Ist schon in Ordnung

Geschrieben von Hans Löw und Per Petterson

Erzählt von Hans Löw

Als Audun in die neue Schule in Oslo kommt, ist er vom Regen durchnässt, aber die Sonnenbrille will er nicht abnehmen. Als der Lehrer ihn auffordert, von seinem bisherigen Leben auf dem Land zu erzählen, rastet er aus. Mit 13 hat er in den Sommerferien in ein paar Pappkartons allein am Bahndamm gehaust. Jetzt lebt er mit seiner Mutter in einem Arbeiterviertel und trägt Zeitungen aus. Mit seinem Freund kann er stundenlang über Jack London und Hemingway reden, aber die Schule will er kurz vor dem Abschluss hinschmeißen und Arbeiter werden. Mag der Fabrikalltag hart sein und die Familie zerrüttet, Audun schluckt den Schmerz und die großen Gefühle hinunter. Ist schon in Ordnung, meint er, und landet immer auf seinen Füßen.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Hörbuch Hamburg
• Erscheinungsdatum: 15. Juli 2011
• ISBN: 9783844904390

Rezensionen für Ist schon in Ordnung

[pilgrimjess · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

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.

[msarki_3 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

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.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

At first blush, this is a heartbreaking coming-of-age novel, which takes place in a small town in Norway. When we meet Auden, he is 13. It is his first day at school and he is late. He is rude to the headmaster and then to his teacher. He is wearing sunglasses and refuses to take them off. He says he has terrible scars around his eyes. He is a loner, a bit of a fibber, and a storyteller when he wants to avoid something. He seems to always be running away from something, perhaps from himself and his thoughts. He seems like a very angry, and perhaps unhappy, young man. His glasses symbolize only one of the things he hides behind. In order to conceal who he really is, he wears odd outfits. His lies are another way of hiding. His air of bravado overshadows his fears and hides his sensitive nature. He carries himself with a chip on his shoulder, sometimes has violent outbursts and shows very little alarm when confronted. He takes orders from no one and follows his own drummer. He is definitely his own person, although in private, he is not as brash as he seems. He can be emotional, philosophical and cerebral, in spite of his, often antisocial, behavior. He entertains dreams of being a writer and loves to read, devouring books when he can, even attempting to write something beautiful himself. At the playground, on this first day at school, he unexpectedly makes a friend, Arvid, someone who passes muster with him and who becomes a confidant. As the timeline moves around, we learn, through Auden’s thoughts and memories, that his father was very abusive, a drunk and a brute. His brother has drowned in an accident and his sister has run off with her boyfriend. He and his mother live together, and he has newspaper routes to augment their income. As the years pass, Auden’s life is one of survival on a daily basis: survival at home, survival outside on the streets, survival at school, survival at work. He has a quick temper and often makes split second decisions that are not well thought out. Always, lurking in the background, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and yet, the story never seems contrived, rather it seems authentic in the realm in which it is being played out, a small, unsophisticated, perhaps a bit backward, Norwegian town, filled with poorly educated, unworldly characters, who work very hard to make ends meet, are often bullies and sometimes take the law into their own hands. It is a place where the weak sometimes prey upon the poor.Although Petterson seems to present a simple message, using the matter-of-course occurrences of everyday life in this rural environment, his message is always profound. Often, after reading several sentences or paragraphs or pages, there is a moment of awareness and a larger message comes through to the reader. It isn’t just about a boy who works to help support his mother, it is about a boy who does many things to try and discover who he is, what his purpose in life will be and how will he attain it. It is about the characters’ philosophy of acceptance about what befalls them, as in the title, all things are fine with them, they believe that things will work out, in the end. Auden manages to bear all of the crises he has to face, and he bears them well. The reader is always wondering how he will deal with what comes his way, but he faces his ordeals and his pain like a champion. Petterson turns the events of a simple, ordinary day into a magical moment, worthy of further thought, and he makes painful events easier to bear and understand, simply with his writing style which is so easy and comfortable to read. In conclusion, this is a novel of hope as well as despair. The writer leaves the door open for both.

[slvoight_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I received this book as a Goodreads ARC giveaway. This was a great book and I really enjoy it

[presto_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

At the age of thirteen Audun moves with his family, but without his father, to a working class area on the east of Oslo. Audun is self assured but reserved, and already had determined how he will conduct himself inn his new home. Almost despite himself he strikes up a close friendship with fellow schoolboy and near neighbour, Arvid, a friendship that will see him through the rest of his schooling.The novel follows Audun to his nineteenth year, by which time just he lives with his mother, while the shadow of his father still lurks somewhere. Both Audun and Arvid are independent thinkers, and neither is the sort to take the course of inaction, so it is not surprising they get in the odd scrape. But is is clear that while he rubs many up the wrong way, Audun endears himself to some of his neighbours as well of some of the those with whom he works - as no doubt he will to the reader.It's Fine By Me is a relatively short read, but far from short in content and impact. Characters are well drawn and convincing, and it is this that really makes if it so fully engaging.

