5 comments about Norwegian-English Dictionary: A Pronouncing and Translating Dictionary of Modern Norwegian (Bokmal and Nynorsk) with a Historical and Grammatical Introduction.

1. The Norwegian to English Dictionary by Einar Haugen was everything I needed and asked for, and at the right price, with superbly prompt shipping. Haugen is world renowned for this dictionary; the ONLY drawback is that it is not English to Norwegian as well, but Einar Haugen produces the most and best examples of the word(s) used in context of any other editor, an absolute must for English speaking folks learning Norwegian.



2. The dictionary is excellent but it was very late in delivery. I emailed the source 3 times and finally got the product about 4 weeks after it was supposedly mailed.



3. I got this book because of all the positive reviews. For those who are just starting with the language, I would say get another dictionary (or online service) with English to Norwegian translations so that you can cross reference and move about more easily in this book. This will get you deeper into the specifics of the words you need as you plow through this Norwegian to English book. This book is well done and a great reference, but for me, it would be a much better reference tool to be English to Norwegian, to be a physically bigger book - the font size will make you search for your glasses, a magnifying glass and a really strong light after longer periods of use, and to lay out the definitions and phrase variations a little more cleanly. It's easy to get lost in the long lists of some of the common derivations of a word. If you need Norwegian language reference tools, this is the one to get, but be prepared to dig and scrape and to cross reference with another source so you can be sure you actually have the word you intended.



4. Do not hesitate to buy it. It is just perfect. No need to say anything else.



5. This Dictionary is complete and clearly defines the two languages of Bokmal and Nynorsk. It was recommended by my language instructor as the Dictionary to have in my library.

5 comments about NORWEGIAN in 10 minutes a day® with CD-ROM.

1. Has stickers for putting around the house. Practical when you want to learn the language fast.



2. This book could be good for a very new learner, but I think you could get more out of a travel pocket guide. The Cd is a waste of time, you just move around labels but dont fill in anything or utilize your actual memory, it's more guessing. The stickers do not stick to anything well, not even paper but especially not my cat or my dog which they have stickers for, rediculously enough. They even said "Get creative" and if I stuck it to my milk or my oil, I guess that only gives two weeks to memorize it, which I could do without the stickers. Where do you stick "How are you?" I question some of the pronounciations as I have been to Norway and pronounce kj more sh/ch than hy. So i'm definitely not at all impressed, I'd also recommend studying more than ten minutes to learn any language seriously.



3. I am enjoying learning Norwegian in my own home. It's easy and soon I will be able to have a conversation with my family in Norway.



4. I bought this book two months ago and have enjoyed it. As the structure is very similar to english, i have picked up quite a bit. I am not a native speaker...Spanish being my 1st language. This book is good for beginners as it takes you thru the basics with fun pictures, stickers, and cards. My next move is to get a CD with pronunciation in it as i need to practice that part. The CD that came with the book is okay and helped a bit but I will need to get something more robust if i want to have an intelligent conversation in Norwegian. Otherwise, the book is great to start. Makes learning the basics easy and fun.



5. This book is just what I was looking for. I am so glad I purchased it.

5 comments about The Water's Edge.

1. I read this book in hopes of discovering a new author. I thought Karen did a great job of developing the characters to all look suspect as well as keeping suspense going throughout the story. When the story goes into how the pedophiler has his way with a 7-yr old boy, I lost interest. I love a good page-turner, thriller but NOT when it involves children.



2. Scandinavian authors have become renowned in the United States for their moody and atmospheric crime thrillers. Karin Fossum, who is known as Norway's "Queen of Crime," deserves to be counted among them. In "The Water's Edge," beautifully translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund, a married couple named Reinhardt and Kristine Ris are taking their customary Sunday walk towards the peaceful and secluded Lake Linde. Suddenly, Reinhardt spots the corpse of a child. Responding to his emergency call are Inspectors Konrad Sejer, who is "correct, reserved, and polite," and his partner, Jacob Skarre. They learn from the pathologist that the boy was sexually assaulted; however, a cursory physical examination does not immediately reveal the cause of death. After the victim is identified, his distraught mother blames herself for allowing her seven-year-old son to return from a sleepover alone. Later, another child goes missing, and the authorities fear that the predator has struck again.
   
   Although this sounds like a routine thriller about a mentally deranged serial killer, it is not. In addition to being an engrossing police procedural, it is a disturbing exploration of how stress, need, abuse, and loneliness adversely affect people and distort their lives. The reader quickly learns that Kristine Ris is deeply unhappy with her overbearing and insensitive husband and is frantically seeking to escape her unfulfilling marriage. Fossum also poignantly explores the plight of the mother of the second missing boy. She not only has to contend with her child's emotional and physical problems, but is also so alone that she becomes obsessed with a lover whose dubious past she knows nothing about. In addition, the author examines the abductor's psyche: He is weak-willed and self-pitying, a pathetic creature who blames everyone but himself for his misery.
   
