6/11/2023 0 Comments My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgård![]() ![]() I’ve met them at a queer separatist compound. I’ve encountered Knausgaard obsessives who work for the government. I’ve gone on a Knausgaard bender with a young gay black man and an Australian grandmother - together. In private, we indulge our vice by spending hours analyzing every little aspect of his character, speculating on what he meant by this or that section, on whether he really is as good a writer as we think he is, especially when there’s so much opinion to the contrary. The stereotype of the Knausgaard fan is of a thwarted literary man eager to tell you about his own idea for a systems novel, but there are many of us out there who don’t fit that description and are obsessed - to the exasperation of our loved ones - with a writer best known for an epic six-volume work called My Struggle (yes, the same title as Hitler’s memoir yes, it’s intentional). This distresses many of my female, queer, and trans friends: Torrey, you have every woman writer in the world available to admire, but you won’t shut up about a tall, handsome Nordic-dad dude who spends five pages explaining how to turn on a stove? Guilty. Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my literary heroes. ![]()
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