![]() ![]() Or the reverse: he holds a mirror up to his life you look, and see yourself.īroadly speaking, there are two ways to recognize yourself in “My Struggle.” The first is to notice where your own thoughts and experiences coincide with Knausgaard’s-to find, as many readers have, that he has written the diary that you would’ve written, were you a Norwegian man born in 1968. He encourages readers to look inside and find their inner Karl Oves. Perhaps because he is so candid and open, Knausgaard has made his memories into common property. Part of the appeal is that he has left many of the names and details unchanged you can do a Google images search and see many of the characters you read about. And yet, in Norway, one book has sold for every nine adults as translations have proliferated, readers all over the world have fallen in love with Knausgaard. ![]() There is no plot to speak of, unless you consider real life a plot. The six volumes of “My Struggle” chronicle, in hypnotic detail, episodes from Knausgaard’s life. (James Wood reviewed the first volume, in 2012.) It’s hard to overstate the strangeness of the book’s success. This week sees the publication of the third volume of “My Struggle,” the thirty-six-hundred-page autobiographical novel by Karl Ove Knausgaard, the Norwegian novelist. “ What Is the Struggle in ‘My Struggle’?,” by Joshua Rothman. ![]()
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