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adholmes3's review against another edition
challenging
inspiring
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
bittersweet_symphony's review against another edition
5.0
When I started this book I felt giddy to once again be inside the heart and mind of Karl Ove. I imagine, once I have finished every volume of this important literary endeavor, that I will know him better than nearly any person I never met. His insecurities are mine. His inclination toward asceticism, and longing for innocence is shared. I feel his love for his children, and the oscillation between frustration, intimacy, and forgiveness he experiences with his wife. His humanity quietly screams on every page, his courage to write about it awes with each successive sentence, the mundane nature of the book's events have a down to earth spell to them. This is life.
He can be commonly judgmental and remain ever so likable: "I have no problem with uninteresting or unoriginal people - they may have other, more important attributes, such as warmth, considerations, friendliness, a sense of humor, or talents such as being able to make a conversation flow to generate an atmosphere of ease around them, or the ability to make a family function - but I feel almost physically ill in the presence of boring people who consider themselves especially interesting and who blow their own trumpets."
His frankness about his struggle to connect with the people he loves caused me to ache. "All my adult life I have kept a distance from other people, it has been my way of coping, because I become so incredibly close to others in my thoughts and feelings of course, they only have to look away dismissively for a storm to break inside me."
Volume 2 is about a man in love, but its peculiar powers show in the banality of love. On occasion his romanticism can show through like when he meets Linda and "the world had suddenly opened, the intensity in it increased at breakneck speed. I was head over heels in love and everything was possible, my happiness was at a bursting point all the time and embraced everything." He spends a majority of his time showing how love (and life) reveals itself just under the surface, in the small dirt under our fingernails, in the moments we reflect on our aging bodies in the mirror, or when a child spends the entire day talking about candy but not wanting to eat it when she finally has it in front of her.
I am moved as if I have lived portions of Karl Ove's life. He borderlines broodiness when he writes "in the window before me I can vaguely see the image of my face. Apart from the eyes, which are shining, and the party directly beneath, which dimly reflects light, the whole of the left side lies in shade. Two deep furrows run down the forehead, one deep furrow runs down each cheek, all filled as it were with darkness, and when the eyes are staring and serious, and the mouth turned down at the corners it is impossible not to think of this face as somber." He ironically laughs with friends when speaking existentially, quoting Nietzsche and being reminded of the meaninglessness of life by his libertine friend, Geir. He also reacts to it at other times, showing his fight for innocence, for the goodness to be had. "For the first time in my life I was completely happy. For the first time there was nothing in my life that could overshadow the happiness I felt...for everything gave meaning, everything was laden with meaning, it was as if a new light had been cast over the world."
His humdrum prose can be placid, and overly routine, but if you stick with it, reading it in the quiet moments long enough to be pulled into his sensitive and prescient psyche, you will experience his art, be pulled into another human's heart, and come away better for it. Karl Ove shows me how literature can help one to escape alienation, the excess of idealism, and accept life for all its earthy, trivial details. This is life. We should celebrate its simplicity.
He can be commonly judgmental and remain ever so likable: "I have no problem with uninteresting or unoriginal people - they may have other, more important attributes, such as warmth, considerations, friendliness, a sense of humor, or talents such as being able to make a conversation flow to generate an atmosphere of ease around them, or the ability to make a family function - but I feel almost physically ill in the presence of boring people who consider themselves especially interesting and who blow their own trumpets."
His frankness about his struggle to connect with the people he loves caused me to ache. "All my adult life I have kept a distance from other people, it has been my way of coping, because I become so incredibly close to others in my thoughts and feelings of course, they only have to look away dismissively for a storm to break inside me."
Volume 2 is about a man in love, but its peculiar powers show in the banality of love. On occasion his romanticism can show through like when he meets Linda and "the world had suddenly opened, the intensity in it increased at breakneck speed. I was head over heels in love and everything was possible, my happiness was at a bursting point all the time and embraced everything." He spends a majority of his time showing how love (and life) reveals itself just under the surface, in the small dirt under our fingernails, in the moments we reflect on our aging bodies in the mirror, or when a child spends the entire day talking about candy but not wanting to eat it when she finally has it in front of her.
I am moved as if I have lived portions of Karl Ove's life. He borderlines broodiness when he writes "in the window before me I can vaguely see the image of my face. Apart from the eyes, which are shining, and the party directly beneath, which dimly reflects light, the whole of the left side lies in shade. Two deep furrows run down the forehead, one deep furrow runs down each cheek, all filled as it were with darkness, and when the eyes are staring and serious, and the mouth turned down at the corners it is impossible not to think of this face as somber." He ironically laughs with friends when speaking existentially, quoting Nietzsche and being reminded of the meaninglessness of life by his libertine friend, Geir. He also reacts to it at other times, showing his fight for innocence, for the goodness to be had. "For the first time in my life I was completely happy. For the first time there was nothing in my life that could overshadow the happiness I felt...for everything gave meaning, everything was laden with meaning, it was as if a new light had been cast over the world."