[browner56 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Audun Sletten is an angry young man. He has just buried his younger brother and his abusive, drunken father has abandoned the family, which forces him to work in menial jobs at far too young of an age. He is also considering dropping out of school and is becoming increasingly alienated from most of his friends and associates. He has very little in life and sees very little chance to improve his lot in the future. Indeed, as the protagonist in Per Petterson’s superb character study It’s Fine By Me, Audun’s sole dream is to become a writer capable of producing “the one perfect sentence” that Hemingway spoke of.Whether he ever reaches that goal is something the reader never learns—the events described in the story move between Audun’s experiences at 13 and 18 years of age—but that hardly matters. Petterson’s spare and powerful prose paints an enormously compelling portrait of disaffected working class youth, very much in the tradition of the great British novels exploring the same theme. (In fact, Petterson tips his hat to that lineage with a specific reference to Alan Sillitoe’s wonderful Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.) In particular, the author has managed to create a character about whom we come to care deeply, even if we never quite learn to like him. Above all else, though, this surely qualifies as the most ironically titled book in recent memory: given the way his life has gone so far, absolutely nothing is fine with Audun.

[mijk_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Possibly autobiography as novel, it grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Bartlett's translation reads wonderfully, but so did all the other hands I have read translating Petterson's other novels, which strongly suggests it's the author's voice that gets inside my head. It's a family story (like all his others) but also about being a boy and becoming a man in a certain era and a certain context that is now gone forever, like the industry in which the narrator goes to work, terrifyingly presented in sections that illustrate what it means to work with big, dangerous, machinery that constitutes its own environment, technological, social and political at the same time. The great thing about Petterson is that he gets you interested in characters who aren't nice, who are in fact a pain the arse and often act like idiots to themselves. This was an early novel of his and it does show in places, though it's still great to read. Finished it in 48 hours. All his novels get 5* from me, I don't uinderstand why anyone would give them less.

[toobusyreading · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I liked this sweet little novel more than I thought I would: it's about not much of anything. Not much action. Not much happening at all. Lots of description. But I cared about this protagonist, a teen trying to make his way in a confusing and unhelpful world, trying to sort our relationships, trying to be a man, not always succeeding. The writing was lovely. Although I am incapable of reading the book in its original language, it seems to me that the translator did a wonderful job with the author's words.For those times when you want a short, reflective story, when you don't need great gobs of action or mystery, when you want something touching but not maudlin, this fills the bill.Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.

[thejeanette · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

What was it like to be a teenager in Oslo in 1970? For Audun Sletten, it's not a particularly pleasant life. He's a sullen young man, prone to drunkenness and apathy, and already quite defeated for one so young. We learn some of what made him that way as he alternates between present and past tense, telling stories from his 13th year in 1965 and his 18th year in 1970.I have very much enjoyed some of Per Petterson's other novels, but I had to force myself to finish this one. The prose is up to Petterson's usual standards and the translation is excellent, but IT'S FINE BY ME is essentially plotless. The 1970 Audun drinks a lot, gets in fights, wanders the city aimlessly, and plays at radical politics. He goes to school, then drops out to take a dead-end job where he can't seem to stay out of trouble. He grieves for a lost brother, and lives in fear of the return of his abusive, alcoholic father. Audun's stories from 1965 give us more insight into the family dynamics that made him the way he is. I enjoyed the stories from his younger self a little more because he hadn't yet given up on the world and himself. He was still participating and trying to enjoy life.If you've read IN THE WAKE and I CURSE THE RIVER OF TIME, you'll enjoy seeing Arvid Jansen as a youngster in this book. He's Audun's only friend, and he was the one bright spot in the story for me. Arvid sees Audun for what he truly is. He tells him, "Do you know something, Audun. Nothing's fine by you. Absolutely nothing." And he's right. We can only hope Audun will overcome some of his anger and stop keeping the world at bay. Otherwise he's doomed to remain miserable and directionless.Those with a low tolerance for foul language may want to steer clear of this novel. The cursing is not excessive, but it's realistically regular throughout the book.

[oldblack-1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I like Petterson's style, and although I don't think this is his best book, I still found it very enjoyable. His characters are very introspective and observant about their relationships. The main character is only young, but he speaks with a mature voice and this is certainly not YA genre. It's been about 40 years since I read it, but "It's Fine By Me" reminded me a lot of Camus' "The Outsider". Petterson is about my age and he writes about his own times (this is set in the Vietnam War days, when Petterson was a teenager) which is another reason that I found resonance with his story.