This is not a book for readers who hate getting lost when a scene on page 105 doesn’t get resolved until page 340. It is for readers who would like to see how a literary genius describes the challenges and boredom of a normal life. The story’s structure consists of spirals and bursts. The writing is authentic and nuanced, reflective and courageous, and is unlike anything I’ve ever read. This six-volume autobiographical series by Karl Ove Knausgaard has been called the “most significant literary enterprise of our times.” It is for those who would like to get lost in art.
Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love, translated by Don Bartlett, (Brooklyn, NY, Harvell Secker, an imprint of The Random House Group, Lt., 2013), p. 434