Finished reading: The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard 📚

What can I say about this book…

I’m staring at a blinking cursor for what seems like hours, because I don’t know how to approach writing about it. I’m not as gifted with words as the author is.

It’s a powerful book, beautifully crafted, masterfully written. It haunts you when you aren’t reading it. It draws you back to it, into the book. You don’t just read it, you step inside the pages and experience it.

It starts off so mundane and ordinary, and the only reason you keep reading is how well it’s written and how well the characters are unfolded into the story. You find yourself saying, “I don’t need to know this much backstory about this guy.” But you do. As this story unfolds, it brings you to places you’ve never been before. I promise you.

This is not a book for everyone, but I suggest you start it and see what you think. I don’t know anything about Karl Ove Knausgaard, but I’ll be looking him up and stepping into his next book. He is clearly a gifted writer and a deep thinker. I don’t even remember what brought me to the book, but it’s been sitting in my To-Read pile for some time now. I thought it would be a book I’d read a few chapters of and move on.

When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. That is about the highest praise I can give a writer.

A shoutout to the translator, Martin Aitken. I don’t know if this book reads as beautifully in Norwegian as it does in English, but what a job it is to translate what the author wrote and felt and meant into another language.

This book takes mundane, ordinary people with ordinary problems and brings them alive, steps you into their world and beyond into existential questions about mortality and the afterlife. What it means to be alive. What life is about and what the bonds of family and friendship really mean.

I’m not sure if I need a break before book two of the series, maybe a palate cleanser. I feel like my brain needs a break, but at the same time, I don’t want to leave the world of Knausgaard. I’ve taken a quick peek at the reviews of book two, and it seems to be loved even more than book one. It seems Karl has really hit his stride with the second book. I’ve taken a full day off from reading and think I will jump right into it.

I have to mention the last chapter. Starting it, you think you’re done with the book, that the author is just giving you some research and backstory on the book. But halfway through, it ties right back into our characters and throws you back for even thinking the story was over. There are so many surprises in this book; it is so well written, you just have to experience it. I can see how some say it’s too slow. Enjoy the slow, enjoy the beautifully placed words side by side, weaving a masterful story together. Leave time behind and enter the story with the characters. Take a moment and look up into the heavens and gaze at the new star.

Random Thoughts:

• I wish I were fluent in Norwegian just so I could read this book in its original language. How is it different? How has the meaning changed? Is it as powerful and beautiful? How did Aitken, the translator, approach the translation?

• Who is Karl Ove Knausgaard? How long has he been writing? How did he learn to write like this? How much of his craft was natural vs blood, sweat, and tears of years of writing and re-writing? How long did it take him to write this book? How many pages were rewritten over and over again?

• How did he meet his translator? How close are they? Does Karl interfere with or “suggest” changes to the translations?