Shit I am so sad you moved! I lived in the metro detroit area and thought if I ever run into you id thank you for renewing my love of books! well Thanks!
I felt so bipolar about vol. 2, as a man in my early 30's I found myself so frustrated with this book. When I finished vol 5. I immediately wanted to open vol. 2 and go through it again. I found myself angry with it because I did not want to admit that I related so strongly to the struggle of raising two little girls while maintaining my own masculinity. I still feel myself naturally wanting to push just vol. 2 away because I subconsciously did not want to face my own challenges
Just finished volume 4 and have gone back to vol 1 when his mean father died, after seeing how mean he was in 3 and 4. (though apparently the dad's brother thinks Karl Ove exagerated in vol 6, which I haven't yet gotten to)
Hello! Been watching your channel since a long time and each time one of your videos has come online has corresponded with times when I'm starting to get lost in the humdrum of life and getting away from books. Your videos have pulled me back each of those times. A huge thank you! Really miss the older videos with longer times before edits, where I could see you thinking through what you're going to say. I completely understand the need for this format and its truly a good thing. These videos have a charm and urgency. But for me, those older videos had a different charm. But it's all excellent work, all across the board! Keep reading, keep posting and keep making literature sound like the absolute fucking best thing in the world (dont mind the language), because in all honesty, it is. Warmest regards from a fellow reader!
I've been waiting years for this followup to the first review! reading the Min Kamp series over the last few years has been a really worthwile endeaavour, thank you for introducing me to Knausgaard.
4:03 i agree the intensity of life does dull as time goes on. usually because when we are younger everything is novel and new. but all that tells us is new experiences will keep our life vibrant as we grow older
_It wasn’t like that any longer. Alot had happened. And what had happened laid the groundwork for what could happen. Not only were the opportunities fewer, the emotions I experienced were weaker. Life was less intense, and I knew I was half way, perhaps more than half way._ There are women that make you feel as if life has only begun when you met them. They revive the experience of youth. They make it new. They make life intense. I'm pretty sure that is what the Hemingway character meant in 'Midnight in Paris' when he said to Owen, you can't be a good writer when you fear death, find a woman that makes you forget about death, and then start writing.
I'm currently reading the third book about, the one about his childhood. He's from the same region as me in Norway, so a lot of the places are familiar. It's clear that Knausgård has touched on something universal in his books
Great review as always, condensed and very articulate. Keep it up! If you're into Norwegian literature, I would also highly recommend the Knausgård favourite "The Birds" by Tarjei Vesaas.
I loved the ideas you raised about how writers are now trying to rise above the narrative form as we understand it. The other day in my fiction writing class, my professor called my story an 'anecdote' for it lacking a traditional conflict, and it felt wrong to me that a story that I want to communicate truth through would use a form that is biased and deceiving. Knausgard and the increasing prevalence of nonfiction writing is paving the way for new forms, or a dissolution of form altogether.
I once read the book volume 3 because I thought it was an independent novel; then I knew it was part of a series, but I didn't noticied before because in this book the story starts in his childhood, and is a master piece.
I have read all the My Struggle books twice (except book 6, which only came out last year - I've only read it once), and book 5 four times. I think they get even better as you proceed into the series: books 4 and 5 are my favorite. I enjoyed book 2, but it wasn't as gripping for me as the others. Karl Ove's editor made him add the 50 pages on his courtship with Linda - can you imagine how dark the tone of the whole book would be without that? He wrote that section in a day, if I remember correctly. I took the "Hamsun" nickname to simply be that he was an unmannered Norwegian writer, but you may have something w/ it also implying a certain conservatism.
Hey Cliff, I know this is somewhat out of context, but have you ever watched the movie/TV series "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (based on the Alfred Döblin novel)? If you haven't, I highly recommend it; I just finished watching it today and thought it was fantastic. Based on the kind of literature you've been reviewing here, I think you would like too. Keep up the good work! You're definitely the most thoughtful and interesting book reviewer I've encountered on youtube. Looking forward for more videos.
This book is probably one of the most significant readings of my life. I don't really have the time and words to describe it but sometimes things just click together. That's what happend to me and this book. The first volume is fantastic but A Man in Love was the book that connected the most with me: Karl Ove arrives in a new city, in a moment of his life where he is completly lost. He only has the number of a friend from early days of college called Geir and that was it: through the story there are a lot of moments where Geir and Karl Ove just talk about life and I just couldn't stop reading it. Felt like I was there with them like you can be with a close friend in a bar having a beer and just talk about anything and suddenly you realize you are actually talking about the important things in life which doesn't have to be big and exciting. I am starting the last volume now and I don't really want to get to the real end.
