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Karl Ove Knausgaard, Trans. by by Ingvild Burkey
Rave The Washington Post Knausgaard reveals his life and tries to impart some wisdom to his dozing infant passenger ... He weighs the promise of life against the meanness, cruelty and tragedy that await us all. Existence is full of spontaneous threatening swerves. Knausgaard’s assets are on full display, including his precise writing style and his unerring sense of detail. He is constantly attuned to his surroundings, noting the changing weather and the colors of flowers, which may account for why he is so successful at what he does: transforming quotidian life into drama. Perhaps it is the Proustian in him, this desire to impart the full benefit of experience, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Domestic life is his territory, and he enlarges it.
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Trans. by Ingvild Burkey
Mixed The Washington Post Winter, the second volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s seasonal quartet, is a continuing crash course in living for the author’s soon-to-be-born daughter and a stopgap for readers awaiting the arrival of the last volume of My Struggle ... He has a Wallace Stevens mind of winter, beholding the \'nothing that is not there and the nothing that is\' — ultimately leading to the nothing interesting. The short essays that make up this book are, on balance, dull and repetitive. They all emphasize the same worn point: Winter is about death, and death is coming for all of us ... At its best and most personal, the book underscores the sense of fragility that parents feel in preparing for a newborn ... Despite this sporadic beauty, the pages, like snow, begin to pile up without leaving much behind. His thoughts become predictable and reductive. He keeps hammering the point that humankind is constantly trying to avoid death; it’s less clear why this is a bad idea.
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Trans. by Ingvild Burkey
Positive The Washington Post \"It’s a diet plan version of The Anatomy of Melancholy, a solitary book that is ultimately about the need for others ... So it continues, essay for essay, as Knausgaard summons up all the Proustian and philosophical ramifications of a simple word. Sometimes, he soundly hits the target. At other times, his ideas seem suspect ... Collectively, these ruminations disclose a larger vision, which is that we live in a bountiful world that nourishes life but is also indifferent to it, and where human beings — no less than lower forms of life — are ignorant of any environment but their own ... Knausgaard tries to write himself out of this Scandinavian funk. There’s the promise of another day, the imminent arrival of his new child — and there is also this book. \'One of the properties of language,\' he writes near the end, \'is that it can name what isn’t here.\' In these secular meditations, Knausgaard scratches away at the ordinary to reach the sublime — finding what’s in the picture, and what’s hidden.\
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Trans. by Ingvild Burkey
Positive Minneapolis Star Tribune In his latest book, though, he shifts the focus to the world around him. Written while awaiting the birth of his fourth child, Autumn — the first of a planned quartet based on the seasons — is intended as a random field guide to life on Earth for the newest addition to his family ...a diet plan version of The Anatomy of Melancholy, a solitary book that is ultimately about the need for others ... At some level, the book is a series of writing exercises or prompts ... Collectively, these ruminations disclose a larger vision, which is that we live in a bountiful world that nourishes life but is also indifferent to it, and where human beings — no less than lower forms of life — are ignorant of any environment but their own ... In these secular meditations, Knausgaard scratches away at the ordinary to reach the sublime — finding what\'s in the picture, and what\'s hidden.
Ron Rash
Positive The Washington Post Rash, as always, has an absolutely sure sense of place. No one who has spent any time in his North Carolina terrain can fault him on the details. He is a riveting storyteller, ably heightening the tension between the story’s past and present. There is, however, a bit of a drag in Rash’s conservative sensibility toward the events of the book, and his generally judgmental attitude toward his characters ... But if Rash is a moralist, he’s a tragic moralist, which gives his book added ballast.
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Rave The Washington Post This fifth volume feels more insular than the others, but that’s where Knausgaard has always been at his best. The inner life inspires him. It’s what gives the sentences their urgency. He’s the rare writer who has made self-absorption work for him.