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Last few months -
Loved this. Probably the most refreshing thing I've read in quite some time. Totally reminds me of the movie Synedoche, New York. Highly recommended.
whattt.... love that movie.
I just finished this:
which was a short but good read. The main character pretty much goes from being an upstanding academic to not giving a shit about anything.
Just started this:
Seems good so far. Any scandinavians got insight on this one?
Not a Norwegian, but a 'Merican who happens to have read Knausgaard... Can't remember why or how I even came across Mein Kampf 1?
It's like the Harry Potter of Norway; everyone in Norwegian Oprah's studio audience got a free copy, etc...
The few reviews I've read describe Knausgarrd's stuff as "Proustian," which means, I guess, that the book is really long and unrelenting in it's banal descriptions of life.
The payoff for virtually living in tandem with the author through the everyday putting around, aspiring to be someone, and the smoking of thousands of Norwegian cigarettes (Knausgaard is at his best, stylistically, when writing about the act of smoking.), is that you are allowed to be there for the most excruciating events of his personal life. He has essentially written down his entire life on paper without excluding any of the embarrassing private stuff, hence the struggle.
My Struggle 1 is largely about the author's strained relationship with his father and said father's alcoholism and eventual death. Apparently Knausgaard's literary honesty has taken a toll on his family relationships, which to me seems like a strong factor in the book's popularity in Norway. That and the title.
500 pages books aren't typically my thing, but I liked it. Don't know If I have time to devote to 6 more My Struggles. Part 2 was released in the English not too long ago.