The conversations with Geir are great! I'm trying to remember if it was in book 2 where Karl Ove says talking with Geir is like going to confession with the Devil? And as Cliff pointed out Knausgaard needed someone to tell him to keep writing, to keep doing what he was doing, that it was good - that person was Geir. He'd write his pages for the day, then read it to Geir over the phone.
Not even 35 and already he's feeling old. I sense a great memoir coming Cliff. "The Reviewer. The stuggle of intellect and passion shared in the same place as cute cats, Minecraft and PewdiePie."
I’ve been watching this channel for quite a while and it just occurred to me, in the coffee lottery you give away the book you just reviewed. Are you buying two copies or do you not keep any of these books that you review? Are you not one of those people that likes to have their favorite books on the shelf? Why not? Are you not tempted to re-read some of these books that you have given away? Sorry if this is a question you have already answered. I’m just curious.
Great question - just buying one and sending it off. Yes, I'd love to reread them someday, but I've got a long to-read list ahead of me. I wouldn't be able to continue doing the show without the support of my Patrons, & this is an easy way to show them my appreciation. I would definitely rather give books to them than just have them sitting on my shelf. Thanks for watching!
The thing with Rimbaud is the fact that the school of literature he comes from- the "simbolist/decadentist" school- never cared to much about achieveing popularity/massivity. That's why when you read some parts of A Season in Hell or Illuminations you can't understand a thing. Perhaps, as well, cause they were opposing to realism and it's obsession with explaining absolutely everything. In a way the work on language by these writers make the language kills himself in a sort of suicide, when it's first quality (which is communication) is neutralized. Remember that phrase by Rimbaud "“I alone have the key to this savage parade”. Meaning, he's the only one who can decipher the somehow "hidden" meaning behind his poetry. Still, I've seen a review of Baudelaire in your channel and I remember you saying you liked him, so perhaps it's not that poetry doesn't work for you. Maybe it's the type of poetry. What happens with Baudelaire is that, although being a proto vanguardist and a simbolist, you can find meaning in his words. I recommend a reading of Baudelaire via Walter Benjamin (a german philosopher associated to the Frankfurt School of thought). That's a great path for loving the man.
Well, it's been another four years. You think you'll do a book 3 review sometime soon? I just finished it and I think it's the best one so far. Here's hoping :) Cheers!
Awesome! From what I gather it tends to be one of the most popular in the series, and I hope you enjoy it as well :) Thanks for the videos!@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews
I share your indifference to most poetry, but before you give up, try a few of the more well known poems of Phillip Larkin. I think he'll resonate with some of your themes.
You gotta be fucking kidding me man, I was just rewatching your book 1 review, and a lit of knausgard interviews, I've ordered the first book as a Christmas book for my father (obviously I'll read it first)...man I don't believe in coincidences no more, the universe is telling me something. Anyway thanks for the video as always, will check it out later, for now I'm just mindfucked imma start believing in chaos magic for real
I find this book the equivalent of watching paint dry. I tried three times and couldn't get past page 100. But then like six volumes??? Sorry KOK I don't care. But as always Cliff you do a fine job. Agree to disagree on this one. This one goes on my list of "Books I'd leave on a desert island.
best reading channel on the whole internet.
its true. its fantastic.
It really is. Love this channel
Shit I am so sad you moved! I lived in the metro detroit area and thought if I ever run into you id thank you for renewing my love of books! well Thanks!
I felt so bipolar about vol. 2, as a man in my early 30's I found myself so frustrated with this book. When I finished vol 5. I immediately wanted to open vol. 2 and go through it again. I found myself angry with it because I did not want to admit that I related so strongly to the struggle of raising two little girls while maintaining my own masculinity. I still feel myself naturally wanting to push just vol. 2 away because I subconsciously did not want to face my own challenges
Just finished volume 4 and have gone back to vol 1 when his mean father died, after seeing how mean he was in 3 and 4. (though apparently the dad's brother thinks Karl Ove exagerated in vol 6, which I haven't yet gotten to)
Hello!
Been watching your channel since a long time and each time one of your videos has come online has corresponded with times when I'm starting to get lost in the humdrum of life and getting away from books. Your videos have pulled me back each of those times. A huge thank you!
Really miss the older videos with longer times before edits, where I could see you thinking through what you're going to say. I completely understand the need for this format and its truly a good thing. These videos have a charm and urgency. But for me, those older videos had a different charm. But it's all excellent work, all across the board!
Keep reading, keep posting and keep making literature sound like the absolute fucking best thing in the world (dont mind the language), because in all honesty, it is.
Warmest regards from a fellow reader!
“The first volume was about dealing with death, the second is about coping with life”
I've been waiting years for this followup to the first review! reading the Min Kamp series over the last few years has been a really worthwile endeaavour, thank you for introducing me to Knausgaard.
