Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.82374
EAN: 9780312427085
ISBN: 0312427085
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-04-29
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Studio: Picador

Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Writing, but Where's the Story?
Comment: I read this book because of the reviews it received here on amazon.com. I finished the book and have to say I enjoyed the writing, which is why I'm rating it three stars. But it left me scratching my head wondering why I finished. It was mostly boring. Perhaps I saw small glimpses where I thought I would get something more. But ultimately I didn't. If it was a longer book I'm pretty sure I would have put it down before completion.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Like Per Petterson? Try Knut Hamsun!
Comment: Have you ever been lonely for a book the minute you finish it? That's the ultimate testament to a well-written, soul-touching work, and Per Petterson has one here with OUT STEALING HORSES. A coming-of-age novel wrapped up as a 67-year-old Norwegian man's reminiscence, the novel explores a father-son theme that doesn't reveal itself fully until the end. True, it's not a plot book. And true, it will appeal most to readers who love characterization and rich description. Nevertheless, if you love it when you stumble upon a writer's writer and don't mind the lens of a translator's (in this case, Ann Born's) words, you should read this book.

Here's a sampling of Petterson's style: "That night we slept under an overhanging cliff, where fires had been made before. We found the remains of two heaps of spruce twigs made into beds to lie on, but all the needles had turned brown and dropped off a long time ago, so we cleared the old one away and cut new branches from nearby trees with the little axe I had used earlier with such eagerness, and we made up the branches and twigs into two soft beds under the cliff, and it smelled good and strong when you lay down with your face almost buried in it. We fetched our blankets and let a bonfire in the stone circle and sat on each side of the flames to eat. We had tied our ropes together into a single long one and tied it round four spruce trees with enough distance between them to make a corral, and there we turned the horses loose. From where we sat by the fire we could only just hear them moving around on the soft forest floor and then quite clearly when their hooves struck a stone, and in their throats they made soft sounds to each other but we could not see them clearly, for it was August now and the evenings were darker. The flames made reflections in the rocky ceiling above me that coloured my thoughts far into sleep and made my dreams more intense, and when I woke in the night I did not remember anything at first about where I was or why."

The story of 15-year-old Trond Sander's beautiful yet haunted Norwegian childhood will remind readers (or send them, hopefully) of the Norwegian master, Knut Hamsun. The inspiration of many early 20th century writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Hamsun's books PAN and HUNGER are even mentioned in this book. Reading PAN would be a logical segue if you love OUT STEALING HORSES. But first, savor Petterson's book. Take it slowly. Read it by a fire when the snow flies, as the sad old protagonist does himself in his mountain hideaway. The mood will truly take you in and make you its friend. It did me, and I will never forget it. Highly recommended.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The story of our lives
Comment: Per Petterson's quiet little novel about childhood's end and the retrospection of old age is masterful and profoundly moving. Other reviewers have suggested it is a story that has been told over and over, but, then, what deeply resonant story has not? In fact, it is in the retelling of our commonalities in new language, from a nuanced perspective, that we learn from each other and deepen our own self knowledge.

Out Stealing Horses is one of those books that seems to either open new rooms in one's heart or reopen forgotten chests and closets. The simplicity of the setting in post-war rural Norway and the initial apparent simplicity of the protagonists' lives provide a canvas for Petterson's exquisite emotional portraiture. This one is not to be missed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Deep and Thoughtful Book
Comment: Out Stealing Horses

This compelling Norweigan novel describes the decisive events in the life of young Trond, and the ripples that those events have on his entire life. The book centers on a summer Trond spends in a cabin in remote Norway with his confident, practical, action-minded, secretive and ultimately, elusive, father. Trond later re-explores those events as an old man, moving to a cabin in another remote part of Norway, in an apparent attempt to recreate that magical summer. In a stunning coincidence, Trond discovers his neighbor in the new community to be the brother of one of the central actors during that pivotal summer.
The chronology is very cleverly but complexly presented, with several narratives, taking place at very different points in the main character's life, presented in alternating chapters. This allows the plot to be revealed slowly, but requires the reader to place each of the pieces in the proper order. Half way through the book, I found that I had lost the chronology, and had to go back, review the book, and re-place the pieces. But even though it took some extra work, I felt that the presentation heightened the drama and interest, and added to the interconnectedness of all parts of Trond's life.
The novel is very rich in the ideas and concepts it presents to the reader, and demands a careful reading and consideration. For example:
1. I found the Nordic outlook on life very "foreign," and at times, baffling. Three important characters in the book simply go away--leave--without warning or notice. Additionally, it is revealed that old man Trond's move to this rural cabin was completed without telling his daughter, and without leaving a forwarding phone number or address. Is that behavior that is acceptable in Norway? I truly it hard to believe that it could be.
2. Speaking of the Nordic character presented in the novel, I was fascinated by the main character, Trond, and his immense self-deception and delusion. Throughout the novel, Trond repeats (with feeling) how lucky he has been in his life. To me, his need to re-state this belief reads as if he is trying to convince himself of this fact. In light of the shattering loss he suffers as an impressionable teenager at the hands of his father, he certainly doesn't seem that lucky to me.
Whether this is a Nordic characteristic or not, I don't know, but Trond's desire to swallow the hurt in his life is consistent with another repeated theme that "we decide for ourselves when it will hurt." I suppose someone who believes they can decide when something is or is not painful can also decide whether they have been lucky or unlucky.
3. I was also interested in the character of Trond's father. He was a man filled with secrets and hidden agendas, and repeatedly, his intentions and desires could only be understood in hindsight. I couldn't help but seeing him as a supremely selfish man, who played his cards close to the vest solely to maintain his advantage.
4. I was also interested in Trond's (and apparently, the author's belief) that the decisions we make and incidents we experience at any point in our life, will have reverberations that last throughout our life. In the last chapter in the book, Trond describes a confrontation with a Swedish man who Trond threatens to punch. Trond realizes that the decision to punch or not were two of the various roads confronting him, and that a decision once made, could not be undone.
5. Finally, I also found interesting old Trond's desire to confront the natural world, time, darkness, solitude. About darkness, he states that "it is only an immeasurable space to move about inside." As to time he says "Time is important to me now, I tell myself. Not that it should pass quickly or slowly, but be only time, be something I live inside and fill up with physical things, and activities, that I can divide it up by, so that it grows distinct to me and does not vanish when I am not looking."
In conclusion, while Out Stealing Horses asks us make some accept some troubling coincidences, it more than pays us back with a thoughtful and thought provoking tale.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Vague, Slow, Waiting for Something to Happen
Comment: For some reason I'm drawn to books about Scandinavia. Perhaps it's because I'm half Finnish, and I lived in Finland for a couple of years. So I opened this book with excitement, ready to be transported to Norway.

It started out quite interesting and had a nice, easy feel. I liked the point of view of the story being told by an "old" man--looking back on a significant time in his childhood.

But, for me, the book went nowhere. Yes, there is a melancholy and yes, it's an interesting relationship study between a father and his son. But it you're going to read this book get ready for many significant unanswered questions and a story that meanders and meanders and meanders some more.

I have a theory that those who liked the book read so many books--that they're just happy to read something different--even if that means sacrificing their time for an ultimately non-compelling story.

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