   Fossum is a succinct writer whose straightforward style throws her disturbing subject matter into stark relief. She presents a lovely and bucolic world that turns out to be a façade, hiding noxious forces that threaten to burst forth at any moment to attack the unwary. Unfortunately, we learn very little about the personal lives of Sejer and Skarre. For those new to the series, it might have been interesting to know a bit more about them. The two turn out to be rather pedestrian investigators who, although they are committed to finding the perpetrator as soon as possible, are a bit slow on the uptake. One glaring example is that Reinhardt and Kristine Ris clearly saw a suspicious-looking man near the scene of the first crime. Yet they were never asked to meet with a police artist to come up with a sketch and a general description (height, weight, and the like), that could be released to the media.
   
   In one passage, Sejer tells Skarre that he wants to understand exactly how and why sick individuals kill small children. When Skarre wonders why he needs to know this, Sejer answers, "Because I need reassurance that pure evil is a rare event." The two men have a number of long-winded philosophical discussions about morality: What makes people commit terrible offenses? Can their actions be forgiven, or at least understood on some level? There is no easy answer, of course. This chilling and absorbing novel concludes with two unnerving final twists that are akin to a knife in the gut. "The Water's Edge" suggests that there is little comfort in a world where no one can be considered safe from harm. As Skarre ruefully points out, "I've realized something. We're always too late.... Once we arrive, the disaster is already a fact. Someone has lost control and the worst has happened."



3. Karin Fossum is one of the best mystery / suspense writers today. This book, with its multiple threads of murder, kidnapping, and the collapse of a marriage, is one you will have a hard time putting down.
   
   As the Norwegian community struggles to understand who is kidnapping children, and Inspector Sejer and his team race to find out, the marriage of one of the couples involved begins to collapse with ugly hints of trouble that may be very relevant to the kidnappings.
   
   The landscape is evocative of a dangerous sense of isolation from which one is protected only by small groups - the stand of trees where a dead body is brought because the trees together are "safe", the detectives working in pairs, the couples involved hang together out of fear. This is what separates an excellent mystery/suspense writer from a good one, and Fossum is one of the best.
   
   I cannot recommend this book any better. I would give it 6 stars if I could. And I cannot wait until her next one is translated. It's enough to make a man try to learn Norwegian just to have less time to wait for the next Fossum book.



4. Karin Fossum's books are striking in the way that they include as much detail, if not more, in the portraits of their villains as their protagonists. "The Water's Edge" takes the reader into ever deeper inner conversations by all of its characters, including the principal, revealed criminal, which produce some startling revelations. The basic story line begins in the aftermath of the killing of a ten-year old boy by a pedophile in a small Norwegian town. The killer is seen leaving the area, where he has left the victim's body, by a young married couple whose lives will be radically changed by the event--one for the better, the other for a potentially tragic path.
   
   A second child soon disappears and the detective team of Inspector Sejer and Sergeant Skarre begin the process of tying the two events together and tracking down the down the murderer(s). But these are not typical crimes, and Fossum's denouement comes off as a triple whammy that will have many readers thinking, "I never saw that one coming."
   
   One of Fossum's more chilling inferences in this dark tale is that parenthood/parenting is a tricky and often dangerous vocation. A mistake can last through several lifetimes, with damage that is not obvious but that can be pernicious and deadly. The world birthrate would probably drop precipitously if Karin Fossum were more widely read.
   
   In any event, this is work of awesome writing, which grabs the reader's interest from the first page. Highly recommended.



5. Seems to be a little expensive for a Kindle version of a 240 page novel

5 comments about Beginner's Norwegian with 2 Audio CDs.

1. This is the best beginners' language book I have ever found in any language. I like to learn a little of the language before I visit a country, and since I travel frequently, I have a lot of experience with beginning language books. I spent a month with this book before going to Norway. The lessons were enjoyable and well-presented. I was amazed how much grammar and vocabulary I could absorb in so little time. When I got to Norway, I was able to speak and understand a wide variety of phrases.



2. This is an excellent book for learning beginning Norwegian. It goes thru the lesson at regular speaking pace then repeats allowing time for the student to say the sentence. Then reviews words and phrases. I find it an excellent suppliment to go along with the once a week language class I am taking.



3. I recently reviewed the Teach Yourself Norwegian course/book, and would like to now review the Beginner's Norwegian book/CD's and make some comparisons. In the other review (Teach Yourself), I mentioned that it was my favorite of the Norwegian books I use. This is true, but Beginner's Norwegian is an excellent book and in some ways superior to TY (Teach Yourself Norwegian). I'll also briefly mention the Colloquial Norwegian book here, as well.
   
