It is 1989 , and all over Europe Communism is crumbling. Arvid Jansen, 37, is in the throes of a divorce. At the same time, his mother is diagnosed with cancer. Over the course of a few intense autumn days, we follow Arvid as he struggles to find a new footing in his life, while all the established patterns around him are changing at a staggering speed. As he attempts to negotiate the present, he casts his mind back to holidays on the beach with his brothers, to courtship, and to his early working life, when, as a young Communist, he abandoned his studies to work on a production line.

I Curse the River of Time is an honest, heartbreaking yet humorous portrayal of a complicated mother-son relationship told in Petterson’s precise and beautiful prose.

Found on the next receipent's wishlist for the April 2011 round of the SCBE....so next up to read ready for posting in a few weeks.

A bleak story about a difficult mother-son relationship with time shifts that made for a disjointed and confusing read.

Heading across the Tasman Sea to the next recipient of the SCBE. Hope you have better luck with this one!

I hope so too! Thank you jeniwren!

This was an odd book, a bit confusing, but beautifully written. I'll definitely read more by him.
On its way to msjoanna for the sweepstakes.

Received, sorry for the delay journaling. I'm just starting to get caught up after the birth of the baby in February.

Per Patterson is a heck of a writer. He manages to write sentences that are heart-breakingly beautiful even while a narrator is complaining that his life didn't go the way he expected or wanted. This is a quiet book that takes patience to get into. It's a terrible choice for reading right before bed because the simplicity and beauty fades with tired eyes. Much better to savor this with a cup of tea on a calm morning.