Viking Magazine - July 2019 - 27

years, they were all available-each
book for less than the price of a pint
of beer.
I thought it was something natural
and self-evident, but it wasn't. Had I
been five years older, it wouldn't have
been quite the same. At one point
I stopped reading as only a reader,
instead reading as a hunter for the 'it'-
the 'it' that made some of those books
special, what the writer did to make me
feel the way I did. "
His wide and deep reading eventually
began making Per Petterson, the reader,
into Per Petterson, the writer.
" Suddenly it felt all important to
do for others what they did for me.
It seemed to me the only way out of
the situation I was in at the time-an
18-year-old, very well read and almost
fatally shy young man. "
The writers that mattered most
to him in those days were some
Norwegian greats and some from
elsewhere-some with a masculine edge
and quite a few with a woman's touch.
" For a male reader/would-bewriter
at that time, at my age,
Knut Hamsun and Hemingway
were strong influences, as well as
Norwegian-Danish Aksel Sandemose
and Norwegian Cora Sandel from
Tromsø. Not a direct influence, but
still very important when I was around
20, for my view of the world, was
Simone de Beauvoir. When I look
over at my bookshelves, I can see the
battered copies of her five volumes
of autobiography, read over and over
again. In fact, it seems I read a lot of
works by women writers. Jean Rhys
is a favorite. "
Petterson identifies very strongly
with the working class. It's apparent
in his novels.
" My father's side have all been
working class. On my Danish mother's
side, they were farmers and fishermen, "
Petterson says. " I love writing about
physical work, which I know a good
deal about. "
Partly because of his background,
Petterson didn't follow the usual route
to success as a writer. He's largely selftaught,
and no university had him long
enough to claim credit for teaching him
his craft.
" I started university, but didn't get
the idea of it-why study for exams?
I was also very shy. I felt intimidated,
I didn't get the 'lingo' and didn't dare
ask, so I quit. Then I worked at the Oslo
post terminal, five years in a factory,
Reviewers frequently mention
Petterson's long, complicated but
beautiful sentences that sometimes
seem to push the limits of language.
Petterson explained that there's a
reason for that way of writing.
" A lot of things are difficult to
say, especially intimate things and
especially for men. So, if you can't
find the perfect word, you have to
create scenes where this 'impossible'
can be seen. I have found that the
Norwegian language can do all the
things I want it to do. There are no
limits. If someone tells you 'you can't
do that,' you do it anyway and say
'now you can.' "
Petterson writes in Bokmål, the
written language used by most
Norwegians. " Being from the
southeast of Norway, that's the most
natural thing to do, " he says.
" Nynorsk, which, in a way, isn't
Per Petterson, 1973
working two shifts, sometimes three.
I trained as a librarian, but left school
before the exams, and finally I worked
in a very good independent book shop
for 12 years. It was my university. I
never thought any of this was curious.
Maybe it was. University, for me, would
definitely be more curious. "
Petterson said he doesn't have a
complete outline before he starts writing.
Typically, he starts with much less than
that-a voice, a scene, something heard,
some sort of atmosphere in which he can
place his lead character. In several of his
books, his main character is called Arvid
Jansen.
" He is not always the same, though,
but a variation of a character, in a
specific situation. "
new, but based on the old dialects
from the west, south, northern west,
was not an option, although I love
Nynorsk literature. Many of our
absolute best authors use Nynorsk-
Edvard Hoem, Jon Fosse, Kjartan
Fløgstad. In addition, I am from east
Oslo, the working-class area (east of
the river), which has made my Bokmål
what's called 'radical Bokmål.' "
Petterson's mother was Danish,
which helps anchor him in the
southeast and also gives his writing a
natural foothold in Denmark. Several
of his novels-notably " To Siberia,
" Echoland " and " I Curse the River of
Time " -take place partly in Denmark.
His favorite from among his own
novels?
" Usually, the latest one is my
favorite, and again it's the case. It has
not been translated into English yet,
not until 2021, I think, which seems
very far off. I wish it was sooner. It's
called " Men in My Situation, " and it
'stars' an old friend, Arvid Jansen. "
sonsofnorway.com VIKING JULY 2019 27
PHOTO COURTESY PER PETTERSON
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - July 2019

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