   Let me start with the superior points of this book:
   
   * If your learning style tends to be visual (meaning: written word) and/or analytical, and you like to see things organized and categorized, you are in for a pleasant surprise here. This book is better organized than other Norwegian courses. Hippocrene has done a magnificent job with their recently published Beginner's Series books (the Danish course is organized in the same way as the Norwegian book).
   
   * Each chapter starts out with a dialog. On the facing pages, there is a complete translation in English. TY does not have this translation (it only has a list of new words presented in the dialog). TY forces you to thumb back to the glossary if you forget a word. I don't want to debate whether, pedagogically, this is good or bad. But I will say that having the translation right there with the dialog saves a LOT of time that would be otherwise wasted flipping back and forth to a glossary--time that could have been spent drilling words with flash cards, which is far more efficient than looking words up in a glossary. You are either going to learn a word or not--having to flip back to a glossary will not help you learn it any faster, it will only waste time and cause frustration. Thank you Hippocrene for providing full translations.
   
   * On the CD, the dialog is spoken at normal speed and then it goes through the whole thing again, slower and with pauses to repeat it. Very nice.
   
   * Each chapter contains a vocabulary list of manageable size and also gives the written approximate English (US) pronunciation. I know many people think this is a bad thing, but I don't. You will not be pronouncing words as English once you have the sounds of Norwegian in your head--the reason I like this feature is that it's invaluable for showing you which letters are silent or pronounced non-phonetically until you are able to remember them on your own. If you start out pronouncing a "t" or "r" that isn't supposed to be sounded, it's hard to break the habit. The written pronunciation helps with this a lot. And if you are just learning pronunciation from the Norwegian spelling, good luck. It isn't as phonetic as it's cracked up to be. Things won't go so well for you at times.
   
   * This book tends to have more exercises than the others--still not enough, but better than most.
   
   What is perhaps not as good about this book?
   
   Well, you will get a more rigorous treatment in the TY book--I'm not sure if that's good or bad because, at times, the Teach Yourself book tends to be a bit overwhelming (at least for me)--mostly with the vast amounts of vocabulary thrown out. I've had to stop, back up, take a deep breath, and relearn vocabulary several times with TY. So with Beginner's Norwegian you will not get as many vocabulary words (or as much grammar) in any given chapter. But, really, I almost think that's good. You get less, but it's drilled into you more completely. I do think that the TY does a bit better with the grammar, though. And TY is definitely more entertaining (the CD and dialogs). Then again, I don't know if that really means anything when it comes to learning a language.
   
   Probably your best bet is to work through both Beginner's Norwegian and TY if you have the time. Then there is Colloquial Norwegian. This is an okay book. I like the varied dialects on the CDs, but truthfully, the presentation in the book is a bit scatter-brained. It's not horrible, but both TY and Beginner's Norwegian are far better organized.
   
   Now for the big question: If you were to buy just one of the books, which would it be???
   
   That depends. If you want the path of learning Norwegian to be a smoother one from the start, I'd say go for Beginner's Norwegian. It's a great book. If you are up for some frustration along the way and are willing to deal with a lack of practice problems (meaning you have to be creative to find your own ways of drilling yourself), go with TY. You'll have at least double the amount of vocabulary and a more complete picture of the grammar when you are done.
   
   But still... bottom line if you're serious: get both and maybe go through Beginner's Norwegian first, then TY. Or you could even get all three (along with Janus's Norwegian Verbs & Essentials of Grammar).



4. For those who prefer memorization learning of grammar, syntax, and useful phrases over more recent teaching methods, Hippocrene's "Beginner's Norwegian" will be of assistance. This package include synchronized lesson plans and two audio disks for beginners in Norwegian.
   
   The lessons build rapidly from basic phrases to social niceties and more practical matters such as ordering meals and shopping through being able to travel around Norway. The dedicated student should emerge from this self-paced course with a survival level of Norwegian for touristing. The good news is that although many Norwegians speak good to excellent English, they are apt to respond very positively to a visitor who is prepared to meet them halfway with basic Norwegian language skills.
   
   This course in beginner's Norwegian is highly recommended to those with the self-discipline to teach themselves, with a little help.



5. I liked this book and CDs very much. I consider it an excellent help in my study for the language because it contains lively conversations and this is what I need in the stage that I am now. The only thing is that I wouldn't recommend it for the complete beginner who studies by himself. I would suggest that you start with a simpler course to learn the first words and phrases. This introductory material you can find in several sites on the Internet. But after that very first stage, get this book. It is live and real language that you will find in it.

5 comments about Langenscheidt Universal Norwegian Dictionary: Norwegian-English/ English-Norwegian.

1. I wasn't expecting this to be pocket-size (I didn't look at the dimensions on the listing), but it's great! The cover is soft plastic so it can handle being tossed in a bag. It's very easy to read with the words in blue bold print, and the translation/pronunciations in black. I can read the words fine, but they might be a little small for someone with bad eyesight.
   
