he thinks it does. This still helps him have a sense of meaning, even if sometimes meaning has the thin texture of illusion.
“One of my many horrors is to become the man with the frayed jacket and unfastened flies standing at the Co-op counter with egg on his shirt and more too because the mirror in the hall has given up the ghost. A shipwrecked man without an anchor in the world except in his own liquid thoughts where time has lost its sequence.”No. Old Trond is not that man. He is never going to become that man. He has established a routine, he cleans after he had his meals, he doesn' t neglect his rooms even though he lives alone now, he has a dog for company, nature to soothe his craving to be alone, he has his past to delve into (“If I just concentrate I can walk into memory's store and find the right shelf with the right film and disappear into it....”), he has his Dickens books to enjoy. He is not hurt as “we do decide for ourselves when it will hurt…”. He is not lost, never lost. And yet…
“People like it when you tell them things, in suitable portions, in a modest, intimate tone, and they think they know you, but they do not, they know about you, for what they are let in on are facts, not feelings, not what your opinion is about anything at all, not how what has happened to you and how all the decisions you have made have turned you into who you are. What they do is they fill in with their own feelings and opinions and assumptions, and they compose a new life which has precious little to do with yours, and that lets you off the hook. No-one can touch you unless you yourself want them to.”And yet... Do we really decide for ourselves when we get hurt?
Reading group book. Man nearing the end of his life reflects on family and formative moments. Our protagonist, Trond, was not always the hero of his own story, at least not in the parts he reflects on as he works to make an old, cold, cabin a relatively comfortable place for him and his dog.
Winter is coming. He remembers one sunlit summer, out in the sunlit Norwegian woods, with his father he loved, his friend he stole horses with, and the women he was beginning to desire.
That summer ended, and its like never came again. His father walked away, the friend was sent away, and the horses went back home. He went on, married twice, had two children, and buried at least one wife and one sister. We know little of those days. 50 years later, he came back to the woods, to spend time in quiet contemplation, with his dog, Lyra.
The narrative does not go deeply into this man’s interior life, though it certainly suggests he’s having one.
It was fine. I did not dislike it. But it did not engage me. The story that could have engaged me – growing up in the shadow of the Nazi occupation; all the people tangential to the story who died fighting a war or by misadventure; the heroics of a woman he started to desire – those are only gestured at. Though gestured at in a seemingly profound way: the title of the book; the adventures in the sunlit summer; and the resistance work of the older generation were all called “out stealing horses.”
The lawyers in my reading group were much better at putting a story that was not told chronologically into chronological fashion. What order two monstrous events happen does sorta change the moral valiance of the initial tragedy. So there’s that.
The prose in this book was so beautiful. Simple, spare, and minimalist, yet heavy with emotion and gravitas.
At the age of 67, Trond moves into the deep Norwegian woods, seeking solitude and quiet in his later years. The book retraces memories of his life in post-WWII Norway, and the many things that happened specifically in the summer of 1948.
In all honesty, I was a little confused by some of the actions in this book - what was happening, etc., relating to Trond's memories. However, the mesmerizing style kept me reading and interested. I understood the gist of the book... but maybe it was supposed to be a bit fuzzy because of the nature of the memories.
The book had a very evocative tone and in many ways reflected the sparse Norwegian winter that Trond lived through; truly a beautiful marriage of language and style.
At the age of 67, Trond moves into the deep Norwegian woods, seeking solitude and quiet in his later years. The book retraces memories of his life in post-WWII Norway, and the many things that happened specifically in the summer of 1948.
In all honesty, I was a little confused by some of the actions in this book - what was happening, etc., relating to Trond's memories. However, the mesmerizing style kept me reading and interested. I understood the gist of the book... but maybe it was supposed to be a bit fuzzy because of the nature of the memories.
