It’s Fine By Me is narrated by Audun Sletten and opens with him as a thirteen-year-old starting a new school in Veitvet, a working-class district of Oslo, where along with his mother and siblings they have fled from their rural home to an urban flat to escape their drunken, abusive father. Structurally, the book consists of two time periods: when Audun is thirteen and five years later when eighteen-year-old Audun leaves school to work as a labourer at a printing factory. In the interim, Audun’s father has disappeared, his younger brother has been killed in a car accident, and his older sister has left home and begun her own family, leaving Audun alone in the flat with his mother. When not in school Auden delivers newspapers and reads boy's own books by the likes of Jack London and Ernest Hemingway but refuses to talk about his former life. One morning whilst out delivering newspapers, Audun chances upon his father.

On the face of it this novel sounds like a standard coming-of-age tale: Audun escapes his alcoholic father and makes decisions that will catapult him in to the world of work. But it’s much more than that. Auden is a troubled, resilient teenager who uses apathy, indifference and machismo as self-preservation mechanisms. He helps his best friend Arvid get a modicum of revenge when Arvid's father is beaten by a gang of youths but when this gang catches up with him when alone he knows what to expect and takes his beating without any real malice. Throughout the story Auden uses phrases like "I didn't really care"; "I don't give a shit" and "It doesn't matter" as he refuses to bow to self-pity but this indifference doesn't remove only disguises his burgeoning grief.The unexpected return of Tormod Sletten, the abusive father, forces Auden's to look inward.

It’s Fine By Me is a slim novel, only 200 pages, but don't let this fool you. The writing is rich, its portrayal of the countryside and the Norwegian weather is vivid and evocative, as is the author's portrayal of manual labour. Despite being a bright student Auden leaves school early and takes a manual job at a print-works. Petterson shows great sympathy with the lot of the workers there; there’s a certain poetry in his depiction of tasks that these brash, selfless men who work in arduous, unskilled positions must undertake for our benefit. Overall I found this a quick and enjoyable read. ( )

Do brutal climate and harsh environs inevitably lead to such stories? Auden is a survivor. The question is whether he will escape as well as survive. This is a grim story of abuse, alcoholism, dead-end jobs, petty town mentalities. But above it is a level of joy for the reader in the lovely prose, the simple, minimal way in which Petterson does his work. And surely the one will transcend the other by the end leading to something like a happy future. Auden’s a reader and in his heart he’s a writer. Could the author really leave the hopes of this young man and the reader dashed?

Maybe. I’m not going to give that away. Suffice to say I read this with my heart in my mouth, during the course of today. It’s short and very difficult to put down.

Petterson’s on two out of two with me. ( )

Do brutal climate and harsh environs inevitably lead to such stories? Auden is a survivor. The question is whether he will escape as well as survive. This is a grim story of abuse, alcoholism, dead-end jobs, petty town mentalities. But above it is a level of joy for the reader in the lovely prose, the simple, minimal way in which Petterson does his work. And surely the one will transcend the other by the end leading to something like a happy future. Auden’s a reader and in his heart he’s a writer. Could the author really leave the hopes of this young man and the reader dashed?

Maybe. I’m not going to give that away. Suffice to say I read this with my heart in my mouth, during the course of today. It’s short and very difficult to put down.

Petterson’s on two out of two with me. ( )

Basically I was wrong about thinking this an inferior work by Per Petterson. It was simply not what I like to read, but it was very well-written and well worth my time. There is much to like about this book and anything I might have to say about it would ruin the experience for somebody else so inclined to read it. But whatever anyone decides to do is fine by me. ( )

As is true of most of Petterson’s novels, not a lot happens on the surface – it’s the inner life of his characters that provides depth. In this back catalogue release, we meet Audun Sletten, a troubled teenager who determinedly keeps his distance from the world and from his troubled family. His only confidant is his friend Arvid Jansen whom readers will remember from I Curse the River of Time. A thoughtful and rewarding novel from multi prize winning Norwegian novelist Per Petterson.