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Min Kamp 2 (2009)

by Karl Ove Knausgård(Favorite Author)

4.35 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Forlaget Oktober AS

series

Min kamp

review 1: More of everyday life with Karl Ove, his long-suffering girlfriend, and their growing family, living in Stockholm, in the present day. Knausgaard writes essays in the middle of his meandering recording of everything he does every day: making dinner for his family, doing the dishes, changing diapers, arguing with his wife, making love with his wife. The essays treat art and literature and philosophy. The prose does not meander so much as doggedly and accurately recreate the dailiness of ordinary life as lived by him and his family in Scandinavia. Knausgaard made a pact with himself to write five pages every day and he has kept true to his word. Through his diligence, he includes the reader in his struggle to overcome his sense of shame about what it means to be a succe... moressful writer. He has very high standards, looks up to Holderlin and Thomas Mann, and baroque artists. Yet he can wax poetic about Emmy Lou Harris and Tom Waits. His essays that lead to epiphanies about life and philosophy and art are some of my favorite passages in the book. There are questions about the ethics of writing a novel which is clearly based on his life, his family, his wives, his parents, his near and far relations, and everything that actually happens to him, considering some of his comments are less than flattering about the same. But it is compulsive reading him as we make the journey he makes, since his mind is sharp, and his struggle to be good is touching.
review 2: Not quite as good as Volume 1 , it was hard to compete with the scene after his father's death in V1.Here the topics turn to literature. Its not enough to be versed in your basic Mann, Stendhal and Joyce, dozens of Norwegian authors (and painters) are discussed in the many discussions Karl Ove has with Geir.Most of these are Nobel Prize-winning authors as well too - makes a nice jumping-off point for future reading.I also enjoyed the comparisons between Sweden (Stockholm) and Norway as the narrator moved between several cities.Once again, the ideas in the narrator's mind take center stage. He says the things everyone thinks of but is too embarrassed to put down, especially when it comes to child rearing, (the Ingrid sequence comes to mind) family relations and his humility at being a man of letters. He just wants to write, dammit!The book comes full circle when it discusses his efforts in writing volume 1. It will be a long wait for volumes 4 thru 6 to be translated! less

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