(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Raw tenderness. Soft masculinity. Calm drama. These and several pairs of opposites easily fall into place when Per Petterson's textual universe is to be described. For although Petterson is apparently an author of the action, who to a large extent describes an external and concrete reality, it is always a solid subtext – or perhaps rather undergrowth – where the complex grows well.
Pensioner Trond Sander settles in a dilapidated house on the outskirts of a small village. He stays pretty much to himself, jigsaws with his and strolls with his paw. But then he comes in contact with neighbor Lars. The two men recognize each other, and memories of youth 50 years earlier are brought to life. Not all memories are equally good, and dust, war, betrayal, death and families are being brushed off in disintegration. Many of the most important relationships are between men, whether it is between father and son, two comrades, two neighbors or two brothers.
An elegant and stylish exchange between Sanders's present and past paints a portrait of a man who has experienced much; both for good and for bad. Sander's experiences are not only from his own body and soul, but also based on what he, as a young boy, saw as a return to the people around him. Observation is an important key word in all Out and steal horses. It is through the gaze of the details of the relationship to the whole, by showing the big thing in the small, that Petterson so elegantly gets the rough, external action to convey a nuanced and thinking man figure. Out and steal horses can in many ways also be said to be a nostalgic text. Not just because history is built on memories of the past, but because it is full of the simple, the natural, the quiet, the physical; all of which is becoming less and less of in urban society most people live in to daily.
There are men who do not laugh. There are pale and intellectual men, whose last deal with wood and tools was a bank break from Brio. There are men who do not read books. All of these should get Per Petterson for Christmas.
