Out Stealing Horses

“People like it when you tell them things, in suitable portions, in a modest, intimate tone, and they think they know you, but they do not, they know about you, for what they are let in on are facts, not feelings, not what your opinion is about anything at all, not how what has happened to you and how all the decisions you have made have turned you into who you are. What they do is they fill in with their own feelings and opinions and assumptions, and they compose a new life which has precious little to do with yours, and that lets you off the hook. No-one can touch you unless you yourself want them to.” 

"I can close my eyes and clearly see those lines, like shining arrows, and if I did not see them quite as clear that autumn day in Karlstad, I did know they were there, of that I am certain.  And those lines were different roads I could take, and having chosen one of them, the portcullis would come crashing down, and someone hoist the drawbridge up, and a chain reaction would be set in motion which no-one could stop, and there would be no running back, no retracing my steps....

.... If I had punched the man in Karlstad, my life would have been a different life, and I a different man.  And it would be foolish to maintain, as so many men do, that it would have come ot the same thing.  it would not."

These are longer quotes than I usually include about a book, but I found myself musing over these passages after finishing the book and so I wanted to include them both.

I really enjoyed this book by Petterson.  I loved the dual narrative positions of the Norwegian man in his 60's and his recollections of a significant summer when he was 15 years old.  A few members of Slim Tomes book club found it slow moving and lacking in grace (compared to some of our other recent books).  However I found this novel had a beautiful cadence and was filled with poignant moments and descriptions that evoked such a sense of place and atmosphere.

It would have been amazing to read this book in a cabin in a beautiful forest near a picturesque river.  I think I need a reading holiday soon!