   Includes pronunciation, and gender on the Norwegian nouns (n. m. f.) when you are going English>Norwegian and Norwegian>English.
   
   Great deal for $8!!



2. Handy, but small dictionary. It has limited vocabulary because of it's small size, but is handy to use and translate many often used words bewteen Norwegian and English. Or, gives you an idea at least. Fit's in a shirt pocket, plastic outer covers.



3. I thought this was a bigger dictionary, but the key words chosen were right on target for this type of traveler's language aide and as a quick reference. I liked the fact that the translations were very specific. The big green Norwegian dictionary is very good, but when I want to cross reference to find the specific intention of a word, I'd jump over to this one to see what the translation was here. I would like to get a hold of a full size dictionary from this publisher in this same style and format. It's interesting how few quality English to Norwegian dictionaries there seem to be and this is one of them... if a bit brief.



4. This Norwegian-English/English-Norwegian dictionary was just what I needed - it is small enough to carry around and yet quite complete. It usually has only one simple tranlation for the word which makes looking up easier if you are in a hurry.



5. This is NOT a full size dictionary!! I sort of knew that when I bought it, but I didn't realize how small it was. It's literally a "pocket" dictionary. This was very good for me, since I was keeping it in my handbag. And it's very high quality, with a tougher exterior, and full of words! It's not lacking. The blue wording actually really helps, too.
   
   Overall, I love this! You should totally get it if you're looking for a well-priced, small, yet fully functional Norwegian/English dictionary.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Norwegian Complete Course Package (Book + 2 CDs) (TY: Complete Courses).

1. I purchased this set before moving to Norway for a year, and it was incredibly helpful. When I was here for two months, I had people asking me why I could speak Norwegian and other Americans couldn't, and I said, well, I have a book and cds. The content was organized in a logical manner and the expressions and phrases were very very useful and practical. Unlike other foreign language packets, this one did not focus overmuch on travel expressions, aiming instead towards practical communication. The only thing I did not like was the lack of emphasis on learning grammar rules and structure; something I fine essential in a when learning a new tongue. However, it worked very well for me. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn the language.



2. I think it's the best way to learn norwegian by yourself, and for a cheap price.
   
   The lessons are easy to understand and every unit ends with exercices to make sure you learned everything well.
   
   With the CDs, you'll get use to hear the Norwegian langage. Of course, they speak slower than norwegian people having a real conversation, but you are here to learn.



3. I bought teach yourself norwegian before taking a trip to Norway this last christmas. I also bought the teach yourself norwegian conversation CD package as well. It was not really what I expected but it has not been a bad book either. I would not recommend someone buying it brand new maybe used and if it were not too expensive it is a good source of help but I feel as though a true class would be 100% better than this book. I think if you have a lot of time to dedicate to this book it is okay. All of the narration is in a british accent and some of the slang is english as well. As someone with a norwegian significant other I have learned more from him than what this book has done for me.



4. I really enjoyed going through this book. It provides such an easy to follow structure, with a humorous at times story line. I'm not sure if the story line in the text is meant to be funny, but when it's talking about things like tossing back some beer and jumping on a motorcylce to then later get in a motorcycle accident. The structure of the book helped me to retain the information very well. Words are introduced and explained well in each chapter, and in later chapters the same words are brought up for review. I would recommend this book.



5. Got this as a gift for my husband who is learning Norwegian. He is very happy with it & said it has helped a lot. He started out with another set of computer discs for beginners but was ready to try a different one hoping it would be more challenging. He said this was a good choice & is doing well with it.

5 comments about He Who Fears the Wolf (Inspector Sejer Mysteries).

1. My greatest admiration for the authors of this amazing novel. It's not at all a who-dun-it; instead, the main characters are created in totally absorbing worlds of their own. I would like to applaud the creation of the working of mental illess as absolutely the most remarkable I have ever come across in 30 years of reading widely and teaching both fiction enjoyment and creative writing. I'm looking forward to the next work from these authors.



2. I am a fan of Karin Fossum's Insp Sejer mysteries and have read three of her works [two others are on my nightstand waiting to be read]. In "He Who Fears the Wolf", Ms Fossum delves into the world of a troubled individual afflicted with schizophrenia. Errki has spent a great portion of his life in and out of mental institutions, and on the day he escapes from his latest confinement, an elderly lady living in a remote location deep in the woods is found brutally murdered. The only witness apparently is a troubled, obese young delinquent, Kannick Snellingen who informs the local police chief. Because of the gravity of the crime, Chief Insp Konrad Sejer is brought in to investigate the case. Matters are complicated by another crime - a bank robbery, in which the chief murder suspect from the previous case, Errki, is found to have been taken hostage by the unidentified robber.
   
