mustirufatoshsu's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.0
anetq's review against another edition
4.0
Cursing the river of time may be what you want to do, but it's not of much use. Time will pass anyway; Life, death, divorce, avoided memories and maybe a wasted life? Time is certainly turning for Arvid: His marriage, his mother and his ideology is dying (And he gave up getting an education and possibly lost his family to the latter). And still most of it is unsaid and the heavy weight of the unspoken lies over the (lack of) relationship.
This would be a great setup for tragicomedy, but it stays in the very tragic in the tradition of Strindberg, Bergman and Ibsen - but then it is a Nordic Council Literature Prize winner!
This would be a great setup for tragicomedy, but it stays in the very tragic in the tradition of Strindberg, Bergman and Ibsen - but then it is a Nordic Council Literature Prize winner!
cmcrockford's review against another edition
4.0
Not as grand and monumental in scope as Out Stealing Horses, but what the hell could be? It's central weakness is a whiny protagonist in Arvid, but this and Horses become mournful, hopeful meditations on the passing of time and of the governments and worlds that defined us.
sbaunsgard's review against another edition
3.0
The sentences are beautiful and it goes around and around. That is really the point of the book, and I wonder if it was lost on me because I took too long to read it.
msjoanna's review against another edition
4.0
Per Patterson is a heck of a writer. He manages to write sentences that are heartbreakingly beautiful even while a narrator is complaining that his life didn't go the way he expected or wanted. This is a quiet book that takes patience to get into. It's a terrible choice for reading right before bed because the simplicity and beauty fades with tired eyes. Much better to savor this with a cup of tea on a calm morning.
bethnellvaccaro's review against another edition
3.0
This is a hard book for me to rate and review. I can't say I liked it exactly, but the descriptions of the cold and Norway are breathtaking. Not too much happens in this book, which is usually fine by me, but the whole book kind of left my stomach in a knot by the end.
astroneatly's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
larabavery's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A winding, layered reflection on the power of belonging and love, and all the decisions one makes to seek it day to day. Though the timeline wandered through the narrator’s memories and the landmarks of Norway and Denmark, I never felt disoriented about where I was in time or space. His obsessions were unsettling, yet communicated in a chaotic clarity. Sometimes this book was like a poem; a series of deeply immersive images and scenes that the narrator was subject to, rather than unfolding as a result of his choices. Though these images were beautiful, the path his life has taken seems to confuse the reader as much as it confuses him. His motivations often felt obscure.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
4.0
Just finished this novel and am a bit torn up inside. I am a patient reader of stories that seem to plod along; I don't mind in translation the misappropriated comma splices and the run-on sentences, for those elisions and odd pauses can evoke the truth, that the text was written in a different language, and hence all the wrangling the translator bore to bring the raw human experience from one continent and tongue to another adds a new layer of meaning. There are parallels between this novel and Out Stealing Horses. I will let you pull the threads from one to the other.
liridona's review against another edition
4.0
I judged this book by its cover and by its title (I do it all the time, we all do), and boy was I right in doing so. I'm not sure what I thought about the story (I liked how dark it was, without the darkness overshadowing everything), but I liked the language a lot, and for me, it's more important that a writer writes well than what he actually writes about.