A Man in Love

This is the second volume of Knausgaard's autofictional epic novel My Struggle, dealing with the trials and tribulations of his life during his relationship with his wife, Linda, and their three children. As with Book 1, I very much appreciated Knausgaard's lucidity and honesty when assessing not only others and the Swedish bourgeois community as a whole, but himself and his own shortcomings. The result is a portrait of a man who comes away looking frankly pathetic, having multiple petty crises of masculinity and a deep desire for solitude that seems mostly motivated by his own unhappiness as a husband and father. Knausgaard's feelings about himself and those around him often ring true as thoughts and feelings I've had myself but didn't have the personal fortitude to acknowledge. I have to admire the bravery it takes to write a novel so self-effacing. Knausgaard's honesty in assessing his own feelings leads to some hilarious moments throughout the novel in which this taciturn, self-serious man suffers greatly through such “emasculating” activities as attending a child's birthday party, taking his children to the park or, my personal favorite, attending a “Rhythm Time” activity with his infant daughter. This serves as an entertaining prelude to a good deal of sobering introspection about love and fatherhood, the pain of being in a relationship that has lost its initial flame of passion and the mind-numbing drudgery of the daily routines of a parent. I was receptive to Knausgaard's critiques of secular, materialistic, hypocritically liberal Sweden as being on some level spiritually empty and soul-crushing, but I also believe that Knausgaard's unhappiness isn't a function of his environment but rather his own self-hatred and difficulty coming to terms with his upbringing. Ultimately, despite some slower sections towards the end, I was really moved by this novel and am looking forward to continuing the series with a look at Knausgaard's early childhood in Book 3.