   This a tautly-written suspense and psychological thriller - one of the most interesting story arcs in this novel is the dynamics of the relationship between the robber, Morgan and Errki. Though Morgan holds a weapon and seems to be the one in charge,the reader gets the sense that this is not really the case, especially as the story progresses. The way these two individuals interact really drives the story and makes for interesting psychological analysis.
   
   Meanwhile, Insp Sejer tries to solve the case in his usual style - calm, intuitive and deliberate, leaving no stones unturned, and in the process even experiencing a romantic epiphany [Sejer has been widowed a number of years and has been leading a rather quiet existence].
   
   I'd recommend this book to fans of insightful psychological thrillers.



3. #2 Inspector Konrad Seijer mystery set in Norway. An elderly woman is found dead in her remote cabin home, her garden hoe firmly planted in the side of her head. Meanwhile, Errki Johrma, a disturbed young schizophrenic, has escaped from a nearby asylum so everyone assumes he is the perpetrator of that heinous crime. A young boy walking in the woods taking some bow-shooting practice who discovered the woman's body reports having seen Errki in the woods near her cabin. But Inspector Seijer isn't so sure, and even comes up with a bizarre bet with his second in command that their culprit isn't Errki at all. The young man's psychiatrist doesn't believe he did it either, as violence simply doesn't fit his profile of past behaviors. Seijer is working not only the murder case, but the case of a bank robbery that occurs the next morning--a bank robbery that involves a hostage, no less. The two cases begin to strangely entwine during the course of the investigation.
   
   I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series. Seijer wasn't quite so morose in this book, maybe that had something to do with it. The book rotates back and forth with chapters told from the point of view of several characters, including the bad guys. Sometimes this works for an author and other times I find it annoying, but Fossum uses that tool remarkably well and the book had a very satisfying feel to it: I'm certainly glad to have already procured the next few in the series.



4. This is my third book by Karin Fossum and my admiration for her work grows with every book that I read. It feels as though she is continually slicing up the mystery genre to find a new and unexpected way to explore the darker sides of people-- a fresh way to examine loss. In this novel, she uses a mad suspect, a murdered old woman, a hapless bank robber and the moody Inspector Sejer to paint her picture.
   
   If I had to rank them, I'd say that The Indian Bride (Inspector Sejer Mysteries) is still my favorite. I fought He Who Fears the Wolf just a little bit since I wasn't that interested in the interplay between Errki and his kidnapper. It wasn't bad, but it just didn't spark my sympathy and engagement as fully as the rest of the book.
   
   Still, I'd recommend everything that I have read by her to date.



5. As Karin Fossum's "He Who Fears the Wolf" opens, it is a sweltering July day. A twenty-four-year-old schizophrenic named Errki Johrma has escaped from an asylum in Norway. He takes shelter in an abandoned cabin, listening to voices inside his head that tell him what to do. Errki, who is filthy and undernourished, can hike for hours without tiring; he knows the area intimately and neighboring residents recognize him on sight. As long as he takes his medication, he can "arrange his thoughts in acceptable order." Unfortunately, Errki has a tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When an elderly woman, Halldis Horn, is brutally murdered in her farmhouse, Errki happens to be wandering nearby. A witness reports this fact to the police, and naturally, Errki becomes a suspect. When he is taken hostage during a robbery, both Errki and the robber disappear. All of these events give Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer and his associate, Jacob Skarre, a gigantic headache.
   
   Fossum is a master of descriptive writing. In addition, she expertly builds up psychological suspense as she sets her characters on a collision course with one another. The witness who identifies Errki is an obese twelve-year old boy named Kannick Snellingen, who lives in a group home for troubled youngsters. The aforementioned robber calls himself Morgan, and he is an impulsive and none-too-bright criminal who finds Errki disgusting, weird, yet strangely magnetic. Inspector Sejer approaches this case with his usual brisk efficiency. He and his associates try to make sense of the forensics in Halldis's farmhouse and they launch a search for the robber and Errki, wondering if this usually harmless man has suddenly turned violent.
   
   The mystery in "He Who Fears the Wolf," riddled as it is with several gaping holes and far too many coincidences, is not the strongest aspect of the novel. More significant is Fossum's thoughtful and eloquent exploration of mental illness. With the right trigger, the author implies, anyone can cross the thin line between sanity and psychosis. Moreover, just as society puts disturbed people in cages "for their own good," ordinary people may create their own cages that keep them from living fulfilling lives. For example, Sejer, a widower for almost a decade, lives a painfully lonely existence. He pines for and dreams about his dead wife, unable to move on--until he finally meets a woman who piques his interest. Fossum shows how people who display no outward signs of pathology often sow the seeds of their own destruction. The most frightening place of all is not a dark cellar or a haunted house, but the human psyche, with its power to conjure up visions more terrifying than those in any horror movie.

5 comments about The Indian Bride (Inspector Sejer Mysteries).

