A review by theatlantean
Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes by Per Petterson

2.0

Funny, I was just dismissing as irrelevant a critique of The Slow Regard of Silent Things which stated it didn't have a plot, when I finish this and my main critique is, it didn't have a plot...
The difference is, whereas TSRFST has some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and is a character study of an amazing and unique voice and takes you deep inside a special person, what you get here is a series of unconnected events with a subtext that is indifferent to the point of occasional banality.
Yes, there is a thread that connects them, and a plot in that the coming-of-age is there, but it kind of jumps straight from childhood into a final event which is not borne out by character growth. Maybe if this had been a further hundred pages with seeds being sown, it would have done what it intended to. As it is, it is slight. Sorry.