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A review by gregzimmerman
My Struggle, Book One by Karl Ove Knausgård
4.0
Why is this series of six autobiographic novels so popular? So compelling?
With some trepidation, I set sail on this series determined to find out. I still don't know WHY a minutely detail account of a grumpy Norwegian's life is so compelling...but it really is.
This first one is about two things, basically: A New Year's Eve party, and his father's death. But interspersed throughout the narrative -- of cooking salmon and cleaning bathrooms -- are these just terrific page-long moments of philosophizing on life and death and art and family. And then just when you may start to get a little tired, we're back to smoking cigarettes with his brother and meeting with the funeral director.
It shouldn't work. It works. Can't wait to continue.
With some trepidation, I set sail on this series determined to find out. I still don't know WHY a minutely detail account of a grumpy Norwegian's life is so compelling...but it really is.
This first one is about two things, basically: A New Year's Eve party, and his father's death. But interspersed throughout the narrative -- of cooking salmon and cleaning bathrooms -- are these just terrific page-long moments of philosophizing on life and death and art and family. And then just when you may start to get a little tired, we're back to smoking cigarettes with his brother and meeting with the funeral director.
It shouldn't work. It works. Can't wait to continue.