1. The plot keeps you reading. Fossum offers several murderers for you to consider, but all along you know you are wrong. You keep wondering. However, her writing needs improvement. The omniscient point of view is distracting: You are inside one mind, and then another, and then another, sometimes for only a few paragraphs. And the repetition of the plot seems like the author is filling in the white spaces.



2. I loved the book - until the end! I do not like loose ends and want to know who did it! I will go back to Mankell, Edwardson, Indridason, Sjowall/Wahloo.
   Barbara Adams



3. this is a really good book, i only gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it is terribly depressing... I found it so depressing that even though I think it's a very good book I will not ready any more of the books in the series... it left me with a lot of heartbreak afterwards....
   other than that, it's interesting, well written.



4. In a perfect world, Karin Fossum would not be permitted to publish another book until she finished this one.
   
   To those who like the "ending," I ask would we like Shakespeare better if his plays ended at Act IV?
   
   To bad, because in all other respects this was a terrific book.



5. On the strenght of the reviews posted here I purchased "The Indian Bride" Some readers even compared this authoress to Henning Mankel and find him lacking! When I read Mankel I get a clear mental picture of the places he writes about, be it Skane or Riga, not with Fossum. I tried to imagine the meadow and the woods later on I found out that there were some flowers growing there. She could have been writing about an imaginary town in the Midwest for all I gleaned from her writing.
   I got fatigued reading dialogue that was nothing but filler as the plot was so flimsy that without it the book wouldn't have amounted to more than 100 pages if that!
   Her character are described yet they're faceless, she doesn't have forensics in her book, a man in town turns up with physcal evidence on his person, and his alibi proves false yet the police doesn't detain him.
   Maybe in Norway they don't collect data from the corpses as scraping under the nails, stomach contents, etc? Hardly! but in this book it seems that all the forensic staff does is found traces of something and lament over the state of the victim.
   A key witness to the crime calls a detective and is terrified when she spots a man outside her home. The girl is alone in the house, yet the detective practically tells her to calm down, lock the doors and go to sleep, and as an afterthought offers to call the police station if she so desires....C'mon, how much more amateurish can a detective novel be! I found myself skimming over the empty banter at Einar's cafe and found every detective interrogation ringing false.
   Yet some have criticize Mankel for not being touchy feely! Maybe he needs some gender sensitivity training? This book isn't a good detective novel and there's no suspense, au contraire its like a comedy of errors that lead us to a much spected finalle, if you didn't guess who the killer was after page 80 then you ought to be reading romances.

5 comments about Norwegian Wood.

1. It seems obligatory to begin a three-star review saying how much I enjoyed Haruki Murakami's other fiction. In truth, I liked the energy of the few short stories I've read but I picked up the novel because of its reputation in its own right.
   
   In truth, I found much of the book bordering on dull and unreal. Early on, the main character befriends a guy simply because he's the only other person he's met who likes _The Great Gatsby_, but there's no comparison: _Norwegian Wood_ is lifeless for long stretches, and some of the dialogue is actually monologues of psychobabble (especially in the long, long chapter at the sanatorium). The characters weren't particularly engrossing, the plot was meandering. I didn't see why I should care about any of it. (Thousands upon thousands of novels are published every year. I can only read the tiniest fraction of them.) I couldn't figure out whether the problems were in the original novel or the translation.
   
   The novel starts with a man in his thirties (my age) reflecting back upon his college years, which were made terribly painful and bittersweet by a love triangle (or quadrangle if you include the haunting memory of a dead friend that binds two together). But the thing is, the novel doesn't feel like it takes place anywhere. The narrator seems almost entirely devoid of any historical awareness. As someone who is acutely aware of the differences between now and when I grew up, it boggles my mind that someone whose critical years were in the turmoil of the 1960s doesn't have more of a sense of distinctive vividness about that time. Except for some passing references to student protests, the novel feels like it could just have as easily been set anywhere else at any other time. The main time-specific references are the riot of Western 1960s music that runs through the novel, and the attitudes about sex are. . . distinct. As a result, the novel has a sketchy feel, which is not helped by the characters repeatedly defending themselves by the shock of tragedy by retreating into themselves and outwardly becoming apathetic. So reading the novel feels like drinking flat Coke.
   
   Argument I: It's the fault of the author: the description doesn't even try to be rich. Attempts to appeal to the senses are few and far in between, and the description that is there feels random. This comes across as `thinly veiled autobiography', to which you can normally apply slightly lower standards in that you accept a sense of veracity as compensation for less coherence. (Life has so many odd and random bits.) But this apparently isn't autobiographical. It's also noteworthy that the novel was written while the author was living in Europe, which could help explain the feel of having been written by someone who only read about the setting.
   
