Finished reading: The Third Realm A Novel by Karl Ove Knausgaard 📚

★★★★½ Literary Fiction Morning Star #3 Read Digital Own Digital StoryGraph

The third book in the Morning Star series, nine narrators again, but mostly new voices. Many of them were on the edges of The Morning Star, and now they get their turn. Knausgaard is an incredible writer and storyteller. I have loved all three books.

I wanted my drawings to smell, to stink, to seep and bleed, writhe and squirm. But I hadn’t succeeded. I told myself it was the fault of drawing itself, the very form of expression.

Here’s the thing about this series. The Star is not the story. The human condition is the story. Our faults, our thoughts, our fears, the things we’d never say out loud but sometimes think. The Star is only a mysterious piece.

She stood up and shook our hands. There was something dulled about her, as if she were enclosed within a membrane that served to deaden whatever she said or did.

You might be tempted to skim the long, in-depth backstories of some characters. Don’t. That deep dive into a character’s world is the story. Knausgaard takes his time, and if you let him, you end up living inside these characters' heads.

‘The past exists to us, but it doesn’t exist in itself. What’s important is the way we relate to it. And the way we relate to things is something we can change.’

You will love some characters. You’ll identify with them, feel their pain, recognize things you’ve said, and catch yourself having thought some of what they think. Others you will dislike. You’ll shout at them and wish they would reconsider their actions and decisions. Both are part of what makes this book work.

If you’ve made it through the first two books, you have to read this one. You will get some closure, but not enough. It doesn’t end the way I wanted it to, but honestly, I’m not sure how I wanted it to end. That might be the point.

There is no God where I am.

These nine characters will make you think about your own life and what it means to live among other humans. If Knausgård’s writing doesn’t draw you deep into this story, these characters, and the human condition, it’s not for you. If it does, you’ll be thinking about these people long after you close the book.

And then it shone no more.

512 pages · First published 2022 · Translated by Martin Aitken