Summary of My StruggleÂ
“My Struggle” is a series of six autobiographical books by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård, in which he describes the intimate details of his personal life and inner thoughts, as well as those of his family and friends. The first book focuses on the author’s youth during the 1980s and his fraught relationship with his father, who struggled with alcoholism.
Reasons to read My StruggleÂ
Knausgaard’s “My Struggle” series of books caused a literary sensation in Norway and internationally – especially the first two volumes – and has often been compared to Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”. The series also provoked controversy and scandal, due to its provocative title (referring to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”), its unfiltered description of banal everyday life, and its exposure of the private lives of Knausgaard’s relatives and friends. Together, the six volumes of “My Struggle” span more than 3.500 pages. The first book received the Brage Prize in 2009. In English, the six books have also been published under the titles “A Death in the Family”, “A Man in Love”, “Boyhood Island”, “Dancing in the Dark”, “Some Rain Must Fall”, and “The End”. Other notable books by KnausgĂĄrd include “Out of the World” (winner of the Norwegian Critics’ Prize for Literature in 1998), “A Time for Everything”, the “Seasons Quartet”, and “The Morning Star”. In 2019, KnausgĂĄrd was awarded the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize.
Setting: Kristiansand (Norway)
A large part of the first book of “My Struggle” is set in Kristiansand, particularly in Knausgaard’s reflections on his youth and family life.
Original title: Min kamp
Year of publication: 2009-2011
Nr of pages: 448
