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I Refuse
Écrit par Per Petterson
Raconté par Richard Poe, Rachel Botchan et Brian Hutchison
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A masterful new novel from Per Petterson, who “provides one of literature’s greatest gifts . . . a welcome refuge from our cacophonous world” (NPR)
. Per Petterson’s hotly anticipated new novel, I Refuse, is the work of an internationally acclaimed novelist at the height of his powers. In Norway the book has been a huge bestseller, and rights have already been sold into sixteen countries. In his signature spare style, Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood thirty-five years ago. Back then, Tommy was separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy’s side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it’s clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered. I Refuse is a powerful, unforgettable novel, and its publication is an event to be celebrated.
. Per Petterson’s hotly anticipated new novel, I Refuse, is the work of an internationally acclaimed novelist at the height of his powers. In Norway the book has been a huge bestseller, and rights have already been sold into sixteen countries. In his signature spare style, Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood thirty-five years ago. Back then, Tommy was separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy’s side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it’s clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered. I Refuse is a powerful, unforgettable novel, and its publication is an event to be celebrated.
Actions du livre
Commencer à écouterInformations sur le livre
I Refuse
Écrit par Per Petterson
Raconté par Richard Poe, Rachel Botchan et Brian Hutchison
Description
A masterful new novel from Per Petterson, who “provides one of literature’s greatest gifts . . . a welcome refuge from our cacophonous world” (NPR)
. Per Petterson’s hotly anticipated new novel, I Refuse, is the work of an internationally acclaimed novelist at the height of his powers. In Norway the book has been a huge bestseller, and rights have already been sold into sixteen countries. In his signature spare style, Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood thirty-five years ago. Back then, Tommy was separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy’s side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it’s clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered. I Refuse is a powerful, unforgettable novel, and its publication is an event to be celebrated.
. Per Petterson’s hotly anticipated new novel, I Refuse, is the work of an internationally acclaimed novelist at the height of his powers. In Norway the book has been a huge bestseller, and rights have already been sold into sixteen countries. In his signature spare style, Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood thirty-five years ago. Back then, Tommy was separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy’s side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it’s clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered. I Refuse is a powerful, unforgettable novel, and its publication is an event to be celebrated.
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This is the fifth novel of Petterson's that I've read, and it maintains the very high standard of his oeuvre, from my perspective. "I Refuse" deals with growing up, friendship and its loss, family breakdown, social change and the emptiness of materialism, among other matters. It's familiar territory for Petterson, perhaps, but he approaches it differently in this novel. Through multiple narratives and time shifts, he shines new light on his material and delivers fresh insights that caused this reader to reflect upon his own life.
You don't read Petterson for the laughs, though there is a dark humour at work here. His purpose isn't to provide the reader with distraction, but I found the fragmented narrative compelling. It's a starkly realist story of life's hardships and disappointments. There are no neat endings here. Parts are oblique and defy interpretation - much like life. The storytelling, characterisation and prose - at least, in Don Bartlett's translation - are all executed beautifully. Highly recommended for those who enjoy writing that reflects the formlessness of lived experience, its resistance to meaning.
You don't read Petterson for the laughs, though there is a dark humour at work here. His purpose isn't to provide the reader with distraction, but I found the fragmented narrative compelling. It's a starkly realist story of life's hardships and disappointments. There are no neat endings here. Parts are oblique and defy interpretation - much like life. The storytelling, characterisation and prose - at least, in Don Bartlett's translation - are all executed beautifully. Highly recommended for those who enjoy writing that reflects the formlessness of lived experience, its resistance to meaning.
Here Petterson sets his account in our contemporary world, where the characters' encounters with service personnel at fast-food outlets and the gatekeepers of apparently endless steps through welfare bureaucracy bring generations into an intense but possibly imaginary intimacy of empathy and pathos. Dealing with contemporary urbanism experienced through the dislocation of its meaningless drives, fragmentary time and non-places, Petterson here is the literary Edward Hopper of contemporary, postindustrial life. His familiar themes of memory, family and loss are in this novel complicated by interweaving the lifelong attachments produced by childhood and adolescent friendships even where those are ruptured in the transition to adulthood, which provides the main thread, unifying the book through the sublime coincidences which link our lives in unexpected rhizomatic encounters even in the globalized world of transitory residences, careers, and relationships, reminding us that ultimately we do not escape our pasts because we carry them emebedded deep within ourselves, awaiting the moment in which they will suddenly assume an immediate, definitive relevance. we think something is long gone, when suddenly we are confronted with a memory of ourselves embedded in another. As usual, the brilliance of the book is enhanced by simple prose, even sometimes repetitious in its translated forms, but conveying through that form the fractured experience of the mundane reality of everyday life in our world.
Petterson shows the art of internal dialog in this novel about two boys. May have to read a couple of time to find all the nuances he brings to the story. Perhaps a bit disappointed as I did not love the way did with "Out Stealing Horses". June 2015
I expected to love this book because I've now read all of Petterson's novels, and each one is compelling in its own particular way. I like his experiments with structure. I admire his prose and original metaphors. But I Refuse refused to grab me in the way his other work has. I'm still trying to figure out why. It may be that much of the book remains floating somewhere, and I think the ending with the last image of Siri taking off in a plane signifies this quality. All of these characters, except for Jonson (sp?), don't seem grounded or able to engage deeply with another. They all refuse to connect with the reader as well. I didn't believe that Tommy was going to suddenly have this relationship with a waitress he picked up in a cafe. That action seemed implausible. So I was left with a lot of loose threads that didn't really come together in a meaningful way.
I have to admit that an exploration of the psychological scars of two lonely middle aged Norwegian men does not strike me as the most promising starting point for a story, but I was prepared to give this a chance since I remembered enjoying Petterson's better known Out Stealing Horses. Petterson's writing draws you in masterfully, and this was a pleasure to read, for all of the darkness of the childhood memories the two men share. He shares a translator with Karl Ove Knausgaard, and at times they explore similar terrain, but if Knausgaard feels that narrative fiction is a dead form, his compatriot Petterson believes otherwise. For all of that the story feels quite elliptical, with much left unsaid.
Perhaps not his best work, but a long way ahead of some other stuff I' currently reading (I'm looking at you Nina George). In this book he explores the highs and lows of a relationship between two men with a nature that I don't recall ever having previously encountered. Do such relationships exist?
This is an excellent book from an excellent author. More difficult than some of his earlier work, and more self-contained and internalized almost. But truly excellent. The translation is fantastic.New Petterson readers would probably enjoy starting with Out Stealing Horses, which is both a masterpiece and more accessible.
3.5 Families and the things that can tear them apart. A mother leaving, a father who abuses and young children who think they can make it on their own. Friendships, even of the most cherished kind, but growing apart and losing contact. People who care and try to step in when needed. I loved the title connection to the story.All part of this novel, and Petterson, I felt was trying to treat each of his characters with tenderness. Just something in the writing. Narrated by a few different characters, back and forth in time, the present to the past. Eventually we do learn what happens to most of the main characters and the ending is true to life. We never know what is just around the corner, what the next day will bring. There are always variables, even if we do have plans. I loved the young Tommy and Jim, was surprised how they each turned out and where. Even when we think we know everything about a person, I know we don't. So it is in this novel.
What a wonderful story of love, friendship, life with all its range of difficulty, of its happiness and despair. A tale full of broken relationships, wounds that never heal, confusion in the way of pursuit, and a coming of age no matter how long it takes to get there. And even if the final result is not what was expected, or even desired at all! Per Petterson has done it again, giving his readers another novel to cheer for, and a fair reason to close unfinished chapters or prepare to hold our nose.