“Petterson has written a beautifully nuanced, deeply felt, and powerful story of survival.”
Publishers Weekly, US
“Petterson’s bracing latest captures the rhythms and anomie of grief … Petterson’s downbeat prose has a rhythm and flow both transparent and immediate, fueled by Arvid’s eloquence and failure to focus beyond the current moment. As deep as the well of his loneliness and sadness is, his emergence on the other side is equally gratifying.”
Starred review, Library Journal, US
“It would be hard to find a better writer than Petterson. Men in My Situation is a vivid and moving account of Arvid’s struggle to survive life’s brutal blows”
Kathleen MacMahon, Irish Times, Ireland
“Never, in any of his previous novels, has the writer penetrated so radically and deeply into his characters’ complex individuality and existential aimlessness”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
“As always in Petterson’s novels, this novel is full of subtle psychology and precise sociology”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Germany
“Petterson portrays the two main characters with […] a razor sharp mix of empathy and black humour”
Nürnberger Zeitung, Germany
“Contains mesmerizing depictions … The book is another stone in the mosaic of Per Petterson’s great life novel where the autobiographical aspects are strong: a work of fiction that one day will be recognized as one of the most ambitious and deeply probing of our times”
Südwest-Presse
“Men in My Situation is Petterson’s strongest, most astonishing novel”
Lesarten, das Andere Literaturmagazin, Germany
“A masterfully composed novel. This is, from literary perspective, brilliantly executed, wisely structured and truly beautifully written”
Sandammeer.at, Austria
“There is a powerful downward pull towards darkness, ship disasters and sudden death in Per Petterson’s latest, amazing novel Men in My Situation. Like no one else the Norwegian writer portrays damaged lives and muted longing in a way that stabs you deep into in your soul … Petterson’s prose is as always crystal clear, and at the same time realistic and gently poetic … Men in My Situation is a magnificent work of art”
Jyllands-Posten, Denmark
“An uncompromising and shockingly precise portrait of a man, his insecurity and loneliness and a divorce story, breathless and full of hesitance and insecurity … Men in My Situation is probably the best book Per Petterson has written since Out Stealing Horses. The book’s images of the streets and desperate hangouts of Oslo is a chapter of its own, but above all, this is a brilliant contemporary novel about the age of divorce and dissolved families and with a portrait of a single, lonely and uncertain man that stands out with rare sharpness”
Berlingske, Denmark
“A wise and sharp divorce novel about loss and longing … Men in My Situation is the latest addition to the ever-growing story of the always existentially shaky Arvid Jansen and his struggle with the forces of gravity in life. His life work just grows and grows»
Politiken, Denmark
“Dark, silent and real … An odyssey in the borderland between abandonment and self-preservation … The inner drama is portrayed with such a finely measured mix of clarity and tenderness that the character and the darkness of the night merge to an atmosphere that feels deeply believable to the reader … Everything is told in Per Petterson’s familiar, naturally flowing prose, precise in its portrait of the times, poetic in its descriptions of nature … With its dark soft-spokenness, Men in My Situation is a great accomplishment in a time when a most novels’ selling points are their colourful plots rather than their author’s ability to find and maintain a completely real tone”
Weekendavisen, Denmark
“Per Petterson is one of the most popular authors in Norway and his novel, narrated in a digressive, serene style of which remembrance is its main feature, justifies its popularity not only in Norway but abroad as well.”
Babelia, Spain
“Taciturn, melancholic, poignant, the novel by Per Petterson (Oslo, 1952) is a calm and insidious exploration of this failed bonfire, a detailed radiography of the cinders into which a man’s life and character turn when he is assaulted by the worst misfortunes.”
Ara.cat, Spain
“Without dramatizing nor moralizing, Per Petterson (Oslo, 1952) portrays us by laying bare the desolation of contemporary men who assume the inanity of their efforts and are content to simply survive, after being forced to do without what they love.”
El cultural, Spain
“Men in My Situation is the author’s best novel since Out Stealing Horses … The author is back on the same high quality level as in Out Stealing Horses, although the style is very different from the latter’s classic storytelling … The autobiographical component is obvious, but that doesn’t make the style less fabulous. Men in My Situation is rich in details, images, colours and moods that don’t come across as repetitions of something that happened then, but as a result of the author’s great efforts at his desk … In the long run this year’s book will stand as the core of this author’s work, because Per Petterson digs deeper into the momentous events that have shaped his writing.”
