3.5 ( )

I'm not sure how I came to want to read this book - probably based on some review I read. It's an unusual book translated from the Norwegian and told from the point of view of Finn, a young boy living in the "estates" (public housing) with his mother who has divorced the father, but now the father is dead. After the father's death, the mother takes in the daughter of the father and his second wife. Linda is a bit younger than Finn and has obviously a very rough life which the mother seems to understand.

There is sadness to the book as well as lots of humor. None of the characters are perfect, yet all are trying in their own way. Life in the 60's in Oslo is painted clearly and the relationship between Finn and the other children seems very believable. The ending feels sad, but yet I'm not really sure what happened. Interesting, obviously well-written, just not gripping for me. ( )

'I saw a childhood which had gone, and a childhood which would always be there'
By sally tarbox on 6 Sept. 2012
Format: Hardcover
The narrator looks back to a year or so of his childhood. Living in early '60s Oslo on a council estate with his single mother, money is tight till she decides to take in a lodger. At the same time she finds herself responsible for a mysterious stepchild. Finn's life with his mum will never be the same...
An interesting glimpse into another era and culture and a compulsive read. ( )

Roy Jacobsen's CHILD WONDER is a kind of wonder in itself, in that the author is able to effect a kind of marvelous regression back into the mind and body of a young boy, Finn, wrestling not just with the normal problems of pre-adolescence and puberty, but also bearing the additional burdens of being fatherless and having a mother who is still trying to sort out her own traumas of an abusive childhood. And then throw into this already bubbling bucket of family emotions another child, a damaged six-year old girl named Linda (Finn's half sister, as it turns out), who has also been abused by her drug-addict mother. And one more: an eccentric but charismatic lodger, Kristian. An odd cast of characters to say the least, but Jacobsen handles them all with a master's touch.

Finn's voice narrates the story, from about age nine or ten. The crux of the story centers around Linda and the protective feeling Finn forms for his sister as he quickly comes to love the little girl and slowly but surely cajoles her out of her shell, while at the same time he is trying to form his own sense of self and wondering what in the hell is wrong with his mother. There is an idyllic summer spent on an island, followed by a heart-breaking turn of events which forces Finn into becoming his own man. The narrative continues, taking Finn through high school and into an early maturity.

This is simply one hell of a good story. Author Roy Jacobsen is an eminent and prolific writer in his native Norway, but only a few of his many books have thus far been translated into English (this one most ably by Don Bartlett with Don Shaw). I couldn't help but wonder, since Finn and his mother Gerd share the last name Jacobsen, how autobiographical this novel might be. I also specualted what one might compare CHILD WONDER to, and thought of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, but with some gender reversals - Finn as Scout, and Gerd as Atticus. Such a comparison might be a stretch, but the artistic accomplishments by the authors are, I think, equal. I also thought of a long ago rather obscure novel by Evan Hunter called LAST SUMMER, a shockingly violent coming-of-age piece, set on a vacation island. (The film version starred a young Richard Thomas.)

Jacobsen, bottom line, has written a beautifully conceived and executed story about childhood and the end of innocence with some very memorable characters. I will be thinking about this story for some time. I'll also be looking soon to read another of Jacobsen's books, THE BURNT-OUT TOWN OF MIRACLES.

A final note about the book's translator, Don Bartlett. I first encountered his work in his translation of the popular Norwegian novel, BEATLES, which was just so damn good I wanted to read more Norwegian novels. Thank God for great translators like Bartlett, who labor all but anonymously to bring us great foreign literature. Thank you, Don, for your good work. ( )