4:03 i agree the intensity of life does dull as time goes on. usually because when we are younger everything is novel and new. but all that tells us is new experiences will keep our life vibrant as we grow older
Im feelin the new between two ferns background
oh i thought you were reading mein kampf lmao
Im so glad you got around to reviewing the 2nd volume. Reading the Min Kamp series changed my fucking life honestly
I love your commentary on books. It's honestly its own form of art and I feel like few people, if any, do it better than you.
_It wasn’t like that any longer. Alot had happened. And what had happened laid the groundwork for what could happen. Not only were the opportunities fewer, the emotions I experienced were weaker. Life was less intense, and I knew I was half way, perhaps more than half way._
There are women that make you feel as if life has only begun when you met them. They revive the experience of youth. They make it new. They make life intense. I'm pretty sure that is what the Hemingway character meant in 'Midnight in Paris' when he said to Owen, you can't be a good writer when you fear death, find a woman that makes you forget about death, and then start writing.
I'm currently reading the third book about, the one about his childhood. He's from the same region as me in Norway, so a lot of the places are familiar. It's clear that Knausgård has touched on something universal in his books
Great review as always, condensed and very articulate. Keep it up!
If you're into Norwegian literature, I would also highly recommend the Knausgård favourite "The Birds" by Tarjei Vesaas.
From California to Florida to Detroit to Texas. Man, this guy moves around.
Didn't he also use to live in Portland?
I loved the ideas you raised about how writers are now trying to rise above the narrative form as we understand it. The other day in my fiction writing class, my professor called my story an 'anecdote' for it lacking a traditional conflict, and it felt wrong to me that a story that I want to communicate truth through would use a form that is biased and deceiving. Knausgard and the increasing prevalence of nonfiction writing is paving the way for new forms, or a dissolution of form altogether.
Hi Cliff,
Great channel, big fan. Have you ever read Ivan Goncharov's novel Oblomov?
Wow what a fantastic and well-spoken video:). The simplicity and depth is so refreshing. Headed over to "Better than Friday" now!
I love Karl Ove Knausgård. Not because he is norwegian like me but I like his honest writing style.
Hey, I was wondering if you’ve read Down and Out in Paris and London? I’m reading it at the moment and I’m loving it.
great book
Second this!
Such a killer book. Jumps off the page.
Yes!!! I was expecting this review.
It is interesting to see how you have changed physically over the last few years of your posting videos.
cliff will you ever reupload your film reviews on your other channel, I enjoyed them but they've since been deleted
Great review Sarg, I should get into this one.
Beside one fern ....
New channel name :D
Great review as always
I once read the book volume 3 because I thought it was an independent novel; then I knew it was part of a series, but I didn't noticied before because in this book the story starts in his childhood, and is a master piece.
I have read all the My Struggle books twice (except book 6, which only came out last year - I've only read it once), and book 5 four times. I think they get even better as you proceed into the series: books 4 and 5 are my favorite. I enjoyed book 2, but it wasn't as gripping for me as the others. Karl Ove's editor made him add the 50 pages on his courtship with Linda - can you imagine how dark the tone of the whole book would be without that? He wrote that section in a day, if I remember correctly. I took the "Hamsun" nickname to simply be that he was an unmannered Norwegian writer, but you may have something w/ it also implying a certain conservatism.
I love this work. Read all 6. A fascinating experiment in tone and scope.
Speaking of Norwegian authors, have you ever read anything by Dag Solstad or Kjell Askildsen? Think you'd love both.
My curiosity about this series is piqued. I will be getting the first three volumes soon.
Love the review, a clockwork orange next???
Hey Cliff, I know this is somewhat out of context, but have you ever watched the movie/TV series "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (based on the Alfred Döblin novel)? If you haven't, I highly recommend it; I just finished watching it today and thought it was fantastic. Based on the kind of literature you've been reviewing here, I think you would like too.
Keep up the good work! You're definitely the most thoughtful and interesting book reviewer I've encountered on youtube. Looking forward for more videos.
h ramos absolutely incredible, profoundly twisted, dense, literary piece of filmmaking. one of the few films i would truly call a moving novel.
You're in Austin now! I live in Dallas but I love Austin. Hope you like it, it's a cool city. Lots of good bookstores and coffee shops.
Really powerful, thank you 🙏
The plant is giving me the mood of the album cover "Plowing Into The Field Of Love" by Iceage.
