In the Wake

In the Wake is my second favorite Petterson novel (hard to beat Out Stealing Horses!). I love the layers of it: "wake" referring to several things, all applicable in different layers and details. For one thing, wake can refer to, obviously, not asleep. Awake. And in this novel the main character is not "in the wake" that often, he's dreaming and sleepwalking through much of his life. Wake can also refer to the consequences of something, such as left in the wake of an event, which is definitely the case here following the burning ship's demise. Lastly, the use of wake as the memorial event after a death is most prominent. He doesn't beat you over the head with these ideas, but they all fit in beautifully. His character is intriguing. Additionally, as Petterson so skillfully does, much is left to the imagination. Many questions are left unanswered, which is for the best. Petterson allows you to take away fromt he reading what fits your life look and experience. Some may wish to see more details laid out, but to me that mystery is what makes it magical. Great book!

Fathers inevitably die, and it is their sons who follow after them. Our fathers do not always love us the way we think they should, but nor do we always love them the way they think we should, either. Arvid Jansen's father died six years ago, and it has taken him until now to realise that he has not, in fact, dealt with it at all. Worse, his wife and children have become estranged, and his brother's life is unravelling as much as his own. His life is disorientation, memory without hooks to hold them within his mind. He wakes, he eats, he sleeps, he forgets. We meet Arvid in a very confused state. He has 'awoken' outside a bookstore, with dirty, scratched palms and a bruised eye. He can't remember much of how he arrived there, or why he chose to return to the store where he worked, years ago. He was an author of mild success, forgotten now, not immortalised in death like Yeats or Kafka or Schulz, as he might have wished. The novel is written in a first person perspective, which allows us deep insight into Arvid's mind. Action trigger thoughts which trigger memories of times that have long passed, more often than not to do with his father, a strong, stubborn, emotionally withdrawn man who Arvid felt never quite connected with any of his sons. Any memory at all will invariably contain a reference to his father, a brief thought, a whispered lament, an essay-like discourse on regret. 'I close my eyes, I hear the wind in the treetops, and it is a good sound. I have heard it both summer and winter on hundreds of cross-country treks with my father, when we rested and my breath was not the only sound I could hear, and sometimes the wind in the treetops was the only things that was good.' This is typical of Arvid's thoughts. He is wistful for life with his father, but strangely none of his memories come across as particularly pleasant. Perhaps that is why he remembers them with such force. He regrets not the father he had, but the father he wanted. Unfortunately for Arvid - and for every child who grows to become a man or woman - we are stuck with the father we receive, for better or worse. If we cannot quite figure out how to be a parent to our own children, then how dare we expect such achievements from them? But of course we do, and that is the crux of Petterson's novel, the second of his to be translated into English, and nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a prize which he was to win in 2007 for his novel, Out Stealing Horses. The novel is not only concerned with fathers. There is a strong current of loneliness which runs throughout. Arvid becomes involved with a young woman who lives in an apartment across from his own, they watch each other through their windows, communicating in silence. One particularly evocative scene happens shortly after they have become lovers. '...I see her turning and looking back at me, and we just stand there and then she lets her dressing gown drop ... Her skin shines dimly and is whiter than anything else

To begin with, there is one important thing that needs to be corrected: "In the wake" is not modeled after the "Estonia"-accident, but after the fire on the passenger ferry "Scandinavian Star" on April 7th, 1990, where 159 people were killed [...]. Petterson lost his cousin, his brother, and his parents in this accident. I will admit that I read the book in Norwegian first, but I found the translation to be equally good. Petterson is excellent at describing pain in a subtle way. He never becomes melancholy or uses flowing metaphors, despite the somewhat biographic nature of this book. He is also strong at creating imagery, such as his description of driving out of a tunnel into a wall of rain. The narrative style sometimes reminds you of Carver, at his best. I don't think this book requires a strong knowledge of Norway, the "Scandinavian Star"-accident or any of the other references to be appreciated. It is, however, a book for those who appreciate literature that is not plot-driven, that is minimalist, and in some ways masculine.

Well written. Quite evocative of Norway. Conflict between father and son quite moving.

In Oslo, forty-three years old novelist Arvid Jansen feels depressed. He has felt that way since the ferry sunk killing his parents and two of his three siblings. He knows he must move on, but cannot even while he struggles with writing a novel about his dad. Adding to his feelings of guilt and ineptitudeis the fact his only surviving brother tried suicide perhaps because as Arvid rationalizes it he felt alone as 'his living relative (Arvid) has not been there for him. Still Arvid tries to reconnect with his estranged "Big Brother" and even makes human contact with his Kurdish neighbor, though neither understands the language of the other. Then there is Mrs. Grinde, who looks at him all the time from her window; he wonders if it is as a sex object or a bug though he admits to himself he would like a tryst with her. He thinks back on his demanding father, who he fought with when his dad was alive and Arvid realizes in some macabre way his misses the arguments. IN THE WAKE is a reflective insightful look at grief from the perspective of an individual who seems on the brink of a breakdown with no one to turn to for help. Arvid narrates a few weeks in his life as he still mourns his loss though six years has past since the tragic sinking of MS Estonia (real event). Suffering from survivor guilt and alienated from everyone, Arvid believes that along with the deaths of his family, his writing ability died. This is a deep character study that centers on grief as individualized and solitary, however to return to the living one must look to others not for help, but to help. Harriet Klausner