«A stupendous fireworks of modern writing … This year’s book is incredibly well written … When did I last wake up at 5:30 in the morning to jumo into my clothes to read the 200 pages I didn’t have time to read before I fell asleep the night before? … So, what is the Teksas series? It is unique in Norwegian literature. Suspenseful, entertaining, thought-provoking, a page-turner full of human warmth and sympathy for those living on the outside, in spite of all the blood and the wild, excessive prose”
6/6 stars, Fædrelandsvennen
“A fast-paced and action-packed, suspenseful and entertaining return for the Hillevåg Gang – an extreme version of Egner’s Cardamom Town crossed with Tarantino, Patrick deWitt, Dennis Lehane and David Lynch … but it’s not only hee-haa and gleeful violence. Here and there there are passages of fundamental insight, small pockets of reflective social criticism and quiet spaces for existential after-thought. When we take away all the noise, a rather minor-chord darkness comes into view … This is in many ways an impressive novel. Renberg is a generous and energetic writer, who through zest, empathy, variation and discreet use of every trick in the book, invites us all to a literary feast. Italo Calvino was once called the last wizard of literature. Considering the range of Renberg’s work as well as his activities in other fields, he also comes across as something of a Merlin.”
6/6 stars, Stavanger Aftenblad
“Midnight mass with a chainsaw – Thorough, insightful stories of neglected children, sweet teenage love, family fathers addicted to gambling, pill-popping, boozy mothers and a modern, mild and naïve leftist priest – an arsenal of fates and situations which together symbolize Stavanger and the new Norway … An extraordinarily good novel”
5/6 stars, Dagbladet
“Dickens meets Tarantino and the Cohen brothers. Hilarious and tender stories about the gang who has not been invited to the party in the world’s richest city … a furious story where Renberg doesn’t hold back in any respect – and gets away with it … It’s great fun, sure, but it’s obvious that the Teksas books also protest loudly against the social gap created by new wealth … You almost wouldn’t believe it was possible, but the crazy mix of genres lets the description of bestial acts of violence, deep injustice and a tender love story come together in a higher union”
Aftenposten
«It doesn’t happen often that someone writes a book that can be recommended to anybody. Tore Renberg does it … Renberg proves himself an entertaining professional in the way he gives his story unexpected twists, while letting the story move forward … a novel that points to Stavanger’s conflicted relationship between new wealth and a traditional culture of moderation, the city’s position as an extreme version of Norway”
Dagens Næringsliv
“Tore Renberg has succeeded so well with creeping into the head of a small time crook that you sometimes wonder how he will find his way out again … the third novel of the series about the Hillevåg gang in Stavanger rates among his very best books… Renberg’s imagination and empathy takes him to hunting grounds that few crime writers have roamed before him”
5/6 stars, Adresseavisen
«Renberg has learnt a thing or two by his literary idol Charles Dickens … There are few if any dull parts here … As always, full speed ahead and great fun in Tore Renberg’s third book from the dark side of Stavanger. But behind the humour, the violence and the baroque complications, gravity seeps through … So we laugh. Until the laughter stops … Renberg writes with enormous love and incredible speed about people outside the mainstream, and their chaotic lives»
Dagsavisen
“The third book of Tore Renberg’s Teksas series is some fucked up beautiful shit … With guilt and redemption as its underlying themes, Renberg gives us a wild story … Damaged Goods is Norwegian grit lit, a sub genre of southern gothic, where the reader meets characters with quite distinctive moral principles in a dark and bizarre universe. The book has more inner brutality than its predecessors, and the story contains plenty of contrasts. Renberg has written a mercilessly beautiful novel about those who are on the outside of society, trying to find their way in what must be one of the most brutal crime universes of Norwegian literature. Through vivid, credible dialogues, he builds up characters with soul, in a way that can serve as a model for other writers The story has tempo, crazy and surprising twists and a prose which is both energetic and tender. In the middle of all the brutality, Renberg paints beautiful, lyrical scenes. There is also dark, quirky humour here … the book contains clearer social critique than the predecessors … Damaged Goods is a novel about love and its conditions set in a universe which is as violent as it is beautiful – which screams out for being filmed. A very entertaining and at the same time thoughtful novel, written by a storyteller with a wild imagination”
5/6 stars, VG