The book had a very evocative tone and in many ways reflected the sparse Norwegian winter that Trond lived through; truly a beautiful marriage of language and style.
svaka rečenica divno dotjerana, to mi prvo pada na pamet.
stilski i ritmički sličan njegovom izvrsnom romanu "u sibir", per petterson opet pripovijeda, na najfiniji mogući način, priču o "običnom" čovjeku: trond se povukao od svijeta u šumu gdje živi u kolibi s udomljenom kujom lyrom i prisjeća se djetinjstva, s naglaskom na odnos s ocem. radnja leluja između sadašnjosti (1999.) i prošlosti (1948.), protkano nježnošću i skrivenom melankolijom.
prvi put objavljena 2003., pettersona je ova knjiga proslavila i postavila na vrh norveške književnosti, posve zasluženo. osjećam veliku prazninu saznanjem da sam pročitala sve što je na hrvatskom objavljeno od tog divnog autora (= 2 knjige), slično kao što sam se osjećala i kad sam pročitala obje knjige donala ryana - ostaje čežnja za čijim ispunjenjem ću se trebati strpiti. a petterson mi ide na listu omiljenih autora.
stilski i ritmički sličan njegovom izvrsnom romanu "u sibir", per petterson opet pripovijeda, na najfiniji mogući način, priču o "običnom" čovjeku: trond se povukao od svijeta u šumu gdje živi u kolibi s udomljenom kujom lyrom i prisjeća se djetinjstva, s naglaskom na odnos s ocem. radnja leluja između sadašnjosti (1999.) i prošlosti (1948.), protkano nježnošću i skrivenom melankolijom.
prvi put objavljena 2003., pettersona je ova knjiga proslavila i postavila na vrh norveške književnosti, posve zasluženo. osjećam veliku prazninu saznanjem da sam pročitala sve što je na hrvatskom objavljeno od tog divnog autora (= 2 knjige), slično kao što sam se osjećala i kad sam pročitala obje knjige donala ryana - ostaje čežnja za čijim ispunjenjem ću se trebati strpiti. a petterson mi ide na listu omiljenih autora.
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I'll fully admit that I probably didn't "get" this book; while I was charmed in the telling, it ended in semi-disappointment.
The book covers a wide arc of time, drawing from the two narratives set in the past and present. For the modern storyline, Per Petterson does a great job of capturing the inner life of someone with little left of social life - someone who experiences the world as physical and concrete, rarely clouded by trying to discern the intentions or indications of others. On the other hand, much of the past is spent in a cloud of confusion as the reader learns about events before the intentions and backstory that underlies them.
And that, maybe, was where the book tripped me up on the expectation level: while it offers you explanations of why some of the characters acted bewilderingly, many others continue to be a mystery up to and including the end. It seems almost solipsistic, each of the characters acting in a way that continues to push young Trond down his journey of self-discovery, powering on and off as if animatronics along an amusement park ride.
But that's not to belittle the novel's strengths: a wonderful picture of what it's like to live in the wild, far enough north that snow doesn't melt until spring. There's a strange camaraderie amongst northerners when it comes to the weather, much as my Bostonian fiancee insists that city's residents are united in hating the T. And the physicality of living in the wilderness is wonderful, treated in the best of ways by the author.
But in the end, it just didn't do it for me. Hopping through time is nice - especially when it essentially excuses the central coincidence that drives the novel, much like the same sort of structure did for Slumdog Millionaire - but in the end you have to get somewhere. Young Trond finally reaches adulthood, but older Trond simply disappears.
The book covers a wide arc of time, drawing from the two narratives set in the past and present. For the modern storyline, Per Petterson does a great job of capturing the inner life of someone with little left of social life - someone who experiences the world as physical and concrete, rarely clouded by trying to discern the intentions or indications of others. On the other hand, much of the past is spent in a cloud of confusion as the reader learns about events before the intentions and backstory that underlies them.
And that, maybe, was where the book tripped me up on the expectation level: while it offers you explanations of why some of the characters acted bewilderingly, many others continue to be a mystery up to and including the end. It seems almost solipsistic, each of the characters acting in a way that continues to push young Trond down his journey of self-discovery, powering on and off as if animatronics along an amusement park ride.
But that's not to belittle the novel's strengths: a wonderful picture of what it's like to live in the wild, far enough north that snow doesn't melt until spring. There's a strange camaraderie amongst northerners when it comes to the weather, much as my Bostonian fiancee insists that city's residents are united in hating the T. And the physicality of living in the wilderness is wonderful, treated in the best of ways by the author.
