My Struggle (Knausgård novels)

in 2012. My Struggle is a six-book autobiographical series by Karl Ove Knausgård outlining the "banalities and humiliations of his life", his private pleasures, and his dark thoughts; the first of the series was published in 2009. In 2014 it had sold nearly 500,000 copies in Norway, or one copy for every nine Norwegian adults, and was published in 22 languages. The series is 3,600 pages long, and was finished when Knausgård was in his forties. Though categorized as fiction, the books situate Knausgård as the protagonist and his actual relatives as the cast, with their names mostly unchanged. The books have led some of his relatives to make public statements against their inclusion in Knausgård's novels. == History ==

As he struggled to write a novel about his relationship with his father, Knausgård set upon a new project in early 2008: to write less stylistically and deliberately, and instead to "write plainly about his life". In writing the first book, Knausgård reflected that he did not consider the consequences of writing so candidly about his close relations until he paused on the passage about his grandmother. He circulated the first book to about ten of the largest figures in the book before its release and offered to change their names. His brother and mother did not object, but Knausgård's father's family attempted legal intervention and wanted to block publication, calling the novel "a book full of insinuations, untruths, false personal characteristics and disclosures". Knausgård was scared but fixed some errors, changed some names, removed a single person, and published the book without acquiescing to all requests. He later acknowledged that he had a choice and chose to publish "no matter what", and referred to this admission of guilt as "cowardly". Knausgård's wife relapsed into depression upon reading his first book. He added that he had published the book in desperation, and would be unable to do so again now. Knausgård had finished two volumes when the first book was released. He had been planning to finish the six volumes within the year, preferring to work under harsh deadlines to combat his writer's block. The book's release began a media frenzy as reporters tracked down the novel's characters, which was simple because his family were the only Knausgårds in Norway. Knausgård went into hiding and shut out the media exposure to write daily. Working almost all day aside from chauffeuring his kids, he could write 20 pages in a day. The 50-page section on his first days with his wife was written in a 24-hour spurt. Knausgård felt that the third through fifth volumes suffered under the influence of the ongoing controversy of the original publication. He wrote the 550-page fifth book in eight weeks. The sixth book has a 400-page essay on Hitler's early life and autobiography. He wanted "unsparing honesty" in the last book "to save the project", and so discarded 400 pages, delayed the book, and wrote about the fallout from the publication of the previous five volumes, including a breakdown suffered by his wife during which she was hospitalized. Knausgård described his portrayal of his wife as "the most painful thing" he has done. His wife, although hurt by portions of the series, did not ask for it to be rewritten and has publicly taken his side. Though he wrote at the end of his series that he is finished with writing, he plans to write a new and fantastical novel not about his life, influenced by Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. == Themes ==

Though the book's protagonist is conflicted between his commonplace needs and his longing to make monumental art, the novels reveal his life to be centered around family and relationships, not his work. ==Titles==

The books have different titles depending on country and translation. The original titles in the native Norwegian are Min kamp. Første bok, Min kamp. Andre bok, etc., which directly translate to "My struggle. First book", "My struggle. Second book", etc. The Norwegian first edition cover designs made use of figures: "Min kamp 1", "Min kamp 2", etc., whereas covers of a more recent edition spell out the numerals. Multiple translations have simply kept the numbered title system. The first volume in English was published under various titles such as My Struggle: Book One and A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1. The second volume was published as My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love and A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2. The third volume was published as Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3. The fourth volume was published as Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4. The fifth volume was published as Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book 5. The sixth and final volume was published as The End: My Struggle Book 6. The title of the series, of both the English translation and the original Norwegian, is a reference to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Knausgård, in interviews, "has argued that a frightening characteristic that connects Mein Kampf to the writings of Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Utøya massacre, is that in the mind behind both texts there seems to be an 'I' and a 'we' but no 'you,' reflecting a dangerous blindness that allowed an otherwise impossible evil." The sixth book of the series includes a meditation on Breivik's attacks. The title of the first volume of the German translation is , which means "to die" or "dying", the second volume , meaning "to love" and so on. At the insistence of the publisher, the work was not published as Mein Kampf in Germany. Knausgård says that he understood and did not protest against this decision. == Reception ==

