Sharyl reviewed Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Review of 'Out Stealing Horses' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Out Stealing Horses is a great title, a phrase that meant a couple different things to different people, but in any case represented activity that was at least partly secretive.
The protagonist and narrator is Trond, who has spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway. Now in his late sixties, after suffering the loss of his wife and sister, he has retired to a small cabin in a very rural area to be alone with his thoughts for the rest of his life. Even though Trond has much to do to make this old cabin livable, his thoughts drift back to what for him is the most memorable, fascinating, and perplexing time of his life, the summer of 1948. That was the summer he stayed in a rural village with his father doing physical labor, meeting the locals, fishing, and gradually becoming a strong, self-sufficient young man, at the …
Out Stealing Horses is a great title, a phrase that meant a couple different things to different people, but in any case represented activity that was at least partly secretive.
The protagonist and narrator is Trond, who has spent most of his life in Oslo, Norway. Now in his late sixties, after suffering the loss of his wife and sister, he has retired to a small cabin in a very rural area to be alone with his thoughts for the rest of his life. Even though Trond has much to do to make this old cabin livable, his thoughts drift back to what for him is the most memorable, fascinating, and perplexing time of his life, the summer of 1948. That was the summer he stayed in a rural village with his father doing physical labor, meeting the locals, fishing, and gradually becoming a strong, self-sufficient young man, at the age of fifteen.
It is also when Trond realizes that his father has had a life completely separate from his family. He sees, he observes, and he wonders, but is never to be told anything directly by his father. Another important part of this summer is Trond's brief friendship with Jon, the only neighbor his own age, and one who Trond views in a glamorous light. Jon is tough and taciturn, and even during their last morning together "out stealing horses" (or, borrowing the rich neighbor's horses without permission), Jon has not told Trond about the tragedy that has just visited his family, but he does do something disturbing that turns out to be symbolic of that tragedy.
Trond never sees Jon again. Jon's life has been hijacked by awful chance, and Trond spends some time reflecting on how comparatively lucky he has been. This luckiness is at odds with the way Trond believes that he is control of his own fate, when again and again, this proves not to be true. He may be lucky, but not unhurt; he also never sees his father again after that summer. After Trond becomes so attached to him, after his father hugged him so close, and played with him, after they'd worked together so hard to guide logs down a stream, had fished and rode horses, his father put Trond back on a bus to Oslo and told him he'd be along soon. There is a heartbreaking period of time when Trond rides his father's old bike to the bus station, day after day, hoping to see his father.
Later, Trond learns that for his father, "out stealing horses" was code for smuggling information (and sometimes people) into Sweden during WWII. It seems that most of the locals were involved, including Jon's mother and Trond's father. Before the summer of '48, that was why his father would be living in that cabin. Later on, Trond assumes his father just needs to get away to clear his head. His father did have friends in this village, and it is also strongly implied that Trond's father and Jon's mother had an established romantic relationship. This was something Trond was able to glimpse, but not understand, that summer.
Now that Trond has returned to a rural life as an older man, he finds that there are people who are determined to keep contact with him, and that this is good. His daughter locates him with some difficulty, and the hurt she feels about his unannounced move does affect him, as it should. Also, he has frequent contact with his neighbor Lars, the younger brother of Jon. Trond was very reluctant to befriend anyone, but the two men, in their sixties, have both a connection and a need for the help and support of the other in such a harsh climate in the middle of nowhere. And there's also the farmer who he and Lars pay to clear their unpaved roads after the heavy snows, and the kind people at the grocery store, and the only mechanic in town, as well as each other's chain saws when one person can't cut up the storm-damaged trees all by himself...even if he were young...and so, Trond, who has to this village to be alone with his thoughts, is not alone, after all.
I love the way this introspective novel ends with a memory of a day Trond spends with his mother, the last time he can remember her being happy and lighthearted. On this day, they travel to Sweden to collect a small amount of money his father had left them in a bank there. When they learn that there are monetary restriction laws that prohibit them from taking the money out of the country, they simply have a fun day spending it. Trond gets a new suit, and they have lunch.
One interesting aspect of this story was all the pairing: Jon and Trond, Jon's twin brothers, the absence of both Jon's and Trond's fathers, and the double-meaning of the title. Also, the way Trond returns to the rural life AND meets up again with Lars shows another symmetry, and it was the only coincidence in the story.
Per Petterson has written a very quiet, thoughtful ode to loss and bittersweet memories that does not resolve everything, but I got the feeling that Trond did finally make peace with the trauma in his past. The only concrete reason I have for feeling this way is that Trond never comes out and asks Lars the big question that's been on his mind. He knows that the past is already painful for Lars, and--perhaps it doesn't matter as much to Trond, now.
This is a short but long novel; it may be only 238 pages, but it was not a fast read for me.