Aftenposten
“Per Petterson’s new novel, Men in My Situation, is a brilliant, dark read. Still, a minimum of warmth and humour forces its way in … Per Petterson takes his time between books. It shows in their quality.”
NRK
“He is mercilessly honest and infinitely melancholic at one and the same time. Per Petterson can portray men in a way that few if any in Norwegian literature can match … This is a book full of familiar elements to the reader: How a close, intimate relationship can be replaced by ice-cold distance, how any attempt to escape yourself will take you back to where you started. Men in My Situation is possibly a divorce novel, if so it gives the term a completely new literary meaning and depth … Petterson writes with such intensity, precision and care that the story grabs you right away. And it will not let you go. Not even after you finish reading. I am happy that we have Petterson. Very happy.”
6/6 stars, VG
“A tender, darkly humorous eulogy to all lonely men who sleep in their cars … With his new novel, Men in My Situation, Per Petterson covered all the lonely, lost male souls in the capital with a soft, warm blanket … Reading Per Petterson is like getting the story breathe directly into your ear. It is so soft and light, but also dark, dense and quite harsh … Few can portray Oslo with such lack of sentimentality, such tenderness … With Men in My Situation Per Petterson shows what a unique storyteller he is. The league of disappointed, lonely and desperate is pushed straight into the premier league of literature”
Dagsavisen
“Emotionally fine-tuned … Petterson explores emptiness in a superb way in his new novel … Often through long, rhythmic, flowing sentences and paragraphs, broken up by commas that provide room for leaps of thought and other reflections that might occur to Arvid. All the time in the simple, unadorned, but still so rich and vivid prose that has become Per Petterson’s trademark”
5/6 stars, Bok 365
“I didn’t think I needed more books about silent men in crisis after a divorce. But then this book came along … After finishing the bok, this reader felt enriched and exhausted”
6/6 stars, Adresseavisen
“These are books that get better with every new reading, the surest mark of lasting literary value … In Men in My Situation Per Petterson seems freer and more open than ever. The novel is another zenith in a body of work that already is ensured a place in our modern prose canon … Like few others Petterson knows how to convey weakness, confusion and existential numbness, while pride and an indomitable spirit are on display in his confident literary style and tone”
Morgenbladet
«He describes a certain melancholy and attitude to life that probably affect everybody, but which still feels spefically male … Though it feels like kicking in an open door to say it, Per Petterson’s prose is strikingly good, rhythmic and authentic. Petterson also has a tender humour, the humour of a careful man who has been beaten up good, but who is also condemned with a smartness that gives him sharp edges”
Dagens Næringsliv
“One of Norway’s most interesting authors … the prose is excellent as always … draws up a credible portrait of a man without direction … What really grips the reader deep down is rather the portrait of Arvid’s relationship to his daughters, especially the oldest one, Vigdis … Men in My Situation grows from being a quite interesting novel about a man in a crisis, to become an existential soul-searching on a high level”
Vårt Land
«A painful novel of a man going to pieces … Hardly any surpasses Per Petterson’s writing … one of [his] best novels”
5/6 stars, Romerikes Blad
“We come close, and that is painful … It feel sreal, and it’s written with Petterson’s unique nerve and authenticity … But even though it hurts, there is familiarity here, moments of devotion, and beautiful turns of prose, that can only come from Per Petterson. This is a book to look forward to reading”
5/6 stars, Fædrelandsvennen
“Magnificent”
6/6 stars, Stavanger Aftenblad
“Per Petterson is probably the greates bard of male loneliness, guilt and self-reflection of our time. In Men in My Situation, this skill is given even greater space to unfold than in his previous books – it also gets new arms, and explores new themes. This is Petterson at his best”
5/6 stars, Bergens Tidende
«When Arvid’s helplessness is at its deepest, Petterson is at his best … [Petterson’s writing] is down-to-earth and simple, and at the same time very precise and to the point. Again and again the reader comes across sentences or paragraphs that shine in all their darkness”
Dag og Tid
“The main reason that Men in My Situation is one of the greatest novels Petterson has written so far , is that this is at heart a love story. We are not talking about Romeo and Juliet, on the contrary … It’s this existential despair that Per Petterson is so good at conveying in his novels – in this too. In a prose that is melodic and free of clichés, beautiful and precise, a prose that is free of the terminology of professional psychology, that can be understood by everybody because it goes straight to the marrow. It goes to the body. To the heart.”
Fri Fagbevegelse
