My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Archipelago, 2012. Trans. from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett)
My Struggle by the contemporary Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of the rare books in translation to have gotten any attention these days. The reviews have been so positive some have declared the book a masterpiece.
My Struggle is a memoir about the author’s life that moves between his childhood and the present, and focuses on his difficult relationship with his father. The passages in which the narrator reflects on life and death are by far the best. Also impressive are the photographic details recreating the narrator’s surrounding reality. Never have I encountered a fictional universe imitating so close the real one. Yet, there is a lingering sensation that, in the end, nothing transcends the accumulation of all these details. Plus, the comparisons with Proust made by some reviewers are absolutely unjustified. There is nothing this writer has in common with Proust. In fact, I would say that Knausgaard’s desire to replicate reality in all its prose is the very opposite of Proust’s desire to mythologize desire itself, never mind his (Proust’s) disinterest in a literal reality.
My Struggle by the contemporary Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of the rare books in translation to have gotten any attention these days. The reviews have been so positive some have declared the book a masterpiece.
My Struggle is a memoir about the author’s life that moves between his childhood and the present, and focuses on his difficult relationship with his father. The passages in which the narrator reflects on life and death are by far the best. Also impressive are the photographic details recreating the narrator’s surrounding reality. Never have I encountered a fictional universe imitating so close the real one. Yet, there is a lingering sensation that, in the end, nothing transcends the accumulation of all these details. Plus, the comparisons with Proust made by some reviewers are absolutely unjustified. There is nothing this writer has in common with Proust. In fact, I would say that Knausgaard’s desire to replicate reality in all its prose is the very opposite of Proust’s desire to mythologize desire itself, never mind his (Proust’s) disinterest in a literal reality.
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Tony
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Sep 22, 2012 04:37AM
Have you read A Time for Everything? I thought the whole thing was marvelous, except for a final chapter that seemed to be autobiographical. It seemed banal and petty after the earlier parts, which were nothing short of fantastic. I wonder if this book is more in the vein of that final chapter.
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I haven't read A Time for Everything. And yes, My Struggle seems like that final chapter. It's very prosaic.
A Time for Everything is really quite beautiful and well worth reading. It consists of three or four long sections each touching on the theme of Angels. One is set in Renaissance Italy and the others are biblical stories from Genesis but set in Norway. I won't spoil them by going into details, but they are splendid, full of interesting twists and haunting landscapes. I can't say enough about them.
Notes on Books
Book reviews and occasional notes and thoughts on world literature and writers by an American writer of Eastern European origin.
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