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Sat 07 Jul 2010Candour, sensitivity, humour: the result is singular magic
FICTION:I Curse the River of TimeBy Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson Harvill Secker, 233pp. €12.99
LIFE IS CATCHING UP with Arvid Jansen. Just when he has begun to accept that his marriage is over, and that his wife doesn’t even likehim any more, his mother finally goes to the doctor and, after various tests, discovers that she has cancer. “There were days,” reflects Arvid, “I could not move from the kitchen to the bathroom without falling to my knees at least once before I could pull myself together and walk on.” The Norwegian writer Per Petterson applies candour, sensitivity and humour to his intimate studies of life as lived by us, the ordinary majority, and the result is singular magic.
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