For my last book of the year, I kind of wish I had picked something a little less boring and confusing. It would have been great to finish out the year with something carried itself like wildfire, but I instead chose a dud. I only knew of Per Petterson from the fact that he won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, which besides the Booker Prize, is one of the most prestigious awards you can win for a book. It is awarded once every year and to books that are two years old and it comes with the largest cash prize for any award, which is 100,00 pounds. Seeing this award on the back cover of a book immediately puts me at attention. But rarely do awards go to books that have a good story, they always have some complicated ideas or worse yet, political implications. To put it simply, simplicity is almost never awarded in the book world. Having said that, this book fell into the former category, with a nonlinear style of narrative mixed with a rather dry prose styling that reflects Cormac McCarthy, who I have never been a fan of. Trond Sander, an old man content with his solitude, meets someone he thinks is a stranger while out on a walk who brings up his childhood memories that carry equal amounts of unbridled happiness and unbearable despair. We see his relationship with his father, friend Jon, and mother affected by the elements of life that make Trond rethink his life’s path’s. Plain stuff, but I always give a good writer some credit, even if the story stinks. It’s dry as hell, but it sometimes floats off the page in certain scenes (like when Jon and Trond ride horses that are not theirs, which is where the title comes from). But for the most part, it is quite a bore, which a terrible thing for a coming-of-age tale. I am not too eager to enter Petterson’s lush, if dull world again anytime soon.
Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment