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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
As always with my musings (I wouldn't dignify them with the appellation "review") I can't possibly speak to the quality of this work, because I couldn't point to anything and say "this, this is the quality right here". Not just in this work, but in any work.
What I can say, though, is that this was great. This was really great. But not to everyone's taste. To be honest, I could probably have lived without the segment on poetry analysis (vital though it was to his essay on Hitler). I found that part very tough going indeed. But the rest more than made up for it. Even the segment (if you can call 400-pages a segment) on Hitler was excellent, once I waded past the poetical analysis.
To segue from the work into real life for a moment, I'm genuinely sad that Karl Ove and Linda got divorced in 2016. Their love for one another shines out of this book like a beacon. They were not the perfect couple by anyone's measure but they were, at times, perfect for each other. I hope they remain friends.
What I can say, though, is that this was great. This was really great. But not to everyone's taste. To be honest, I could probably have lived without the segment on poetry analysis (vital though it was to his essay on Hitler). I found that part very tough going indeed. But the rest more than made up for it. Even the segment (if you can call 400-pages a segment) on Hitler was excellent, once I waded past the poetical analysis.
To segue from the work into real life for a moment, I'm genuinely sad that Karl Ove and Linda got divorced in 2016. Their love for one another shines out of this book like a beacon. They were not the perfect couple by anyone's measure but they were, at times, perfect for each other. I hope they remain friends.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Though it's impossible to review this book separately from the five that came before it, it was certainly the hardest volume for me to get through. The writing is strong and compelling (aside from the lengthy essay on Hitler), but Knausgaard's exasperation and disillusionment with his own literary experiment is palpable. It is difficult to offer cohesive reflections and insight on experiences you are still living through. That being said, the series is fascinating and potent because of its deep imperfections -- not in spite of them. As a whole, a remarkable and undeniable feat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Pregnancy
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had to reach the sixth book for a class so I do not have the other 5 books under my belt to reflect all of that but I definitely would consider reading them all ! Maybe not the fourth because the author admits to not liking it. Definitely a controversial at times but where the prose really shined was when he was most vulnerable with us. I didn’t mine the Celan essay because celan is all about what’s missing and what’s lost and the afterword and that’s exactly what Karl Ove is thinking about. The Hitler essay can be a bit dreary as he kind of has to write it as he titled his books my struggle….. but the parts about his family were really beautiful to me and his self torment as well … do not regret reading at all :)
Ganz am Ende verrät Knausgard, dass er sein Manuskript verworfen und diesen sechsten und letzten Teil in acht Wochen komplett neu geschrieben hat. Und so wirkt er auch. Zuerst verrät er uns, dass er sich mit Poesie eigentlich gar nicht auskennt, nur um sich dann am Ende des ersten Teils in Poesieabhandlungen und einer Rezension von "Mein Kampf" zu verlieren. Er hat damit auch mich verloren - ich habe das Buch zur Seite gelegt, andere gelesen, und mich in kleinen Happen von ca. zehn Seiten am Stück durchgequält.
Der zweite Teil ist dann wieder frei lesbar, und zeugt von seinem Alltag, der vor allem im Umgang mit einer manisch-depressiven Ehefrau besteht.
Ich würde die Serie wieder lesen, auch wenn ich mir wünschte, der sechste Teil wäre nicht der schlechteste daraus...
Der zweite Teil ist dann wieder frei lesbar, und zeugt von seinem Alltag, der vor allem im Umgang mit einer manisch-depressiven Ehefrau besteht.
Ich würde die Serie wieder lesen, auch wenn ich mir wünschte, der sechste Teil wäre nicht der schlechteste daraus...
This book was so beautiful but it took so much from me to read. I can’t comment on much at the moment, but this entire series makes me fascinated with myself. I found myself drawn into the darkness early on, hanging onto every failure and shame and bad deed of this man. That is, until I got a certain length into it, and suddenly I was realizing how human these characters were, Linda, Yngve, even his children, and I thought their humanity was what kept me reading about KOK’s misdeeds, but then I thought that it must have been his talent for portraying humans as characters, that the distance from the truth was what actually enticed me. Then, I got to the biography of Hitler and the analysis of Celan, which I am still processing.
Then, a scene where a woman approaches his family in the airport and speaks to his children as though she knows them. And then I realized all over that, after all, this novel is not authentic as in it does not actually reveal anything about any character within it. Everyone is characterized. Even the narrator, even the friends and family who are detailed as asking KOK to redact scenes because they felt too exposed. As real as this book wants you to feel like it is, it is not.
And to me, that’s what the whole scholar-bungling middle third is about. Celan and Joyce and Hitler are a vehicle for the struggle of the “I-you-it-we”, the absolute inability to escape the provocative and performative form of the novel. Especially because that was KOK’s stated mission, to tell his story, to tell his truth. It must be that he both did and did not achieve that goal.
Then, a scene where a woman approaches his family in the airport and speaks to his children as though she knows them. And then I realized all over that, after all, this novel is not authentic as in it does not actually reveal anything about any character within it. Everyone is characterized. Even the narrator, even the friends and family who are detailed as asking KOK to redact scenes because they felt too exposed. As real as this book wants you to feel like it is, it is not.
And to me, that’s what the whole scholar-bungling middle third is about. Celan and Joyce and Hitler are a vehicle for the struggle of the “I-you-it-we”, the absolute inability to escape the provocative and performative form of the novel. Especially because that was KOK’s stated mission, to tell his story, to tell his truth. It must be that he both did and did not achieve that goal.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I struggled to finish this book, but I'm so glad I did. I'm sad to be leaving this world, and this voice.
3,704 pages is the most time I've spent with one character, author and world since Harry Potter. These books are addictive, the prose is self-propelling and intoxicating. I have to admit Book 6 stopped me in my tracks half-way through the essay on Hitler. I returned the book the library and then re-borrowed it and finished months later. The long tangent into Hitler's upbringing and early 20th century Europe was interesting, but hard to sustain any reading momentum. As a whole, these volumes stand alone as one the most unique, experimental, influential and courageous stories I've ever read.