   In short, the author is basically depending on the audience knowing what Japan was like in the 1960s without having to explain it. (Similarly, would Jane Austen be so popular today if it weren't for the films based on her novels? She likewise never describes anything of clothes, architecture, etc., so we're dependent on outside information, which we get from Hollywood.)
   
   Argument II: It's the translator's fault: the translation is so heavily laden with Western culture references that it seems insincere, so I decided to see if anyone had written about this translation. In fact, someone wrote an entire masters thesis on translating this novel. I didn't read the whole thing but what I read was revealing. Parts of the novel were actually first written in English than translated into Japanese. But more important, there have actually been two translations. When the novel swept through Japan shortly after publication, an translation came out for Japanese students of English. Apparently, it is dense with Japanese cultural references compared to the translation available now in the US. This suggests that what strikes me as a lack of vividness is an artifact of the translation, which bleached out what I as a reader needed. (And I've seen some rather good Hong Kong and Korean movies that have ripped off important parts of the story, so the author's instincts seem right.)
   
   In any event, once I hit page 220, I stopped and strategized. I wasn't looking forward to finishing this novel. It had become a chore. I needed more context. So I got out my old Beatles cassettes and played them while reading. I haven't listened to the Beatles much since I was the same age as the protagonist. It was like struggling to watch something on an old tv with really bad reception and then banging the side of it and -- voila! -- suddenly it's perfectly clear. The soundtrack added a sense of time/place and magnified the emotional cues, to the point where I felt like it had ended maybe twenty pages too short and was disappointed to put it down. (You can also add to the context by watching a video on youtube called `Student life in old Japan'.)
   ******************************
   It's been a week since I've read the novel. It's getting better. I catch my memory twisting it around, adding things that weren't in it, deleting the dull stretches. It now seems much more haunting than when I was in the midst of it.
   
   I'd still criticize the main character. I couldn't describe him. He's like a cameraman in a movie that you only see when he actually points the camera at a mirror. So it's hard to see why other people, especially women, are interested in him.



2. This novel is suffused with death. Various characters flirt with it, and the main character knows several people who have committed suicide. Whether he is trying to describe a "lost generation" of Japanese young adults is unclear.
   
   I do like the flat, affect-less tone, the almost deliberate avoidance of cultural markers (except for place names like Shibuya, Shinjuku -- all great shopping districts with congregations of young people). All the young women are obssessed with death and sex. The young man at the center (I was about to say "heart" but changed my mind) is apparently irresistible to the ladies, as he can always find someone willing to sleep with him. The young women are as casual about their bodies as the young man is about his affections.
   
   Several times, his women friends tell him he has a "unique" way of thinking. This usually follows a line of his dialogue. That makes it funny: the line comes off flat, but the female response is almost always admiring. Hence, the comedy.
   
   I have no idea what the main protagonist looks like, but in spite of his self-deprecating ways, assume he must be magnetic.
   
   The student protests are so much window dressing.
   
   My favorite parts of the novel are the sanatorium scenes (the landscape is described with very plain language, but still manages to be evocative, don't ask me how Murakami manages to pull this off) and the scenes of Midori's dying father in the hospital. I also like the other chick magnet, Nagasawa.
   
   If the evidence of this novel is to be believed, many Japanese women have a certain "je ne sais quoi", a kind of laissez faire attitude that young American women can only hope to emulate ...



3. In some ways I regret reading it as it sets such a high bar for everything that follows. The hardest thing to do is to take the tried and make it new. A love story? Mundane right? And no talking cats. A thrill ride of language to the last.



4. This is the most straightforward narrative I've read from Murakami. However his knack for crafting shocking, and revealing dialogues for his characters remain a strong force in this novel.
   
   His protagonist, Toru, deals with the suicide of his teenage best friend Kizuki and develops a troubled relationship with the latter's girlfriend, Naoko, even as Toru struggles to manage a regular life as an undergrad.
   
   What is interesting about Toru, from whose perspective the story unfolds, is his rather stoic and almost passive nature to the events and people around him. Things happen to him, and it feels like he lives out his experiences in a resigned manner. Goodnatured and never demonstrative of his pain and feelings, the reader gets under his skin via his relationships with the other characters, most notably the nubile and straight-shooting wannabe-nymphomanic Midori. Murakami manages to achieve reader empathy with this lonely young man with little effort.
   
   Zany characters, always a reliable presence in Murakami's works, abound in this novel. From the OCD college roommate 'Stormtrooper' who springs to life at 6 am while doing radio calisthenics, to the ladies' man Nagasawa, to Reiko, a sage-like ex-musician with an unhappy past, and of-course Midori, who gets my vote as one of the most memorable characters in this novel, Murakami spins a sensitive and absorbing yarn about the heart of a boy and its entanglements.



5. A friend suggested Murakami to me after I told her I was looking for a new (to me) author. This is the novel that is recommended for first time Murakami readers.
   