This book is probably one of the most significant readings of my life. I don't really have the time and words to describe it but sometimes things just click together. That's what happend to me and this book. The first volume is fantastic but A Man in Love was the book that connected the most with me: Karl Ove arrives in a new city, in a moment of his life where he is completly lost. He only has the number of a friend from early days of college called Geir and that was it: through the story there are a lot of moments where Geir and Karl Ove just talk about life and I just couldn't stop reading it. Felt like I was there with them like you can be with a close friend in a bar having a beer and just talk about anything and suddenly you realize you are actually talking about the important things in life which doesn't have to be big and exciting.
I am starting the last volume now and I don't really want to get to the real end.
The conversations with Geir are great! I'm trying to remember if it was in book 2 where Karl Ove says talking with Geir is like going to confession with the Devil? And as Cliff pointed out Knausgaard needed someone to tell him to keep writing, to keep doing what he was doing, that it was good - that person was Geir. He'd write his pages for the day, then read it to Geir over the phone.
Not even 35 and already he's feeling old. I sense a great memoir coming Cliff. "The Reviewer. The stuggle of intellect and passion shared in the same place as cute cats, Minecraft and PewdiePie."
That passage about becoming old scared the crap out of me lmao
I’ve been watching this channel for quite a while and it just occurred to me, in the coffee lottery you give away the book you just reviewed. Are you buying two copies or do you not keep any of these books that you review? Are you not one of those people that likes to have their favorite books on the shelf? Why not? Are you not tempted to re-read some of these books that you have given away? Sorry if this is a question you have already answered. I’m just curious.
Great question - just buying one and sending it off. Yes, I'd love to reread them someday, but I've got a long to-read list ahead of me. I wouldn't be able to continue doing the show without the support of my Patrons, & this is an easy way to show them my appreciation. I would definitely rather give books to them than just have them sitting on my shelf. Thanks for watching!
The thing with Rimbaud is the fact that the school of literature he comes from- the "simbolist/decadentist" school- never cared to much about achieveing popularity/massivity. That's why when you read some parts of A Season in Hell or Illuminations you can't understand a thing. Perhaps, as well, cause they were opposing to realism and it's obsession with explaining absolutely everything. In a way the work on language by these writers make the language kills himself in a sort of suicide, when it's first quality (which is communication) is neutralized. Remember that phrase by Rimbaud "“I alone have the key to this savage parade”. Meaning, he's the only one who can decipher the somehow "hidden" meaning behind his poetry. Still, I've seen a review of Baudelaire in your channel and I remember you saying you liked him, so perhaps it's not that poetry doesn't work for you. Maybe it's the type of poetry. What happens with Baudelaire is that, although being a proto vanguardist and a simbolist, you can find meaning in his words. I recommend a reading of Baudelaire via Walter Benjamin (a german philosopher associated to the Frankfurt School of thought). That's a great path for loving the man.
Please read volume 6 someday. It's his best novel by far.
Well, it's been another four years. You think you'll do a book 3 review sometime soon? I just finished it and I think it's the best one so far. Here's hoping :) Cheers!
As a matter of fact, yes, I recently bought it. Will review as soon as I can. Thanks for watching!
Awesome! From what I gather it tends to be one of the most popular in the series, and I hope you enjoy it as well :) Thanks for the videos!@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews
I was just talking to somebody yesterday about how nobody reads all six volumes of My Struggle...Could you be the one to actually do it, Cliff?
I did, 5 years ago... 😉
I share your indifference to most poetry, but before you give up, try a few of the more well known poems of Phillip Larkin. I think he'll resonate with some of your themes.
yes, for anyone that hates poetry or 'just don't get it', Larkin Hardy and Housman are places to go.
You won a brazilian subscriber
Hi, Sgt! I would highly like to recommend Till Lindemann’s poem books. Terrific and unrelenting stuff
Especially In Stille Nachten
Wow! Uncanny that you posted about this. I just started the first one.
Andy McKinney how is the books so far? Are they worth reading?
@@winstonchurchill137 I finished the first one but I don't know if I would read all six.
2:49 REVIEW STARTS HERE
Great
It's not inevitable.
😃
Just wait until you get to volume 6...
You gotta be fucking kidding me man, I was just rewatching your book 1 review, and a lit of knausgard interviews, I've ordered the first book as a Christmas book for my father (obviously I'll read it first)...man I don't believe in coincidences no more, the universe is telling me something.
Anyway thanks for the video as always, will check it out later, for now I'm just mindfucked imma start believing in chaos magic for real
WHAT! Texas. but but Detroit!
The alchemist of the ordinary...
I find this book the equivalent of watching paint dry. I tried three times and couldn't get past page 100. But then like six volumes??? Sorry KOK I don't care. But as always Cliff you do a fine job. Agree to disagree on this one. This one goes on my list of "Books I'd leave on a desert island.
Wait....You're married? I thought you were a single guy living the bachelor dream