Men in My Situation

September 1, 2021

Published in the United States in 2007, Norwegian author Petterson's Out Stealing Horses was proclaimed a New York Times Best Book and won the International Dublin Literary Award. After other appreciated U.S. publications, Petterson now arrives with Men in My Situation, the portrait of a man undone. Arvid Jansen bitterly mourns the loss of his parents and brothers in a terrible ferry accident, after which his wife divorced him and whisked away their three daughters. A year later, when she asks for a ride home from the train station, he sees that his family has moved on without him and confronts his now aimless life. Poignantly, Arvid first appeared as a bright-eyed 12-year-old in Petterson's debut novel, Echoland, now receiving its first U.S. publication.

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December 1, 2021
A Norwegian writer finds himself struggling to get his life together after the double whammy of his parents' and brothers' deaths in a tragic ship fire and the end of his 15-year marriage a year later. Arvid Jansen is a recurring character and something of an alter ego in Pettersen's fiction. The author's parents and brother died in an actual ferry disaster in 1990; his novel In The Wake (2002) concentrates on Arvid's relationship with his father and his guilt and grief surrounding the deaths. In the newer novel, the focus is largely on the aftermath of Arvid's divorce from his wife, Turid, and his longing for his three young daughters, whom he now rarely sees for reasons that may be of his own making. Arvid is 43 in In The Wake, and the final section of the new novel finds him at the same age, but for most of the (in)action, which takes place over the course of one Sunday a year after Turid and the girls left, he's looking back at himself at 38. (The missing years between 38 and 43 might be another novel.) Turid calls him early that morning. Stranded and desperate, she asks for his help getting home because "I have no one else," a statement he disbelieves. Whether his marriage's failure was his fault remains unclear, but while dutifully helping Turid get home, and later picking up his daughters--left with a babysitter he doesn't trust--Arvid stews over his life, reexperiencing nonchronological bits and pieces of aimlessness and missed connections. Though he's published three books and received a grant to write his big factory novel, he currently spends most of his time picking up women at bars or roaming the countryside alone in his beloved Mazda, psychologically adrift; American readers may have more trouble following the physical geography of Norway he covers exhaustively than the depressed, self-absorbed, but beautifully articulated meanderings of his mind. A melancholy read despite a glimmer of hope toward the end.

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December 13, 2021
Petterson’s bracing latest captures the rhythms and anomie of grief with another story featuring Arvid Jansen, protagonist of In the Wake. A year after a passenger ferry catches fire, resulting in the deaths of Arvid’s parents and two brothers along with 155 others, his wife, Turid leaves him. Arvid wanders aimlessly, driving around Oslo and often sleeping in his beloved old Mazda. A successful writer, he can’t summon the will to pick up a pen. The time he’s allotted every other week with his three daughters, Vigdis and Tone and Tine, is especially painful for the eldest, 12-year-old Vigdis, who gets into a fit during a camping trip with Arvid after confiding about Turid’s own unhappiness. Petterson’s downbeat prose has a rhythm and flow both transparent and immediate, fueled by Arvid’s eloquence and failure to focus beyond the current moment. As deep as the well of his loneliness and sadness is, his emergence on the other side is equally gratifying. Arvid’s few stray words on the disastrous fire convey its monumental effect on him. This low-key outing will particularly resonate with the author’s fans.

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Introduced as a 12-year-old in Petterson's debut novel, Echoland, which is being published concurrently with this title and appearing in the United States for the first time, Arvid Jansen is now 38 years old and a successful writer attempting to navigate life in the midst of several crises. A divorced father of three, he tries to be part of his daughters' lives but often falls short. His ex-wife, who he had known since he was 19, left him for "colorful" people unlike himself. More shockingly, Arvid's parents and brothers died in a fire on a ship just a year earlier. In coming to terms with these events, Arvid drinks too much and indulges in one-night stands, finding that he can fall asleep only in his car, his beloved champagne-colored Mazda. Much of his day is spent taking buses, trains, and taxis around Oslo, visiting places that resonate with him, including the neighborhood where he grew up and the shoe factory where his father worked. Slowly, Arvid begins to realize that he is being tested by the women in his life and must meet their expectations. VERDICT Petterson has written a beautifully nuanced, deeply felt, and powerful story of survival.--Jacqueline Snider, Toronto

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