The New Republic Evan Hughes wrote that Knausgård's followers feel like he writes about them, that the book is "like opening someone else's diary and finding your own secrets". In a review of Book 2: A Man in Love in The New York Times, Leland de la Durantaye called the My Struggle series "breathtakingly good" and compared it to Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. In a review of Book 3: Boyhood Island in the Times Literary Supplement, Thomas Meaney reflected on the differences between Proust and Knausgård, and wrote about the philosophy behind the Min Kamp books. Joshua Rothman notes in his article in The New Yorker that "In previous volumes, we’ve watched a younger Karl Ove struggle to absorb his father’s dark energies. In the new volume, his dad is no longer abusive." However, in an interview with Andrew O’Hagan, Knausgård has said that writing My Struggle has not helped him in conquering his fear of his father. Frenchculture.org website noted that, even though Knausgård was called the "Norwegian Proust", the first volume sold very few copies in France, probably because the strong French tradition of autofiction makes the book look less original than it appears in the US. Liesl Schillinger further explains the uniqueness in Knausgård's writing for even his own culture, stating in her Wall Street Journal profile piece: :"No other Norwegian writer had dared such full disclosure. France has a tradition of autobiographical fiction, and memoir is common in the United States but not in Scandinavia." Lorin Stein observes: :"Norwegians say that the confessional instinct is so culturally alien to them that it was, in a funny way, useful to him." As Knausgaard sees it, "There was a threshold for writing about real people, and it was shockingly open. That was very important to me, it gave me courage." Knausgård has been criticized over the way he exposes other people in the book. A girlfriend he had for four years, anonymized under the name «Gunvor» in the fifth volume, said to the newspaper Bergens Tidende: "It was as if he said: Now I'm going to punch you in the face. I know it's going to hurt, and I will drive you to the hospital afterwards. But I'm going to do it anyway." ==Theatrical adaptation==

A theatrical adaptation of My Struggle into a Swedish language play entitled "Min Kamp" was premiered in The House of Culture (Stockholm) on 29 August 2015, adapted for the stage and directed by Ole Anders Tandberg. The play was premiered in Kristiansand on 2 September 2016 in Norwegian language and performed at the Oslo Nye Centralteatret from 11 October 2016 running until 29 October 2016. The play successively toured various Norwegian theatres before returning to Oslo in December. ==Audiobooks==

All six volumes of "My Struggle" were voiced as audiobooks by award-winning actor and narrator Edoardo Ballerini to popular and critical acclaim. Ballerini's recordings were the subject of feature pieces in The Guardian, "Narrator of 133 Hour Audiobook on His Evolving Art," the Norwegian magazine Aftenposten, "Knausgård's American Voice," and featured prominently in a New York Times profile of the actor titled "The Voice of God... and Knausgaard, Whitman, Machiavelli..." Recorded Books produced the series. == In popular culture ==

The X-Files episode "My Struggle" was directly influenced by Knausgård's novel. In ''You're the Worst'', the protagonist, novelist Jimmy Shive-Overly, is frequently seen reading the series. In the 2018 film Private Life, Richard Grimes, played by Paul Giamatti, holds up a copy of My Struggle and says, “Don’t knock denial. You have to have denial, or else you end up like this guy.” In the 2025 film Pillion, the protagonist Ray, played by Alexander Skarsgård, reads a copy of My Struggle on the sofa while the other protagonist Colin attempts to have a discussion about the boundaries of their relationships. ==Awards and honors==

• 2009 Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, nominated for Volume 1 • 2009 Norwegian Booksellers' Prize, nominated for Volume 1 • 2009 Youth Critics' Prize, nominated for Book 1 • 2009 Brage Prize for Book 1. • 2010 International Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for Book 1 • 2012 Believer Book Award, nominated for Book One • 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, longlisted for Book 1 • 2014 Best Translated Book Award shortlist for My Struggle: Book Two, translated from the Norwegian to English by Don Bartlett • 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, shortlisted for Book 2 • 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, longlisted for Book 3 == References ==