Min Kamp 1 & 2 - Karl Ove Knausgård

Min Kamp, or My Struggle, is a series of six books written by the Norwegian Karl One Knausgård and was published between 2009 and 2011. The English translations were done by Don Bartlett with the final novel being a translated along with Marten Aitken. I have only read the first two books and will continue to hopefully finish the series, however, I am a bit late to it. Naturally, the English translations took some time to release, considering that this is a mammoth work of a total of roughly 3,500 pages. The covetous final volume would only appear in 2018. But, still, I am late. The circumstances are such that I would only get to reading it in the summer of this year. Yet, I am grateful for the circumstances that led to the epiphany of my discovery of My Struggle.

As I write this, I am at the junction of childhood and adulthood, and up till what I have read, that is all that has been covered in the life of Knausgård. Thus, I am a spectator who resonates with or at least understands many of the memories that are explored. I know from experience the wonder of childhood, and I know from glimpses into the lives of people around me, the metamorphosis into adulthood. And so, Min Kamp has been an extraordinarily profound reading experience, for to read these books, is to live Knausgård’s life - from the melancholic reminiscing to the joys of being a writer and father, to living the endlessly banal platitudes of everyday life.

Knausgård is unbelievably honest and vulnerable, and not in a bad way. That vulnerability lends an awareness to everything that plays a hand in his psyche. He is somehow able to find the root of every emotion and every sensation that he experiences. Right from how his behaviour is influenced by his father’s death to what lets him experience art in a certain way that is cathartic and moving. What does this do? It goes from beneath the surface level of action and into what provides its impetus. It is that retrospection and introspection that makes the reader think and question their own relationship with everything in their individual life. Knausgård is also incredibly talented as a writer (though not in the way one might think, which is an aspect that will be tackled later on). He can create atmosphere to the effect that one feels like they are actually in that space in time. Tension and suspense are met with the summery tones of happiness. Even when nothing is really happening you still read on. Just as one is helpless to the ticking of a clock, and thus one is helpless to everything moving forward, we as readers, are helpless to follow Knausgård’s labyrinthine narrative, for we too long to see how his life as changed as the seconds succeed each other.

Furthermore, Knausgård’s words flow across the page. When you are in his gaze, everything makes sense, everything moves on from one thing to the next in perfect fashion. This happens to the extent that one won’t even know how they landed up in this part of Knausgård’s life, but one does not harbour any doubt that this is in fact where they are. It all flows. Everything flows. This feature is what adds the dreamlike quality to the reading experience. When you dream, you never know how you got to that point. When you dream, you never know how it began. Even in the clarity of the wakened mind, one fails to reach back into the recesses of surreal phantasmagoria to try and understand what happened. Perhaps it is not so extreme in Knausgård’s writing, but that feeling is there. And that makes it simply wonderful to read. His talent to make his words flow is also the answer to how Knausgård makes his novels’ absurd structure work well. The book could begin with his pseudo-writing and then move onto the plot. Knausgård will be cutting up some lobster and then digress and digress and within that digression further digress till the tangent makes its way to another planet, but then all of a sudden one will be back in the main plot where Knausgård is now finished cutting up the lobster and is now serving it, then the story of his life will continue. Then of course there will be more digressions. But, as one follows the book, nothing is abrupt. As aforesaid, everything makes sense, everything works together, it all flows.

Yet despite all the lavishing of praises and exaltations, I do not like Knausgård as a writer immensely. His writing, when examined closely, is effective and often simple. His subject matters can be complex especially when dealing with abstractions, but that is a different matter. His language is simple. Sometimes, my taste palate reacted with Knausgård’s language to create some frustration. Sometimes, his expression is very casual which is not something I necessarily like. Some of the maxims are in a land between pretension and being annoying, but sometimes they do work well if the context allows it be so. Of course, this is my opinion, but I do not value Knausgård a lot as a writer at the micro-scale. What do I value him as? Well, I think that he is a master of the form, the long form - of the novel. Because with Knausgård it isn’t really but those small details, its about the concepts and the ideas. It is big in scope and raw, and since Knausgård is portraying the very essence of life, could the style of writing be anything but that? Life is not concerned with those details. In the end, one will not remember some aspect of minutiae, some peccadillo, rather one will remember the bold and burning feelings. And that is what I associate with the series. Memories from the first part of Book 1 are almost, now, like my own memories - that is how vivid and deep they are. The myriad details contribute to this by adding authenticity. To the sensitive writer, it is these small things that catch our eye, and it is the agglomeration of these details into one big picture, one strong emotion, that makes it all so powerful. Hence, I am not the world’s biggest fan of the writing itself, but I am a great big fan for how it all comes together in harmony.

Knausgård does not seem to me, as a calculating and precise writer, who uses certain devices to come to a very specific outcome. No, Knausgård expresses everything that comes to his heart and soul. But that is what I sense as the reader: I cannot truly know what goes on through Knausgård’s head while he is writing. Regardless, he is a genius of the craft.

So, to conclude, these are all of my condensed thoughts on what I have read of the /My Struggle/series till now. I have had my ups and downs with it. Do I like it? Yes, absolutely, I even love it. Yet, that does not feel accurate to how I feel. Existence, by itself, feels ambivalent to me. And these books delineate what existence is, by itself. But it also shows all that can be done with this opportunity, and thus these books to me are ambivalent, yes, but also electrifying, thought-provoking, enraging, saddening, heart-wrenching, inspiring, confusing, frustrating, and full of those special moments of happiness. So, it is a gamut of human emotions all at once, that seem to me what life can be, and thus, I am ambivalent.

Do I recommend this? If you only want plot-driven books, then probably no. But if you are a reader open to anything and are willing to live another life, then yes.

Image Credit: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/12/15/after-my-struggle-an-interview-with-karl-ove-knausgaard/