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gregbrown 's review for:
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
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.