Helle's Reviews > Min kamp 4
Min kamp 4 (Min kamp, #4)
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In this fourth instalment of his literary struggle, Karl Ove Knausgård continues his backward quest to describe and come to terms with his growing up. The book begins and ends with his going to northern Norway for a year as a substitute teacher, though he is only 18 and fresh out of high school. He paints a vivid portrait of life in small-town Norway in a village of only some 250 houses and so far north that the school he teaches at changes teachers almost every year because no new people move to the place. There is darkness for weeks on end during the winter and endless light during the summer. There is also quite a lot of drinking for what else is there to do up there?
The tone of his existential musings from the previous three instalments carry over in this one, too, but too many pages are dedicated to his lusting after girls and wondering when on earth someone will help him put an end to his painful state as a virgin. I realize this is what a lot of teenage boys feel, but that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting as literary material – certainly not when, as I often felt, it was described in real-time.
In the first three instalments I was often full of sympathy for the young Karl Ove, especially in volume three when he allows us to revisit his childhood and his tyrant of a father. His father looms large in this volume also and is well on his way to becoming the alcoholic we met in volume one. In this volume, however, Karl Ove was often extremely unlikeable and selfish, not just flawed as in the other volumes. I felt sorry for his mother sometimes, but I suppose I would feel sorry for my own mother, too, if I had the empathic hindsight to remember some of the things I put her through back then.
Knausgård’s story-telling abilities are still powerful, and we begin to see the single-minded writer he would become. He glosses over nothing but lays bare his immaturity and humiliations, his delusions of grandeur, his desire for sexual release and existential freedom. Karl Ove Knausgård is the Nordic anti-hero of his own time.
The tone of his existential musings from the previous three instalments carry over in this one, too, but too many pages are dedicated to his lusting after girls and wondering when on earth someone will help him put an end to his painful state as a virgin. I realize this is what a lot of teenage boys feel, but that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting as literary material – certainly not when, as I often felt, it was described in real-time.
In the first three instalments I was often full of sympathy for the young Karl Ove, especially in volume three when he allows us to revisit his childhood and his tyrant of a father. His father looms large in this volume also and is well on his way to becoming the alcoholic we met in volume one. In this volume, however, Karl Ove was often extremely unlikeable and selfish, not just flawed as in the other volumes. I felt sorry for his mother sometimes, but I suppose I would feel sorry for my own mother, too, if I had the empathic hindsight to remember some of the things I put her through back then.
Knausgård’s story-telling abilities are still powerful, and we begin to see the single-minded writer he would become. He glosses over nothing but lays bare his immaturity and humiliations, his delusions of grandeur, his desire for sexual release and existential freedom. Karl Ove Knausgård is the Nordic anti-hero of his own time.
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Reading Progress
March 16, 2016
–
Started Reading
March 16, 2016
– Shelved
March 21, 2016
–
Finished Reading
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I guess I will continue investing time on Proust and will decide on Knausgård later without setting my expectations too high...
Greatly informative review, Helle. Thanks for keeping such a good pace with the reviewing of this series.
So is the young Karl Ove telling us what happens as it happens or is it the older Karl Ove remembering what happened? I know it sounds like a stupid question and I should know this having read several reviews - but I'm interested in how authors handle 'time', how they make the past seem the present
Quite frankly I'm so inundated with books that I'm really not too sure what I have half the time."
Thanks, Lynne. I didn't realize you were intending to read this tome (or rather tomeS) or that you'd read the first volume. It's quite a project to begin the series, but I guess you can also stop it along the way, e.g. after the second volume, which is the best of what I've read so far. I know what you mean about being inundated with books - so many temptations and so little time!
Thank you, Dolors, and come to think of it, Knausgård himself sees more of an inspiration in Ulysses than in ISOLT. And none of them was the first to launch the autobiographical novel (only think of names like Plath, Joyce, Coetzee, Hurston, Kerouac and many, many more), but I guess it's also the mammoth scope of Knausgård's opus that reminded critics of Proust's ditto. Having not yet read ISOLT, I don't know about the timeline, but Knausgård's story is totally a-chronological so we meet his more mature self before his child self - but thus see the reasons for certain adult behavioural patterns. This could explain why I felt more sympathy with the protagonist in the first volumes. I would still recommend them, Dolors, certainly the first two volumes, and I'd be really eager to know what you make of them. (view spoiler)
So is the young Karl Ove telling us what happens as it happens or is it the olde..."
Ah, interesting question, Fionnuala. Let me see if I can answer it. The 'real time' is imaginary of course, as we don't follow Karl Ove for a year (i.e. 365 days x 24 hours) - but his droning on about certain issues made it feel that way. One could say that that made it repetitive and boring, but you could just as easily argue that it is an effective way of showing his obsessions (instead of e.g. saying 'He thought of this every day for the next two years', which gives us the same information but doesn't make us feel the obsession).
As to 'the single-minded writer he would become', the first volume in the series explores his father's death from the very first page, and Karl Ove is an adult at that time. He reminisces about his teenage years from time to time, but it is clear that he is looking back. The second volume is about his wife, how he met her and that part of his life, still looking back. Now, the third volume suddenly takes us back to his childhood, and the adult voice never steps in to mediate the experience. We see and hear some awful situations involving his father, for instance, but we stop at around the time that Karl Ove is 17 or so.
So his 'struggle' is never linear, never chronological but weaves back and forth, sometimes remaining in the same time period for hundreds of pages. In this 4th volume, he begins his manic writing (the first of which isn't successful), and from the earlier volumes we know that he would ignore his family for days on end in order to write. Hence the 'single-mindedness'.
I hope this explains some of it. Do ask again if it doesn't.
Wow, Ina, you bought all of them? If not, I would probably begin by buying the first two volumes and see about the rest. Thanks for your enthusiasm, and I'll look forward to seeing what you make of them.
You have indeed, Helle - with a really comprehensive explanation of the time shifts and the different approaches Knausgård has taken to 'Time' in the different volumes - if anything inspires me to read these books, it is to see his skill in this area.
Thank you for taking time to explain all this, Helle :-)
Thank you kindly, Seemita. Well, yes, on the one hand, the tone and open-hearted nature of Knausgård's project can become a bit much by sheer volume (some 1200 pages by now of the confessional style), but on the other hand, there was a difference between the core, or central issues, in each of the volumes I've read so far, making it appear to be some kind of giant puzzle where the corners don't quite resemble the middle pieces, but they all contribute to the image in its entirety. But 'unrestrained and raw' - that's exactly what it is.
Quite frankly I'm so inundated with books that I'm really not too sure what I have half the time.