Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
finished 12/20 ..... contemp Norwegian/
translated ........ rating 9
This book started out as being almost the
perfect novel for me. There was not so much plot as to have me ripping through
it, yet not so slow so as to be like mud. The descriptive passages are so
incredibly evocative I could almost smell the pines, feel the fear,
sadness, etc. It feels Norwegian, not too happy but loving
the sunshine. There's a gentle suspense - enough to make you think but
not so much as to make me need to skim ahead to find out what's happening.
I love the style though, the descriptive passages and the rhythm.
The protagonist is a senior Norwegian man, 67 years old in 1999 with the back-story age 15 in 1948. This is 3 years after the Nazis left Norway. The action is about half 1999 and half 1948 although a few other years are told - 1943 and the Norwegian resistance, 1949 and the ending.
The book, for the most part, is quietly suspenseful - building - a little bit at a time - like the house, like moving the logs, like getting to know people. But impulsiveness breaks out from time to time, the intensity of Jon smashing the eggs, shooting Odd, Dad's logging style. And the climax touches on this control business. Thron This pacing and sense of time is a theme and reflected in the style. An event, a statement, another event, all building slowly. Some foreshadowing, perhaps a bit much, to keep you guessing but never intrusive.
Theme of guilt, the shooting by Jon. The log rolling accident by dad and Tron. The hint at something deeper by Thron related to wife.
The interwoven themes are guilt, loss, time and memory, learning new tricks, living our own lives, choice and fate or being the victims of someone else's choice. Trond's wife died three years prior to his relocating in the Innbyggda area of Norway. There is the sudden loss of Odd - perhaps the loss of Jon - always foreshadowing that. Everything seems sudden, unexpected. So in response to that, I think, Trond tries to have specific plans and deliberate actions.
The frame story takes place in 1999-2000. The inside story takes place in 1948 and is the memory of the older protagonist, Trond Sander. He also has memories of his wife and so on. He moves to Eastern Norway. Trying to forget or trying to protect himself from the results of everyone knowing? Time is reflected in the style - it takes time. An event, a statement, another event, all building slowly. This pacing and sense of time is a theme and reflected in the style.
Toward the end there arises the possibility that Tron is not the most reliable of narrators - he's experiencing some strange physical things.
There is a bit too much foreshadowing but it never really gets intrusive. The themes, the weather and the pacing are a bit heavy-handed.
Learning new things, as an older man the protagonist has to learn to fix up his house and make new friends in the community. As a young man he had to learn how to mow and steal horses and so on. Sexual implications of growing up.
WHY THE TITLE? Is it more significant than the incident? Is it the stealing of guilt or responsibility? (page 87 but also of wife's death?) Stealing of something else?
choices/fate. We don't know each other - we know what each other appears to be and what we tell each other about ourselves. And vice versa.
Twins - two dogs, Lyra and Poker - very different?
Innbygda, Norway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trysil
http://www.natureadventuresport.com/norwaysouthtonorth/thirdleg.htm
Page 80 - 82 - the incident with Jon's mother - the closeness. Jon's father falling and breaking his leg. And Tron feels only selfish reaction because Brauga has gone to her husband in need and broken the feeling of closeness. What is this arm around shoulders closeness - ?
page 84 - confirmation
In 1948 the official religion of Norway was still Lutheran and confirmation is a very important thing in the Lutheran church. It usually happens at the age of 14 or 15, after a couple years of study and a church ceremony. It marks the beginning of adulthood in the church and sometimes in the community as well.
Also there is the communion of shared food with Lars - twice - first
the fish dinner and second after chopping the tree.
The protagonist is a senior Norwegian man, 67 years old in 1999 with the back-story age 15 in 1948. This is 3 years after the Nazis left Norway. The action is about half 1999 and half 1948 although a few other years are told - 1943 and the Norwegian resistance, 1949 and the ending.
The book, for the most part, is quietly suspenseful - building - a little bit at a time - like the house, like moving the logs, like getting to know people. But impulsiveness breaks out from time to time, the intensity of Jon smashing the eggs, shooting Odd, Dad's logging style. And the climax touches on this control business. Thron This pacing and sense of time is a theme and reflected in the style. An event, a statement, another event, all building slowly. Some foreshadowing, perhaps a bit much, to keep you guessing but never intrusive.
Theme of guilt, the shooting by Jon. The log rolling accident by dad and Tron. The hint at something deeper by Thron related to wife.
The interwoven themes are guilt, loss, time and memory, learning new tricks, living our own lives, choice and fate or being the victims of someone else's choice. Trond's wife died three years prior to his relocating in the Innbyggda area of Norway. There is the sudden loss of Odd - perhaps the loss of Jon - always foreshadowing that. Everything seems sudden, unexpected. So in response to that, I think, Trond tries to have specific plans and deliberate actions.
