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squid_vicious 's review for:
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEHQgOe9Eo
OK, I know Asgeir is from Iceland, and not Norway, but that’s the song that I kept going back to while reading this book: it captures the atmosphere of Trond’s story perfectly.
“Out Stealing Horses” is one of those quiet, introspective books that sits there quietly on the shelf, between novels containing much more bombastic stories. But it doesn’t feel intimidated by them: it knows that the story within its pages is subtler, more complex and more haunting that those of its neighbors.
Our protagonist is an older man, living by himself in a cabin, far from everything, in Norway. When an unexpected encounter with someone he knew from his childhood happens, it unlocks his memories of a series of events that clearly marked the end of his childhood, and the beginning of a new phase of his life.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but the complicated emotions that mark such a transition are perfectly captured by Petterson. Who are our parents when they are not parents? Can one action send our life in a completely different direction than what we expected? Could we ever hope to tell that story to anyone and have them understand?
I liked reading this story. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything like that, but it brings to life a very particular time and place beautifully and vividly, with just a light veil of maudlin remembrance laid over it.
OK, I know Asgeir is from Iceland, and not Norway, but that’s the song that I kept going back to while reading this book: it captures the atmosphere of Trond’s story perfectly.
“Out Stealing Horses” is one of those quiet, introspective books that sits there quietly on the shelf, between novels containing much more bombastic stories. But it doesn’t feel intimidated by them: it knows that the story within its pages is subtler, more complex and more haunting that those of its neighbors.
Our protagonist is an older man, living by himself in a cabin, far from everything, in Norway. When an unexpected encounter with someone he knew from his childhood happens, it unlocks his memories of a series of events that clearly marked the end of his childhood, and the beginning of a new phase of his life.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but the complicated emotions that mark such a transition are perfectly captured by Petterson. Who are our parents when they are not parents? Can one action send our life in a completely different direction than what we expected? Could we ever hope to tell that story to anyone and have them understand?
I liked reading this story. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything like that, but it brings to life a very particular time and place beautifully and vividly, with just a light veil of maudlin remembrance laid over it.