My Struggle: Book Six

The full breadth and achievement of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s monumental work is evident in this final installment of My Struggle. Grappling directly with the consequences of his transgressive blurring of public and private, Book Six is an engrossing look into the mind of one of the most groundbreaking artists of our time. The final volume, building from its predecessors, vacillates between Knausgaard’s ambitions and vulnerability to create a complex portrayal of his relationships with his wife, children, and those closest to him. It is a novel that depicts life in all its realms, from the wounds inflicted from the fallout of the publication of the earlier volumes, to the emotional balm that his close friends provide, to the vivid texture of the backdrop of his days as he faces a marital crisis. Book Six is also an exploration of literature itself and of the profound – and at times startling – connection between writer and reader. Knausgaard also includes a lengthy contemplation of Hitler and his Mein Kampf, which not only directly confronts the implications of his own work’s title but feels particularly relevant (if not prescient) in our current global climate of increasing public support for authoritarianism in countries around the world. In Book Six the scope and ambition of My Struggle is fully realized.