29. I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

Category: 50 Books

Hmm, some Norwegian fiction. It wasn’t crime fiction.

This book starts out great. I was intrigued by the story. It’s about this guy, Arvid, who becomes a communist (and a Maoist) and how he interacts with his mother. And then as he gets older and had a family of his own… blah blah blah.

Actually, that sounds boring as hell doesn’t it?

It wasn’t boring, really. It was probably a bit too introspective for my taste, but I thought it was good writing. The story had a good pace to it, and the flashbacks (of which there are many) were well done. The problem I had with this book is Arvid. At first he’s a young man and kind of idealist or whatnot, in that Young Man in College kind of way, but as he gets older it’s like he’s not getting any more mature, and he’s very selfish.

At the end the only thing I could say was, “What a piece of shit.” This is my opinion of Arvid, not the book. Although the ending of the book is quite abrupt and answers no questions in this very annoying, “Way to write and publish half a book there, champ.” Which is frustrating because it IS a good book, and its very well written, it’s just incomplete.

I plan to read more by this author.

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