Out Stealing Horses

Probably the nicest part of having cataract surgery is regaining the ability to read.

The stack of books on my kitchen counter has been growing for quite some time. I would run across a book I wanted to read, but reading was so difficult that I just let the book sit on the stack. No more.

The first book I pulled from the stack was a shortish novel called Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. Petterson is a Norwegian novelist who has several books to his credit, but this is the first one I've read. I intend to read others.

I won't get into a lot of details, lest you want to read the book yourself, but this is the story of Trond Sander. The novel takes place in Norway, from Trond's adolescent years (shortly after WW II) through his old age in the late 1990's. It's about his relationships with family and his friend, and it's about the boy becoming the man, but it's more about seminal events in his life, which were not recognized as such when they occurred.

This isn't a book review blog, but I think a comparison of Out Stealing Horses to one my favorite books is in order:




Judging by these criteria, Horses beats out Green Eggs and Ham by a score of 4 to 2. I highly recommend it.