Reviews
"Knausgaard has written one of those books so aesthetically forceful as to be revolutionary ... The digressiveness of Sebald or Proust is transposed into direct, unmetaphorical language, pushing the novel almost to the edge of unreadability, where it turns out to be addicting and hypnotic. A man has written a book in which a man stays at home with his kids, and his home life isn''t trivialized or diminished but studied and appreciated, resisted and embraced. An almost Christian feeling of spiritual urgency makes even the slowest pages about squeezing lemon on a lobster into a hymn about trying to be good." -- The Paris Review "Why would you read a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel about a man writing a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel? The short answer is that it is breathtakingly good, and so you cannot stop yourself, and would not want to ... Arrestingly beautiful." --The New York Times Book Review "I read both books [One and Two] hungrily and find myself already missing Knausgaard just a few days after turning A Man in Love''s last page, searching the Web for inexpensive crash courses in Norwegian, mostly just wishing Volume Three were available in English now ." --Jonathan Callahan, The Millions "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard''s pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." -- Time Out New York "His work ranks as one of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. There has been, for me, nothing quite like it. Karl Ove makes me see better. I have not wanted his books to end because I have not wanted to unmerge with him. He writes of longing to be back in ''the maniacal, the lonely, the happy place'' he achieved while writing. In my own maniacal, lonely happiness, away from the world for a time, away from the human pull, I found comfort in knowing that, despite his deep craving for distance and work, Knausgaard remains loyal to the human world, to being open to what it offers." -- Nina MacLaughlin, L.A. Review of Books "[T]he book sears the reader because Knausgaard is a passionate idealist and not just a tetchy complainer. He wants to create great art, and he wants to fight the conformity and homogeneity of modern bourgeois existence." --James Wood, The New Yorker "While not unconcerned with finding objective truth in the moments he recounts, Mr. Knausgaard aims first to simply record them, to try to shape the banal into something worth remembering. Beautifully rendered and, at times, painfully observant, his book does a superlative job of finding that ''inner core of human existence.'' If his first volume was his struggle to cope with death, this is his struggle to cope with life." -- The Wall Street Journal "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard''s pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." -- Time Out New York "A masterpiece of staggering originality, the literary event of the century ... Life here and now, examined at a fever pitch, daily recollections recounted in exhausting but exhilarating detail." -- Arlice Davenport, Wichita Eagle "KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD. MY STRUGGLE. It''s unbelievable. I just read 200 pages of it and I need the next volume like crack." -- Zadie Smith, via Twitter "A six-volume literary experiment in which a contemporary Norwegian author describes his own life may sound dull. But Knausgaard''s literary experiment is both brutally honest and far from dull. Trust me, it''ll be worth waiting for volumes three through six to appear in English translation." -- Jo Nesbo, in The Week (one of Jo Nesbo''s six favorite books), "Why would you read a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel about a man writing a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel? The short answer is that it is breathtakingly good, and so you cannot stop yourself, and would not want to ... Arrestingly beautiful." -The New York Times Book Review "I read both books [One and Two] hungrily and find myself already missing Knausgaard just a few days after turning A Man in Love's last page, searching the Web for inexpensive crash courses in Norwegian, mostly just wishing Volume Three were available in English now ." -Jonathan Callahan, The Millions "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "His work ranks as one of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. There has been, for me, nothing quite like it. Karl Ove makes me see better. I have not wanted his books to end because I have not wanted to unmerge with him. He writes of longing to be back in 'the maniacal, the lonely, the happy place' he achieved while writing. In my own maniacal, lonely happiness, away from the world for a time, away from the human pull, I found comfort in knowing that, despite his deep craving for distance and work, Knausgaard remains loyal to the human world, to being open to what it offers." - Nina MacLaughlin, L.A. Review of Books "[T]he book sears the reader because Knausgaard is a passionate idealist and not just a tetchy complainer. He wants to create great art, and he wants to fight the conformity and homogeneity of modern bourgeois existence." -James Wood, The New Yorker "While not unconcerned with finding objective truth in the moments he recounts, Mr. Knausgaard aims first to simply record them, to try to shape the banal into something worth remembering. Beautifully rendered and, at times, painfully observant, his book does a superlative job of finding that 'inner core of human existence.' If his first volume was his struggle to cope with death, this is his struggle to cope with life." - The Wall Street Journal "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "A masterpiece of staggering originality, the literary event of the century ... Life here and now, examined at a fever pitch, daily recollections recounted in exhausting but exhilarating detail." - Arlice Davenport, Wichita Eagle, "His work ranks as one of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. There has been, for me, nothing quite like it. Karl Ove makes me see better. I have not wanted his books to end because I have not wanted to unmerge with him. He writes of longing to be back in 'the maniacal, the lonely, the happy place' he achieved while writing. In my own maniacal, lonely happiness, away from the world for a time, away from the human pull, I found comfort in knowing that, despite his deep craving for distance and work, Knausgaard remains loyal to the human world, to being open to what it offers." - Nina MacLaughlin, L.A. Review of Books "[T]he book sears the reader because Knausgaard is a passionate idealist and not just a tetchy complainer. He wants to create great art, and he wants to fight the conformity and homogeneity of modern bourgeois existence." -James Wood, The New Yorker "While not unconcerned