But in the end, it just didn't do it for me. Hopping through time is nice - especially when it essentially excuses the central coincidence that drives the novel, much like the same sort of structure did for Slumdog Millionaire - but in the end you have to get somewhere. Young Trond finally reaches adulthood, but older Trond simply disappears.
Out Stealing Horses is a great title, a phrase that meant a couple different things to different people, but in any case represented activity that was at least partly secretive.
The protagonist and narrator is Trond, who has spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway. Now in his late sixties, after suffering the loss of his wife and sister, he has retired to a small cabin in a very rural area to be alone with his thoughts for the rest of his life. Even though Trond has much to do to make this old cabin livable, his thoughts drift back to what for him is the most memorable, fascinating, and perplexing time of his life, the summer of 1948. That was the summer he stayed in a rural village with his father doing physical labor, meeting the locals, fishing, and gradually becoming a strong, self-sufficient young man, at the age of fifteen.
It is also when Trond realizes that his father has had a life completely separate from his family. He sees, he observes, and he wonders, but is never to be told anything directly by his father. Another important part of this summer is Trond's brief friendship with Jon, the only neighbor his own age, and one who Trond views in a glamorous light. Jon is tough and taciturn, and even during their last morning together "out stealing horses" (or, borrowing the rich neighbor's horses without permission), Jon has not told Trond about the tragedy that has just visited his family, but he does do something disturbing that turns out to be symbolic of that tragedy.
Trond never sees Jon again. Jon's life has been hijacked by awful chance, and Trond spends some time reflecting on how comparatively lucky he has been. This luckiness is at odds with the way Trond believes that he is control of his own fate, when again and again, this proves not to be true. He may be lucky, but not unhurt; he also never sees his father again after that summer. After Trond becomes so attached to him, after his father hugged him so close, and played with him, after they'd worked together so hard to guide logs down a stream, had fished and rode horses, his father put Trond back on a bus to Oslo and told him he'd be along soon. There is a heartbreaking period of time when Trond rides his father's old bike to the bus station, day after day, hoping to see his father.
Later, Trond learns that for his father, "out stealing horses" was code for smuggling information (and sometimes people) into Sweden during WWII. It seems that most of the locals were involved, including Jon's mother and Trond's father. Before the summer of '48, that was why his father would be living in that cabin. Later on, Trond assumes his father just needs to get away to clear his head. His father did have friends in this village, and it is also strongly implied that Trond's father and Jon's mother had an established romantic relationship. This was something Trond was able to glimpse, but not understand, that summer.
Now that Trond has returned to a rural life as an older man, he finds that there are people who are determined to keep contact with him, and that this is good. His daughter locates him with some difficulty, and the hurt she feels about his unannounced move does affect him, as it should. Also, he has frequent contact with his neighbor Lars, the younger brother of Jon. Trond was very reluctant to befriend anyone, but the two men, in their sixties, have both a connection and a need for the help and support of the other in such a harsh climate in the middle of nowhere. And there's also the farmer who he and Lars pay to clear their unpaved roads after the heavy snows, and the kind people at the grocery store, and the only mechanic in town, as well as each other's chain saws when one person can't cut up the storm-damaged trees all by himself...even if he were young...and so, Trond, who has to this village to be alone with his thoughts, is not alone, after all.
I love the way this introspective novel ends with a memory of a day Trond spends with his mother, the last time he can remember her being happy and lighthearted. On this day, they travel to Sweden to collect a small amount of money his father had left them in a bank there. When they learn that there are monetary restriction laws that prohibit them from taking the money out of the country, they simply have a fun day spending it. Trond gets a new suit, and they have lunch.
One interesting aspect of this story was all the pairing: Jon and Trond, Jon's twin brothers, the absence of both Jon's and Trond's fathers, and the double-meaning of the title. Also, the way Trond returns to the rural life AND meets up again with Lars shows another symmetry, and it was the only coincidence in the story.
Per Petterson has written a very quiet, thoughtful ode to loss and bittersweet memories that does not resolve everything, but I got the feeling that Trond did finally make peace with the trauma in his past. The only concrete reason I have for feeling this way is that Trond never comes out and asks Lars the big question that's been on his mind. He knows that the past is already painful for Lars, and--perhaps it doesn't matter as much to Trond, now.
