Out Stealing Horses
I like Hemingway and the word "and" as much as the next guy, but when it's overdone it becomes an annoying fetish:
"I measure coffee into the filter and pour cold water into the jug and switch on the percolater, and then cut some bread and put it in a basket and get butter out and meat and cheese from the fridge onto plates and fill a small yellow jug with milk for the coffee and put everything on the table with glasses and knives for two."
Over 200 pages of this sort of thing becomes tiring. After reading In the Wake which was only slightly better than Out Stealing Horses, I think I can say I'm officially done with Per Petterson. I guess I prefer my Norwegian writers completely crazy like Knut Hamsun.
"I measure coffee into the filter and pour cold water into the jug and switch on the percolater, and then cut some bread and put it in a basket and get butter out and meat and cheese from the fridge onto plates and fill a small yellow jug with milk for the coffee and put everything on the table with glasses and knives for two."
Over 200 pages of this sort of thing becomes tiring. After reading In the Wake which was only slightly better than Out Stealing Horses, I think I can say I'm officially done with Per Petterson. I guess I prefer my Norwegian writers completely crazy like Knut Hamsun.
posted by BayonneMike at 7:24 AM
3 Comments:
wow, Mike. Very impressive prizes this guy won (per Wikipedia)and you DARE to critique his royal ANDness? Look: "as awarded the 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (the world's largest monetary literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English (€100,000). In the December 9. 2007 issue of the New York Times Book Review Out Stealing Horses was named one of the 10 best books of the year.
Petterson is a trained librarian. He has worked as a bookstore clerk, translator and literary critic before becoming a full-time writer. He cites Knut Hamsun and Raymond Carver among his influences.
i like his name. For years now I have been referring to my Aunt Pat as 'Per Patsy' as per my now deceased Aunt Betty, aka 'Two Pee Holes in the Snow.
My comment:
I suppose in the case of isolation/singleness (many writers seek solitude in order to complete their novels), one might experience a refreshing sense of literary freedom and outright nerve, describing in depth, as if precious art, the various mundane and necessary activities which most take for granted. Must be an awesome life, ticking away the seconds in gleeful solitude, writing award winning books about it. Send it on down will ya? I'll put with the Knut book.
Incidentally, in my search for homes, I discovered a 1 bedroom, 1 bath home on "GRUMPY LANE" in Chincoteage Virginia, Mike. That's the place where the hoards of wild horses cross over from their island, through the bay to the main land every year. Perfect place to retire and write your best seller novels, Mike.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4156-Grumpys-Lane_Chincoteague_VA_23336_1112617852?source=hp
loved it.
I know. So did Aimee Mann. Apparently, I'm in the minority on this one.
Post a Comment
<< Home