The frame story takes place in 1999-2000. The inside story takes place in 1948 and is the memory of the older protagonist, Trond Sander. He also has memories of his wife and so on. He moves to Eastern Norway. Trying to forget or trying to protect himself from the results of everyone knowing? Time is reflected in the style - it takes time. An event, a statement, another event, all building slowly. This pacing and sense of time is a theme and reflected in the style.
Toward the end there arises the possibility that Tron is not the most reliable of narrators - he's experiencing some strange physical things.
There is a bit too much foreshadowing but it never really gets intrusive. The themes, the weather and the pacing are a bit heavy-handed.
Learning new things, as an older man the protagonist has to learn to fix up his house and make new friends in the community. As a young man he had to learn how to mow and steal horses and so on. Sexual implications of growing up.
WHY THE TITLE? Is it more significant than the incident? Is it the stealing of guilt or responsibility? (page 87 but also of wife's death?) Stealing of something else?
choices/fate. We don't know each other - we know what each other appears to be and what we tell each other about ourselves. And vice versa.
Twins - two dogs, Lyra and Poker - very different?
Innbygda, Norway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trysil
http://www.natureadventuresport.com/norwaysouthtonorth/thirdleg.htm
Page 80 - 82 - the incident with Jon's mother - the closeness. Jon's father falling and breaking his leg. And Tron feels only selfish reaction because Brauga has gone to her husband in need and broken the feeling of closeness. What is this arm around shoulders closeness - ?
page 84 - confirmation
In 1948 the official religion of Norway was still Lutheran and confirmation is a very important thing in the Lutheran church. It usually happens at the age of 14 or 15, after a couple years of study and a church ceremony. It marks the beginning of adulthood in the church and sometimes in the community as well.
Also there is the communion of shared food with Lars - twice - first
the fish dinner and second after chopping the tree.
Norway in Red, White and Blue (pg
84)
This song, not the national
anthem, celebrates the national colors, which the population was forbidden to
wear during the Nazi occupation of Norway in the Second World War. Here are the
lyrics in English:
Wherever you go in the meadow and
mountain,
a winter day, a summer evening
by the fjord and
waterfall,
from the meadows and pine barrens,
from the ocean’s
edge with fishing villages
and to the white reefs,
you meet the land
in a tricolor dress,
cradled in the reflection of the colors of the
flag.
See the white-stemmed birch on the hillside,
framing the patch
of bluebells
against the red-painted cabin by the road;
it’s
the flag that waves in the wind.
Yes, the snow is as white as the white of
the flag,
and the evening sun has taken on the red color,
and to the
glaciers the blue lends its color,
it is Norway in red, white and
blue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS9fwYAfIpc&feature=related
Questions:
Whose house was it? History? Lars is next door!
How did wife die? (car accident - Tron driving)
Where did Dad go? (Jon's mother)
Generational differences - page 95 - ""...realising in a sudden panic that what my father said and how things really were, were not necessarilyi the same, and that made the world liquid and hard to hold on to."
Page 92 - blue hour, blue world - the time between sunset and darkness - longer in the far north making the world blue.
my own photo of
Page 96 - confirmation in a different sense of the term. Why? Awareness, acceptance,
page 113 - Hadjii Murat - Tolstoy - the story of a man who makes an alliance with his enemies to avenge the death of his brother and save his family.
page 153 - "thirsty for coffee" translated from "coffee tist." (coffee thirst)
page 154 "Do tuck in" - I don't know what this is. I think it's a UK version of the translation for vær så god - takke is thanks. vær så god is help yourself (like bon appetit) . ""Mange takk " is "many thanks." Or maybe Torne used the British phrase and it wasn't translated. ?
Just finished. Great book. About a boy who is the observer of his own life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS9fwYAfIpc&feature=related
Questions:
Whose house was it? History? Lars is next door!
How did wife die? (car accident - Tron driving)
Where did Dad go? (Jon's mother)
Generational differences - page 95 - ""...realising in a sudden panic that what my father said and how things really were, were not necessarilyi the same, and that made the world liquid and hard to hold on to."
Page 92 - blue hour, blue world - the time between sunset and darkness - longer in the far north making the world blue.
my own photo of
Page 96 - confirmation in a different sense of the term. Why? Awareness, acceptance,
page 113 - Hadjii Murat - Tolstoy - the story of a man who makes an alliance with his enemies to avenge the death of his brother and save his family.
page 153 - "thirsty for coffee" translated from "coffee tist." (coffee thirst)
page 154 "Do tuck in" - I don't know what this is. I think it's a UK version of the translation for vær så god - takke is thanks. vær så god is help yourself (like bon appetit) . ""Mange takk " is "many thanks." Or maybe Torne used the British phrase and it wasn't translated. ?
Just finished. Great book. About a boy who is the observer of his own life.
Posted: Sat - December 20, 2008 at 09:49 AM
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Published On: Dec 23, 2008 05:36 PM
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Published On: Dec 23, 2008 05:36 PM