Haven’t seen this posted yet. A non fiction article/essay from Knausgaard in the latest issue of Granta.

As the name of this edition implies, he discusses works by the Norwegian author Tarjei Vesaas & his 1957 masterpiece “The Birds”.

Not affiliated with Granta in any way, but I saw this issue, read his piece and wanted to share.

I’ve started reading the my struggle series, and my favorite parts are when he goes off on a ideological rant, such as the dead body discourse at the beginning of the book. Now someway into part two of the book he’s begun a similar rant on page 216 about what he knows, what he knows he doesn’t know, and what lies in between. I’m not totally grasping what he’s getting at and would be interested what others think.

I've heard from everyone who's read it that Arendal is the worst installment of the morning star series so far ... but I have no idea why they say that because this feels like Knausgaard finally hitting his stride: Syvert is a fictional character who feels completely real, the "plot" jumps back and forth in time and scene, and it seems like the closest he's gotten in his fiction to the gripping immediacy of My Struggle

I recently finished School of Night and have found it to be one of the best novels of the Morningstar series so far. But having finished it and having had a look through this group, I haven't noticed anyone talking about Sonja, the woman Kristian sleeps with in NY, who seems to threaten to tell his wife/ blackmail him, in Part 4. She seems normal, then obsessive, then is described as psychotic (?). She gets ahold of Kristian's number and won't relent.

Anyway, she seems connected to Leo's death (in other words, Kristian's comeuppance for an implied deal with the devil?), as prior to crossing the road dangerously, Kristian is distracted by a text from Yelena, that Sonja had appeared at their house. I wonder if Sonja is just a random, obsessive lady who is not actually at all involved in Kristian's 'fate', or if there is an indication that she, like Hans, has some superior influence.

Does anyone have any theories on this? Does she come up at all elsewhere in the series? It could be involved with Hans' mantra of, Kristian can have whatever he wants, until he can't. He has his way with her, until she becomes uncontrollable.

On a frozen coast, one man faces the life he cannot leave...

The year is 1976, and Syvert is on his way home from a business trip when his car breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in the icy, coastal city of Arendal. With home so close, but out of reach, Syvert wanders the dark streets, caught up in the memories of his love affair while something sinister brews around, and within, him. A spellbinding novel of desire, regret, and the thin boundary between worlds, coming January 12, 2027.

LEARN MORE: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/801236/arendal-by-karl-ove-knausgaard/

Can someone in publishing or who knows a lot about publishing please explain why the hell the publisher has changed the beautiful Morning Star series design style to something different for Book 4?

This kind of thing drives me crazy - it completely breaks the vibe of my Knausgaard bookshelf. :)

Like the title says. Picked up the quartet at a library book sale knowing nothing about it except that the series was addressed to his newborn daughter. So I didn't look at publication dates, didn't do any research, I just thought, "Oh, babies. Start with Spring."

I'm more than halfway through now, I'm loving it, but now that I know I should have started with Autumn, what's the best course? Stop reading Spring, start Autumn -- go through Spring, then Summer, then double back?

What do the experts say?

Honestly could’ve been something I read somewhere else but I think it was in My Struggle or an interview with Knausgaard or something. It was something along the lines of “The height of intellectualism is calling something bad.” or something along those lines. Anyone know where this comes from?

I read the My Struggle series as the translations came out in the 2010s so not even close to remembering which book this is in, but this scene stuck with me and i'd like to track down the novel described here if it exists in an english translation.

if memory serves correctly, the scene (in My Struggle) describes young-ish karl (maybe while he's at the writing program in bergen?) buying a new novel by a norwegian author he admires. he reads the opening and is immediately impressed / swept away. the first page / paragraph is quoted in its entirety.

it is v modern prose that we come to realize is describing a girl dancing in a nightclub, but the writing is so dreamlike that it takes a few sentences to understand where we are and what's happening. it's highly visual and evocative and captures desire among young people very vividly. it's easy to sense a connection between this text and karl's own writing.

anyone got any ideas? good chance i'm remembering it wrong. but this image stuck with me and years later i realize i want to read this book.

thank you!

Other covers have been splendid too.

This is quite an old video discussing My Struggle 6, but I haven't seen this before, so thought I'd share. There are English subtitles for the Dutch parts for those non Dutch speakers, but interviews are all in English.

Somebody on here asking what Knausgård would think of Norway in this World Cup, here you go...

The 'corny' viking row gets a mention

Just now finished part 1 and the emotions it filled me up in the end are still fresh. As Karl Ove says in the book..death was always a frightening figure to think about not in a way of overlooking the fact that you might die some day but what happens when people around you cease to exist and how would you react if they are the people you loved and shared life memories with. It’s quite difficult and shameless process in a way,if you think about revealing yourself In the work you do for a living and Karl does it amazingly,rather seamlessly you can say. I thought about so many mundane things in detail while reading the book..about all the things we do over and over again performing everyday in our lives that we wouldn’t notice much that takes up a chunk of time like taking a shit,boiling a cup of coffee,having a smoke in a veranda,going for a walk,looking up towards the sky as the dusk takes over. these are very simple if you think about them but not so easy to express in a book that you are writing about yourself. there lies the beauty,somewhere down the line it revealed all the fears of death I had hidden carefully underneath to the front surface. maybe I’ll start thinking about death internally as much as I made sense of it objectively. will take a day gap and start the second book.

