Sex,marriage, self-hatred … and the discovery of his staunch voice in the compelling latest instalment of Knausgaard’s epic autobiographical seriesIn the four previous volumes of his autobiographical epic, or Karl Ove Knausgaard has described various kinds of struggle: with childhood fears,teenage angst, marriage and parenthood; with death and desire; with the legacy of a domineering, and alcoholic father. Here the focus shifts to his struggle to become a published author and to the decade or so (from the age of 19 till his late 20s) when tiny or nothing came right for him. There are generous extracts from the poems and stories he was composing. But none of them maintain much connection with the life he was main,as recounted in fanatical detail here. And really that’s the point: his dawning realisation that his talent lay in life writing is what led to his phenomenal success.
In most of Europe, creative writing programmes are still regarded with suspicion. But a writing academy was in operation in Bergen in the late 1980s, and Knausgaard was admitted to it while still a teenager. He did well to be given a place; the other wannabes on the programme were older and more experienced. But his sense of worth was precarious and,if you believe his account, neither his tutors nor his peers did much to bolster it.
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Source: theguardian.com