   The author "takes you on a ride" without an excessive amount of description. The novel is well paced and makes you care about the characters.

5 comments about Out Stealing Horses: A Novel.

1. I purchased this book through Amazon for my Book Club reading and was so pleased at the price, condition and quick delivery. This is the 3rd time I have bought our Book Club choices through Amazon and will do this every month. It is cheaper and easier than going to the library, which doesn't always have the book on hand and I then must return later and it is surely more convenient.
   
   Fran McGee



2. I was really excited to read this book as I've heard and read so many good things but I found it so utterly tedious. I trudged through it thinking it would turn somewhere and it just never did. A lot of flowery prose and very little story. I guess his writing style just isn't for me.



3. The atmospheres created by northern landscapes have always held a strong attraction for me. Whether by personal exposure or when represented in paintings, music or literature, the vastness of space, rugged coastlines, deep dark forests and, above all, the crystal clear colours brought on by the specific climates, their lure can be ever so powerful. In Per Petterson's OUT STEALING HORSES sixty-seven year old Trond Sander is profoundly drawn to such a place: he leaves Oslo and settles in a remote cabin somewhere in north-eastern Norway. Skilfully portrayed by the author, the character superbly fits the environment: he is somebody who responds completely to that lure of tranquility, the promise of harmony with his surroundings that gives time for contemplation of his life and keeps him occupied with the daily chores required to fix up the very basic cabin he had bought. And finally, he may also find some answer to a question that has been with him ever since one summer vacation in a comparable place when he was fifteen years old...
   
   Trond Sander has all the time in the world now, as he ponderously goes through the daily chores of a self-sufficient hermit. Time is taking a different meaning for him as he reflects early on:
   
   "Time is important to me now, I tell myself. Not that it should pass quickly or slowly, but be only time, be something I live inside and fill with physical things and activities that I can divide it by, so that it grows distinct to me and does not vanish when I am not looking."
   
   An encounter in the middle of the night with another apparent recluse, who lives down the river, annoys him initially as an interruption of his private time. Yet, when he realizes that the man is his boyhood friend's brother, Lars, his peace of mind is disrupted in a fundamental way. Memories come to the fore that were long buried in his mind, or were they really? From then on his musings of that one fateful summer vacation with his father take over much of his mental time. What appears initially to be the account of an ordinary, uneventful past, turns very soon into a special time that may have influenced the rest of his life.
   
   The reader is transported into a narrative that alternates between Trond's descriptions of daily activities in the here and now and the events during the summer vacation with his father when he was fifteen. In all aspects, it was a watershed time for young Trond, a growing up period where the awkwardness of youth was combined with a new appreciation of a men's world of hard labour mixed with camaraderie, jokes and loyalties. Two tragic accidents involving his friend Jon, brother Lars and their family, shape the rest of the vacation and life afterwards. Delicate in its description, the reader is inescapably drawn to Trond and his surroundings. There are allusions to the reasons for his father's surprising familiarity with the small village and its people that the boy can describe yet without full understanding of their meaning. While father and son have a close relationship in many ways, there is a certain verbal awkwardness between them and it needs Franz, one of his father's work friend, to play a sort of intermediary to explain to the son what the father is and was all about. Strange? Maybe, but it completely matches the impression the reader develops of the central characters.
   
   Trond, now with the hindsight of some fifty years, can make more sense of some of the events of the past and, in his mind, can put them into a wider context. From the outset, though. his present day reflections are interspersed with subtle hints to the past and, once the reader knows the story and goes back to read the beginning a second time, they will fall into place perfectly. Will he be able to answer that one life-long question? Well, maybe. The concluding part of the novel is at one level surprising and at another open-ended. Just as life is.
   
   Petterson's language is spare and efficient in its use of imagery and evocation of atmospheres, both internal and external to his protagonist. While it is correct, as other reviewers have stated, that very little happens in the novel and the story unfolds ever so slowly, a reader like myself is easily fascinated by the character and completely drawn into the two sets of situations, past and present. With a narration style that leaves the reader to ponder, compare, and visualize, and fill in mental spaces, Petterson has achieved a remarkable work of fiction. [Friederike Knabe]



4. A quiet, unassuming Norwegian man tells the story of the relationship with his father to his family and their neighbors, during WW2 and after. While he reveals much about himself, events in his life while growing up have turned him into a slightly reclusive and inaccessible personality. A possible stroke (?) reminds him of his vulnerability and need for human contact.
   
   This book reminded me a bit of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, but had tragic undertones that jolt the reader when you come upon them. Beautifully written, this book is an English translation, the translator has worked on several Petterson books in the past, so I trust this is a good one.



5. This is a beautifully written story, very economical on character dialog and human emotion. Quite a bit different from most novels which of late are far too verbose. I found the book a pleasure to read, full of peace and calm. It might lack on action, but all in all, it is a book worth reading.