This is a short but long novel; it may be only 238 pages, but it was not a fast read for me.
The protagonist and narrator is Trond, who has spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway. Now in his late sixties, after suffering the loss of his wife and sister, he has retired to a small cabin in a very rural area to be alone with his thoughts for the rest of his life. Even though Trond has much to do to make this old cabin livable, his thoughts drift back to what for him is the most memorable, fascinating, and perplexing time of his life, the summer of 1948. That was the summer he stayed in a rural village with his father doing physical labor, meeting the locals, fishing, and gradually becoming a strong, self-sufficient young man, at the age of fifteen.
It is also when Trond realizes that his father has had a life completely separate from his family. He sees, he observes, and he wonders, but is never to be told anything directly by his father. Another important part of this summer is Trond's brief friendship with Jon, the only neighbor his own age, and one who Trond views in a glamorous light. Jon is tough and taciturn, and even during their last morning together "out stealing horses" (or, borrowing the rich neighbor's horses without permission), Jon has not told Trond about the tragedy that has just visited his family, but he does do something disturbing that turns out to be symbolic of that tragedy.
Trond never sees Jon again. Jon's life has been hijacked by awful chance, and Trond spends some time reflecting on how comparatively lucky he has been. This luckiness is at odds with the way Trond believes that he is control of his own fate, when again and again, this proves not to be true. He may be lucky, but not unhurt; he also never sees his father again after that summer. After Trond becomes so attached to him, after his father hugged him so close, and played with him, after they'd worked together so hard to guide logs down a stream, had fished and rode horses, his father put Trond back on a bus to Oslo and told him he'd be along soon. There is a heartbreaking period of time when Trond rides his father's old bike to the bus station, day after day, hoping to see his father.
Later, Trond learns that for his father, "out stealing horses" was code for smuggling information (and sometimes people) into Sweden during WWII. It seems that most of the locals were involved, including Jon's mother and Trond's father. Before the summer of '48, that was why his father would be living in that cabin. Later on, Trond assumes his father just needs to get away to clear his head. His father did have friends in this village, and it is also strongly implied that Trond's father and Jon's mother had an established romantic relationship. This was something Trond was able to glimpse, but not understand, that summer.
Now that Trond has returned to a rural life as an older man, he finds that there are people who are determined to keep contact with him, and that this is good. His daughter locates him with some difficulty, and the hurt she feels about his unannounced move does affect him, as it should. Also, he has frequent contact with his neighbor Lars, the younger brother of Jon. Trond was very reluctant to befriend anyone, but the two men, in their sixties, have both a connection and a need for the help and support of the other in such a harsh climate in the middle of nowhere. And there's also the farmer who he and Lars pay to clear their unpaved roads after the heavy snows, and the kind people at the grocery store, and the only mechanic in town, as well as each other's chain saws when one person can't cut up the storm-damaged trees all by himself...even if he were young...and so, Trond, who has to this village to be alone with his thoughts, is not alone, after all.
I love the way this introspective novel ends with a memory of a day Trond spends with his mother, the last time he can remember her being happy and lighthearted. On this day, they travel to Sweden to collect a small amount of money his father had left them in a bank there. When they learn that there are monetary restriction laws that prohibit them from taking the money out of the country, they simply have a fun day spending it. Trond gets a new suit, and they have lunch.
One interesting aspect of this story was all the pairing: Jon and Trond, Jon's twin brothers, the absence of both Jon's and Trond's fathers, and the double-meaning of the title. Also, the way Trond returns to the rural life AND meets up again with Lars shows another symmetry, and it was the only coincidence in the story.
Per Petterson has written a very quiet, thoughtful ode to loss and bittersweet memories that does not resolve everything, but I got the feeling that Trond did finally make peace with the trauma in his past. The only concrete reason I have for feeling this way is that Trond never comes out and asks Lars the big question that's been on his mind. He knows that the past is already painful for Lars, and--perhaps it doesn't matter as much to Trond, now.
This is a short but long novel; it may be only 238 pages, but it was not a fast read for me.