Friday 4 July 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Liz Anderson

Liz suggests


Out Stealing Horses

Into the Norwegian wood

Per Petterson
Vintage, pp. 264pp, ££7.99,
Jonathan Keates
Wednesday, 25th July 2007

Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson
translated by Anne Born

Here is a remarkable novel, one which appears to be about nothing in particular, featuring barely half a dozen characters, several of whom have no names. Hardly anything happens. A boy dies, a man gets shot, another boy is given a new suit, and that, more or less, is that. There is a good deal of description, though of the plainest kind, several emotions are registered after an understated fashion, but the author makes no attempt at centring these elements on a complicated plot. Having reached the middle of the book in the perfectly comprehensible expectation that Something Really Important will take place if only we hang on long enough, we are scarcely surprised when after all it doesn’t.

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