I Curse the River of Time

In Norwegian novelist Petterson's poetic, moody prequel to In the Wake (U.S. 2006), introspective protagonist Arvid Jansen spends a good deal of his time smoking, drinking, referencing book titles, and describing Scandinavian landscapes as he struggles to deal with his mother's cancer, his divorce, and the demise of communism. Written in highly descriptive prose, the story is centered in 1989 Oslo but skips back and forth through time, often without definitive shifts for listeners that might be clearer on the printed page. Though narrator Jefferson Mays's (The Lazarus Project) reading is well paced, the spiraling of the story, though relatively brief, may be too demanding for casual audiences, and a full picture of a man who hesitates to act and his family is never quite attained. Recommended for larger collections with an international literary focus. [The Graywolf hc received a starred review, LJ 4/15/10.—Ed.]—Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo