My Struggle (Part 2 of 6)
A Man in Love
Part 1 of this review — A Death in the Family.
Introduction
This book picks up about a month after he publishes the first book, and he is thrown back into a family life, pushing strollers and being a father. Much different than the spiritual peaks he’d been reaching while writing his book (the first in the My Struggle series). In this instalment there isn’t a feeling like he’s confessing to something. This is more a re-telling of his life and how he met his second wife.
Themes
There are three themes that I found prominent, and I made sure they weren’t overlapping with the ones in the previous review. Death and time were still seen throughout the book, but I feel as though they don’t necessarily fit with the overall feel of the book.
These three themes I’ve chosen are: love, family, and mundanity.
Love
This theme is quite prevalent in the title: ‘A Man in Love’. Not only that, the entire book captures his feeling of falling in love. It starts with him separating from the life that he’s lived for years (leaving his wife after what I presume was an argument), and moving to Stockholm for a few weeks where he eventually stays, running into writers he has met before, which opens up stories that let us see his past.
One of my favourite parts is when Knausgaard writes about fleetingness. About a burning out of love. Like they were going at too fast a pace to maintain it. On page 291 he talks about feeling like their love has lost something. Later, on page 388, we see him slightly pull away from her, wanting to go back to writing, and then we see the reactions that ensue because of that.
Love can also drive people crazy. Knausgaard shows this when he is at the writer’s retreat, and after Linda rejects him, he proceeds to cut his face up with a piece of glass. The next day, brutally hungover with blood streaked across his face, he has to live with the shame of what he did literally etched into his face.
Family
Family is far less prevalent than the main theme ‘love’. It is more apparent through the first section of the book which is in the considered ‘present day’. They attend a party, and he and his wife, both tired, have to look over their children and keep composed enough to converse with the other adults.
He talks about in deep detail the birth of his daughter, his first child, and how that experience made him feel. He talks about the early stages of fatherhood, and all the joys that brought; the fire it ignited back into the relationship.
It is all a lot to take in being a 20 year old. A lot of these things seem too distant to imagine. But when I really think about it, the age for family is getting ever-closer.
Mundanity
Knausgaard talks about mundanity as though it is an innate part of life.
‘When you reach forty you realized all here, banal everyday life, fully forward, and it would always be unless you did something. Unless you took one last gamble.’ — pg. 431
I guess for him the gamble was writing this series, and it paid off. But there are always consequences as we can see in his real life with the pain it caused his family and now ex-wife, and the sin he feels as though he’s committed.
This theme can be seen through the opening pages of the book too. He is taking care of the kids and talking about the near-humiliation he feels as a grown man pushing a stroller. One thing that I love about Knausgaard is how brutally honest he is, regardless of what is considered ‘right’. He feels the humiliation, even though it may be deep down. These are probably feelings that a father shouldn’t be feeling, but he says it anyways.
Conclusion
To conclude I think I can say that I enjoyed this book better than the first one. It is easily one of my favourite reads of the year. Excited to start the third instalment of this monumentally long series, entitled Boyhood Island.
I must say, I love the style of these covers too.
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