Date: 21 October 2018
Location: Gary and Peggy
Nearly all of us were gathered for a great Fall evening – even if
Fall seems to have arrived a bit late this year. It was a bit of a rowdy crowd, but
we were enjoying each other’s company. Dinner of sauerkraut and sausage
was perfect of course because Peggy was cooking. Just how rowdy were we? –
A broken chair was involved, but no names were posted! Someone actually
blamed it on our literary hero for the evening.
“Our hero is Sheldon Horowitz, an 82-year-old widower with prostate issues.
Too young to volunteer for World War II, he jumped at Korea but always felt he’d
missed his moment. Taking the hint, his son, Saul, hustled off to Vietnam and
got killed. Now pickled in guilt, Sheldon has left New York for Oslo to live with
the granddaughter he raised and her easygoing Norwegian husband. One
morning, their upstairs neighbor flees a violent man with her son. Sheldon spies
her desperation through his peephole and recalls the Europeans who saw the
same and kept their doors locked. Here, finally, is his chance. Though he fails to
protect the mother, Sheldon takes off with the boy. Maybe this child he can
save.”- from the New York Times review.
Most of us seemed to like the book and enjoyed the hero, and the imaginative
ways he set about to protect the boy from the bad guys. However, some of us
found it hard to know what time frame/frame of mind our hero was in. His buddy
Bill was a great ghost , but it was difficult to know if Bill was roaming freely in
Sheldon’s head or if Sheldon was remembering past conversation/moments in
the long years they shared together. I rather wonder if it mattered, and if there
was much difference. Let’s hear it for projection.
We did like the sense of humor, particularly when Sheldon was finding it hard to
employ the tricks he had learned in his sniper training – YES, he was a sniper!
Favorite quote – “Old people should really be in better shape.”
The book did present some insight into the Norwegian character. The police just
didn’t seem at all prepared psychologically to deal with really dangerous war
criminals. That would be a nice state of mind to have. Of course, the captain led
her reluctant heroes into the final fight and provided needed comfort to Sheldon
in the end.
“Complex, layered and utterly original, debut novelist Derek B. Miller’s
Norwegian by Night is one of the most surprising and unusual novels to
emerge in recent years.” There is a movie version, and a follow on book staring
the captain, American by Day. I’ll probably read the follow-on as I liked the
style of this first time writer. But the first book might be a hard act to follow.
—Gina