His humdrum prose can be placid, and overly routine, but if you stick with it, reading it in the quiet moments long enough to be pulled into his sensitive and prescient psyche, you will experience his art, be pulled into another human's heart, and come away better for it. Karl Ove shows me how literature can help one to escape alienation, the excess of idealism, and accept life for all its earthy, trivial details. This is life. We should celebrate its simplicity.
sleeepykitty's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jedwards97's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I find Knausgaard to be one of the most compelling writers I’ve ever come across. He manages to take the mundane drabness of everyday life, depicting it in such such an overtly human perspective that it becomes a conflict between emotions, virtues, ethics and obligations with a scenario so simple as taking the kids to a park. There isn’t really a plot, as is life, but that only makes his writing so much more humane. His perspective is flawed as is everyones, and it’s refreshing to see the confessional and unfiltered thoughts that battle in our minds each day to be expressed unapologetically and poetically. On paper it’s a story about a man’s life, but it’s actually a story about love, loss, anxiety, status, family, friendships, work, individualism, expectation, responsibility and the the constant internal conflict we fight with. I could sing sweet graces for days.
brian_the_reader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sebastianhafner's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zhengsterz's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Again this is a continuation of the autobiography of Knuasgard, this time the focus on the book is focused on his wife who he eventually has children with including their courtship starting with how they met and how he divorced his first wife. I doubt the veracity of some of the events mentioned due to their astounding level of detail although frankly this does not really matter. Knausgard really bares it all in his books with his frankness about his shitty personality traits and feelings about the people in his life that it is almost admirable. He has alot of relatable moments as well.
"No, when evening came and we sat down to watch a film we wanted to be entertained. And it had to be with as little effort and inconvenience as possible. It was the same with everything. I hardly read books any more; if there was a newspaper around I preferred to read that. And the threshold just kept rising. It was idiotic because this life gave you nothing, it only made time pass. If we saw a good film it stirred us and set things in motion, for that is how it is: the world is always the same, it is the way we view it that changes. Everyday life, which could bear down on us like a foot treading on a head, could also transport us with delight. Everything depended on the seeing eye."
"No, when evening came and we sat down to watch a film we wanted to be entertained. And it had to be with as little effort and inconvenience as possible. It was the same with everything. I hardly read books any more; if there was a newspaper around I preferred to read that. And the threshold just kept rising. It was idiotic because this life gave you nothing, it only made time pass. If we saw a good film it stirred us and set things in motion, for that is how it is: the world is always the same, it is the way we view it that changes. Everyday life, which could bear down on us like a foot treading on a head, could also transport us with delight. Everything depended on the seeing eye."
aust1nz's review against another edition
3.0
Karl Ove Knausgård, a grumpy Norwegian author living in Sweden, undertakes an epic 3600 page saga about his mostly not-epic life. In this second part of the saga, he focuses on his time in Sweden, after he left his wife and fell in love with a woman named Linda, with whom he starts a family.
That's it, really, in terms of plot. It's often comic -- Knausgård, though an introspective writer, is deeply uncomfortable with (as he sees it) the feminized modern man, and he writes about his misgivings taking his child to a sing-along class -- but it's also a misanthropic and pessimistic read. Karl Ove's life is mostly darkness and frustration, punctuated by periods of intense happiness: falling in love, the birth of his child. Aside from those major themes, Knausgård has an uncanny ability to spend pages and pages narrating the most ordinary events, while keeping them (mostly) interesting and engaging. Conversations with his friend Geir at a bar, arguments with his wife, simply stories of traveling to his office, writing, and then traveling back home. He portrays himself as righteous and always in the right, but is also kind of a jerk, and lets the reader know that side too.
Late in the book, Knausgård spells out his philosophy of literature. Fiction bores him, because it's all made-up. He's interested in diaries and personal letters, because those allow the reader to see inside the writer's soul. Knausgård bares his soul here, then, as he essentially shares a fantastically written diary of his mostly normal life.
That's it, really, in terms of plot. It's often comic -- Knausgård, though an introspective writer, is deeply uncomfortable with (as he sees it) the feminized modern man, and he writes about his misgivings taking his child to a sing-along class -- but it's also a misanthropic and pessimistic read. Karl Ove's life is mostly darkness and frustration, punctuated by periods of intense happiness: falling in love, the birth of his child. Aside from those major themes, Knausgård has an uncanny ability to spend pages and pages narrating the most ordinary events, while keeping them (mostly) interesting and engaging. Conversations with his friend Geir at a bar, arguments with his wife, simply stories of traveling to his office, writing, and then traveling back home. He portrays himself as righteous and always in the right, but is also kind of a jerk, and lets the reader know that side too.
Late in the book, Knausgård spells out his philosophy of literature. Fiction bores him, because it's all made-up. He's interested in diaries and personal letters, because those allow the reader to see inside the writer's soul. Knausgård bares his soul here, then, as he essentially shares a fantastically written diary of his mostly normal life.
hb1312's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0