Since I read Knausgaard's 2014 World Cup book right before this World Cup, I can't help wondering what he's thinking about these games. Of course his Norway and his Argentina are doing amazing (although his favorite player Di Maria is not playing). I'm sure he could write a short book about Haaland.

[some sorta-spoilers below on how Book 6 unfolds]

Just finished with the Hitler/Holocaust essay in Book 6, and wow. I found it profoundly moving and perceptive.

It's not an easy read, and I understand why people skip it. But there is a moment about ~25 pages before the end where he relates the goal of the My Struggle project -- conveying the truth of his experience as an "I", utterly and completely -- to the analysis of Hitler's Germany, and everything clicks into place. "I am you."

Then there's the vertiginous swing back into the narration of his autofiction. The final image of the child laughing, who he cannot see. It's brilliant.

For sure, his decision to include it remains somewhat confounding. But it's confounding in a way that leaves me asking more questions. Of many unforgettable moments in this novel, I think this piece might be the one that sticks with me the most.

Hi all! Megafan of KOK here. Have read everything by him and including my struggle series in three languages (Swedish, English and Norwegian). Each reading has its own charm. Prefer the philosophy sections in English, while I love the rawness of the Swedish translation and enjoy the intimacy of the original Norwegian (Swedish is my mothertongue).

My partner and I are roadtripping through Norway from the 6th of July to the 20th. Staying in places like Oslo, Arendal, Kristiansand, Bergen and so forth. The far north of Norway would unfortunately eat up too much time so we are saving that for another trip.

It's hard to say what I want to get out of visiting some of the famous locations from all his works. Not looking to do any kind of stalking or snooping, but I'm searching for some kind of general vibe or feeling to capture what I've felt reading the novels so many times now (and loving every second of it, including the re-reads).

Has anyone done a similar trip where you have visited places from the novels? For example, when we are in Arendal we could visit Tromöya, or Tveit near Kristiansand. I know other people have written that the hotel from Arendal is still there, and some cafe or restaurant? And of course Cafe Opera in Bergen and other places like that.

I am curious if anyone has done a similar trip or what you would recommend from a purely Knausgaardian perspective. Again, I'm not sure what I'm expecting from this trip, but it's something I've wanted to do ever since reading the my struggle series 10 years ago. Thanks for any and all help.

I am rereading volume six of My Struggle now. it is a fantastic book to revisit. The long essay in the middle "The Name and The Number" is so much deeper than HITLER!! It requires several rereads.

Anyway what I actually want to share is that there some small things from his life that he gives his characters. I have two examples:

1- The story of him and his father driving south into Germany via Flensburg and through a red zone where women were sitting windows which made his father blush and act weirdly. The same exact scene is described by Christian Hadeland in The school of Night as it was happened to him .

2- towards the end of vol 6 he hit a dog with his car. Syvert hit a dog with his car when he was driving from the airport after coming back from Russia in the Third Realm.

i just wanted to to share this observations. Did you notice any similar stories carried over from his own experiences into the morning star books like this ?

Just finished WoT, after setting it aside and picking back up. I bogged down at the “Wolves of Eternity” essay within the novel. My main thought at the end: did I like Syvert? I sure did fly through his section of the novel - full of typically engaging and meditative KO prose - but as I thought back, most of the people around Syvert seemed to think he was a a bit of a tool and annoying - and he really did think overly highly of himself. Did I like Alevtina? She wasn’t afforded quite the same level of deep dive into her inner life and actions, and by the time she was bailing out on her meeting w/ Syvert, I was thinking “I don’t think I like this woman. How can she be standing up her long lost brother like that?” Then I thought again: Was KO trying to put me into this predicament all along? Behind the 8 ball on whether I should actually be identifying w/ either of these characters?

They both felt like archetypes of people everyone knew in high school.

Curious on your response to Syvert & Alevtina.

I haven’t read past WoT yet, so try to keep things spoiler free.

Post-Knausgaard Depression.

I’ve read all of My Struggle and the Morning Star books available in English. I’m trying to read On The Calculation of Volume now but it’s not sticking and I’m craving more Knausgaard.

I don’t really fancy the Seasons quartet for some reason. But should I give it a try?

I’m mostly tempted by A Time For Everything…

From the T: The NYTimes Style Magazine

Karl Ove Knausgaard describes the protagonist of his new novel, “The School of Night,” to a forensic artist, who renders him with paper and pen.

https://vimeo.com/1198363069