Readers Review: "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-04-28/readers-review-out-stealing-horses-petterson
Diane invites listeners to join the discussion of a Norwegian novel that has been lauded for its universal relevance. It is the story of a man who has settled into a rustic cabin to live the rest of his life with quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on a fateful childhood summer.
Guests
Jeffry Frank
author of four novels and co-author of a translation of “The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen” from Danish to English. previously a senior editor at The New Yorker and deputy editor of the Outlook section at the Washington Post.
Deirdre Donahue
Book Critic for "USA Today"
Erik Hoftun
chairman of a Norwegian video game company.
Comments
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As a woman and as of a mother of three sons, I agree with the previous caller that this books speaks to human experiences not only to male experiences. I also recommend Per's later book To Siberia which has a female narrator.
The undercurrent of a child's and later an adult's understanding of death and violence in this novel is profound. In addition the incredible "stillness" of the novel's language (or translation of the norwegian) seems to create tension and augment that sense of violence. I wonder if the Norwegian guest could speak to this sense in the original and the translation.
I also found the novel Out Stealing Horses drudgery to finish. From the shocking early incident where the boy destroys the nest, I thought it would be a page turner but I found it disjointed and difficult to follow. I didn't understand it at all. I chalked it up to a translation problem -- maybe there is no English to convey the true nature of the book.
Although I realize that this forum today is meant to simulate a book club experience, I find Deirdre Donahue's comment regarding the believability of characters' motivations and the intelligibility of plot sequence to be somewhat disconcerting. This novel under discussion, so it seems to me, is primarily about the experience of trauma. In the experience of trauma, motivations and time sequences are obscured by sudden and unpredictable forces. The main character in this novel attempts to restore order to his life through repetitions, and these efforts repeatedly fail. I find in my own reading I am particularly attracted to books that defy the believable and predictable like Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses." If the realistic quality of a novel were really the ultimate criterion by which we all judged literature, all literature would fail by definition. Literature is not life, but life revisioned.
I loved the final scene. When Tron's mother sees how little the physical works has actually earned in terms of dollars, she is surprised and disappointed. So how does she spend the money? By buying her son a suit. He will not lead a physical life. His life will be different. But it's not....How much control does he have over that? I consider his ability to choose balanced with his seeming depression....