with finding objective truth in the moments he recounts, Mr. Knausgaard aims first to simply record them, to try to shape the banal into something worth remembering. Beautifully rendered and, at times, painfully observant, his book does a superlative job of finding that 'inner core of human existence.' If his first volume was his struggle to cope with death, this is his struggle to cope with life." - The Wall Street Journal "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "A masterpiece of staggering originality, the literary event of the century ... Life here and now, examined at a fever pitch, daily recollections recounted in exhausting but exhilarating detail." - Arlice Davenport, Wichita Eagle, "Knausgaard has written one of those books so aesthetically forceful as to be revolutionary ... The digressiveness of Sebald or Proust is transposed into direct, unmetaphorical language, pushing the novel almost to the edge of unreadability, where it turns out to be addicting and hypnotic. A man has written a book in which a man stays at home with his kids, and his home life isn't trivialized or diminished but studied and appreciated, resisted and embraced. An almost Christian feeling of spiritual urgency makes even the slowest pages about squeezing lemon on a lobster into a hymn about trying to be good." -- The Paris Review "Why would you read a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel about a man writing a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel? The short answer is that it is breathtakingly good, and so you cannot stop yourself, and would not want to ... Arrestingly beautiful." -The New York Times Book Review "I read both books [One and Two] hungrily and find myself already missing Knausgaard just a few days after turning A Man in Love's last page, searching the Web for inexpensive crash courses in Norwegian, mostly just wishing Volume Three were available in English now ." -Jonathan Callahan, The Millions "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "His work ranks as one of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. There has been, for me, nothing quite like it. Karl Ove makes me see better. I have not wanted his books to end because I have not wanted to unmerge with him. He writes of longing to be back in 'the maniacal, the lonely, the happy place' he achieved while writing. In my own maniacal, lonely happiness, away from the world for a time, away from the human pull, I found comfort in knowing that, despite his deep craving for distance and work, Knausgaard remains loyal to the human world, to being open to what it offers." - Nina MacLaughlin, L.A. Review of Books "[T]he book sears the reader because Knausgaard is a passionate idealist and not just a tetchy complainer. He wants to create great art, and he wants to fight the conformity and homogeneity of modern bourgeois existence." -James Wood, The New Yorker "While not unconcerned with finding objective truth in the moments he recounts, Mr. Knausgaard aims first to simply record them, to try to shape the banal into something worth remembering. Beautifully rendered and, at times, painfully observant, his book does a superlative job of finding that 'inner core of human existence.' If his first volume was his struggle to cope with death, this is his struggle to cope with life." - The Wall Street Journal "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "A masterpiece of staggering originality, the literary event of the century ... Life here and now, examined at a fever pitch, daily recollections recounted in exhausting but exhilarating detail." - Arlice Davenport, Wichita Eagle "KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD. MY STRUGGLE. It's unbelievable. I just read 200 pages of it and I need the next volume like crack." - Zadie Smith, via Twitter, "Knausgaard has written one of those books so aesthetically forceful as to be revolutionary ... The digressiveness of Sebald or Proust is transposed into direct, unmetaphorical language, pushing the novel almost to the edge of unreadability, where it turns out to be addicting and hypnotic. A man has written a book in which a man stays at home with his kids, and his home life isn't trivialized or diminished but studied and appreciated, resisted and embraced. An almost Christian feeling of spiritual urgency makes even the slowest pages about squeezing lemon on a lobster into a hymn about trying to be good." -- The Paris Review "Why would you read a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel about a man writing a six-volume, 3,600-page Norwegian novel? The short answer is that it is breathtakingly good, and so you cannot stop yourself, and would not want to ... Arrestingly beautiful." -The New York Times Book Review "I read both books [One and Two] hungrily and find myself already missing Knausgaard just a few days after turning A Man in Love's last page, searching the Web for inexpensive crash courses in Norwegian, mostly just wishing Volume Three were available in English now ." -Jonathan Callahan, The Millions "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "His work ranks as one of the most memorable reading experiences of my life. There has been, for me, nothing quite like it. Karl Ove makes me see better. I have not wanted his books to end because I have not wanted to unmerge with him. He writes of longing to be back in 'the maniacal, the lonely, the happy place' he achieved while writing. In my own maniacal, lonely happiness, away from the world for a time, away from the human pull, I found comfort in knowing that, despite his deep craving for distance and work, Knausgaard remains loyal to the human world, to being open to what it offers." - Nina MacLaughlin, L.A. Review of Books "[T]he book sears the reader because Knausgaard is a passionate idealist and not just a tetchy complainer. He wants to create great art, and he wants to fight the conformity and homogeneity of modern bourgeois existence." -James Wood, The New Yorker "While not unconcerned with finding objective truth in the moments he recounts, Mr. Knausgaard aims first to simply record them, to try to shape the banal into something worth remembering. Beautifully rendered and, at times, painfully observant, his book does a superlative job of finding that 'inner core of human existence.' If his first volume was his struggle to cope with death, this is his struggle to cope with life." - The Wall Street Journal "Achieves an aching intimacy, one that transcends the personal and makes Knausgaard's pursuit of grand artistic ideals, his daily joys and misgivings, strangely familiar." - Time Out New York "A masterpiece of staggering originality, the literary event of the century ... Life here and now, examined at a fever pitch, daily recollections recounted in exhausting but exhilarating detail." - Arlice Davenport, Wichita Eagle
