![]() Like everything else in his life, it just seemed to happen. ![]() Nonetheless, we don’t see him practicing his craft suddenly, at the end of the story, we learn he has finished a novel. The only significant bond he has is with his friend Auden - the only one able to get Arvid to take a hard look at himself - whom he hasn’t seen in ages.Ī kind of hapless celebrity because of the ferry tragedy, Arvid is already a well-known writer recognized wherever he goes. Yet, like most everything else in his life, they amount to nothing. It’s through these casual trysts that Arvid tries to find meaning, to discover who he really is and what he really wants. Throughout the novel, he wanders about town getting drunk and engaging in sporadic sexual encounters, including with a next-door neighbor unsatisfied with her own marriage. ![]() Arvid is also the father of three daughters with whom he struggles to have a meaningful relationship. It’s the story of Arvid Jansen, whose marriage has just collapsed and whose parents and brother have recently died in a ferry accident. “Vulnerable” is almost never an attribute, insecurity never a trait.īut not so with Men in My Situation, a new novel straight out of the fjords by award-winning Norwegian author Per Petterson. In romances, they may be portrayed as rugged or macho. ![]() Men are typically depicted as strong, successful, and cocksure. It’s not often a novel comes along that explores the vicissitudes of the male psyche, especially as they relate to those inner moments that deal with love and loss. ![]()
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