Book Review: 2007-014 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, Translated by Anne Born

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and translated by Anne Born
264 pages from Graywolf Press in 2007

Following up on his excellent novel, In the Wake, Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses is a more fully-rounded work.  Written in a similar style as his previous work, where In the Wake was a fascinating look at depression and an attempted overcoming of a tragedy, this new novel is much more layered.

Narrated by 67 year old Trond Sander, Out Stealing Horses works both in present time, and in looking back at Sander's youth, specifically a summer shortly after the end of WWII that perhaps not surprisingly at all, has a significant impact on the rest of his life.

Sander makes for an interesting narrator, his wife and sister both have passed away in the past three years, and he's elected to pull himself virtually out of society, moving to a city along the Norwegian/Swedish border - a city his father used to have a "vacation" house in.

There are many impressive aspects to Petterson's writing in this novel.  First, the different voices he is able to capture for Sander - that of his 1948 younger version, and his current day life.  Petterson infuses the necessary amount of youthful curiosity and excitability in the young Trond Sander, while allowing the current day Sander to have more of a 'been there, done that' attitude. 

Petterson also allows the story to come to the reader in its own sweet time.  This seems, in retrospect, to have been a story that would have been incredibly easy to just have heaped upon the reader all at once.  Instead, Petterson allows the reader to learn of Sander, his father, and the neighbors in that border town, and the events that happened in 1948, that affected Sander's entire life, in a slow, unfolding manner.

It's a case where the story is the reason to read as we don't learn much about Sander beyond his current self and his 1948 self.  We learn very little about the wife and sister he lost beyond the fact that he loved them both dearly.  We learn very little of the daughter that tracks him down for a visit.  The reader instead learns of the events that occurred in the life of Trond Sander - those which influenced his life, and how the memories of those events are affecting his life now.  It is a life well worth spending time with.

4.5 stars

Comments

[Sharif]

Petterson also allows the story to come to the reader in its own sweet time. This seems, in retrospect, to have been a story that would have been incredibly easy to just have heaped upon the reader all at once.

I agree. Liked the pacing of the book.
Here's my review: http://khepa.livejournal.com/93715.html