Karl Ove Knausgård

Verteltijd en vertelde tijd is vaak even lang, hele passages borrelen zo verder en dat maakt het zo bijzonder. Het realistische wordt iets mysterieus. Beheerst, ingetogen, pointillistisch soms. Een goudeerlijk karakter.
De stijl is nuchter en toch heeft het iets moois, van het leven zelf.
Eenvoudig en toch nucleair.
Lelijke cover, past niet bij het boek.
Mooie uitwijdingen, gevat in het jasje van een dagelijks leven van dag tot dag. Met lange flashbacks, maar een heerlijk leesbare structuur.
4 1/3 ster voor mij, voor anderen misschien meer.… (more)

In many ways this autobiographical novel is a struggle to read, in that the detail exhausted me at times. 'I sprinkled the Klorin over the floor, using half of the bootle, and then I scrubbed it with the broom before hosing it all down the drain. Then I emptied the rest of the green soap all over it, and scrubbed again, this tim ewith a cloth. After hosing it down again i reckoned that would have to do and went back up to the kitchen.' In the second half there is so much cleaning, in minute by minute detail, I was there working alongside Knausgaard and could feel the effort. In the first half he is a teenager and the stories are about school and drinking and girls and football. In the second half he is about to become a father himself just as his own father dies of alcohol abuse. He and his brother go to the family house to sort out the arrangements for the funeral and find a house almost destroyed by an alcoholic. The book is about his complicated relationship with his father.… (more)

Addictive, as expected. Ca. 250 pages in, and it's already compelling me to write:
https://expositrix.wordpress.com/2023/07/23/a-cue-from-knausgaard-or-the-differe...

Update: I can now add this volume to a list of legendary big books with a section where everyone gets stalled, along the lines of Moby Dick's "all about whales" chapter, and the section on almonds in Guns, Germs, and Steel (which I admittedly, tho' apparently freakishly, did find interesting). Here? Very lengthy analysis of a Paul Celan poem that's gone on for pages and pages, and which so far shows no sign of ending any time soon.

Final thoughts: although I understand why the middle "names and numbers" section was included, the 400-plus page interruption of the narrative was a bit puzzling; it could've stood on its own and/or been pared down. That latter option, though, somehow wouldn't have been true to the spirit of the project.… (more)

This is now the third of this six piece series that I've read and I must say I am still fascinated by them and by their author. What strikes me most his is brutal honesty. Lots of authors have written novels with an autobiographical lean towards them but I can't think of anyone has put so much of himself out there . The sorid details are just so intense ! The first two I read dealt with the sadistic abuse his father put him through. But in book two, the main focus his second wife, and all the ins and outs of their temptous relationship. Be that as it may, for me, of the most shocking scene was when he had to confront his mother in law about how she was drinking their alcohol while minding their kinds. I'm guessing this actually really happened; and to put that out there for everyone to know. Wow, what does his mother in law think of him after that ? But another fascinating aspect about these novels is that the person Knausgaard is hardest on is himself. It's hard to believe that a man of such obvious talent has so much such hatred for himself. Can't wait to read the rest of these novels to find out more about the man and the people who share their lives with him… (more)