My Struggle: Book 3 (My Struggle, 3) Paperback – April 28, 2015

Book 3 of Knausgaard six-book "autobiography" is as strong as the first two - 3 focusing on his childhood. Critiquing his books is new territory, as "My Struggle" is not a traditional autobiography in the least. (I've noticed that the big-time critics' blurbs tend to comment on "My Struggle" as a set rather than on individual volumes.) Are the details all "real," for example? Can anyone's memory be that extraordinarily complete and precise? However one answers...his books are "tediously mesmerizing." They are not for everyone - but for me they have been exquisitely hypnotic. Details pull you into his experience and keep you there: no matter what he does or describes, this reader wants to follow along, caught up in the author's every move, thought, explanation, reaction, description. The clarity of the writing is in some fashion "simple" (translated beautifully from the Norwegian) but powerful and evocative - you have to stay fixed on everything that unfolds: his rigid and unpredictable father, his generous mother, his brother, all throughout his unendingly rich imagination.This history of his struggles are not chronological, but each book deals with a segment of his life, and reads as much - far more? - like a novel as an autobiographical story, dipping so deeply into detail that the reader is within inches of being present with him. His relationships with family members and friends are explored with rich psychological meaning - but also with the kind of child-memory that gives his book/s such engagement for the reader.In some ways, My Struggle - Book 3 as well as 1 and 2 - could be seen as a vast (all six books are apparently close to 3,600 pages) confessional outpouring, a way for Knausgaard to cope with the dynamics of his less-than-cheerful life. At the same time, they have connected with readers so successfully that something like 20% or more of all Norwegians have read them! (Amazon is currently pre-selling Book 4 - in translation of course - due in May '15 I believe.) The author has also lectured/read in the United States, and his notoriety is appropriately growing.Do not expect big, blockbuster events to happen, as Knausgaard's life (historically accurate, so to speak, or 50% fictional?) is dominated by the events that happen to many of us, and that may be the key to why his books appeal to so many readers. The majority are not in the least upbeat, but they resonate deeply for those whose day-to-day events revolve around the ups and downs of family struggles, or school-day conflicts, or identity crises, or sibling hassles, or work problems. But Knausgaard takes these ongoing human activities and writes about them in such a detailed, honest, and blunt way that, while they are not always redeemed, they are transformed into the potential for meaning. These books are not enlightened by hope and sunshine - but by gray Scandinavian skies, shot through with sunbursts of occasional love and joy and euphoria, and once again subdued down by a much-too-early sunset.

I read the prior two Knausgaard books and liked them a lot though I would go through some stretches where they seemed tedious to me. This one is of his boyhood years, from when he started school up into adolescence, ending when he is 13. He lives in Norway and I was living on the US east coast during those years of my life. Yet it is truly eye opening to me, there is so much similarity. His writing sheds light on so much that I've never thoroughly revisited yet felt so strongly then and here it comes alive in my feelings now.I was not a boy much like him, yet here we share a very similar situation all through those years. And the very difference awakens me to what others must have experienced. From that comes feelings of shame at how I treated others of different makeup as well as some compassion for myself at how blind and immature I truly was. The writing must be very good because I feel so strongly for him and cringe as I read some of what befalls him. It's truly painful from time to time. Yet he goes right ahead and shrugs off the hurts and carries on with what's still good as youth can do. Yet we know that the marks are there forever.More specifically, he's in a household with an older brother, a very competent yet strict disciplinarian father, and a caring and supportive mother who is an important backstop for him yet not overtly involved nor a strong figure herself. He's fearful of his father who is consistently rough with him and cuts him no slack at all. His brother and mother are both positive influences but most of what occupies his life and feelings are his relationships with his peers. (Aren't most of us like that at that age?)In his pre-puberty years he's mostly outdoors doing things with his friends, the usual mischiefs as well as the camaraderie of sharing with the friends. Still there is the pecking orders and the self doubts and social setbacks throughout.Once the world of girls comes alive for him and his friends then it predominates. He's trying to belong and be accepted yet he's as clueless as most are at that age. Underlying it all is his sensitivity and what would commonly be called feminine characteristics (that are strengths when seen in retrospect yet get squashed). Propensity to crying is one important example.This is terrific stuff, I was most strongly engaged in the second half of the book, yet perhaps that was just my receptiveness at that time while reading. If you are a parent of a young boy or girl then you'd do well to read this. I think it is extremely important and valuable writing.