|
Welcome earthlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month 2011: January: John Keats, Endymion Febuary/March: Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote April: Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly May: Richard A. Knaak - Diablo #1: Legacy of Blood June: Pamela Britton - On The Move July: Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep August: Louis L'Amour - Bendigo Shafter September: Ian Fleming - Moonraker October: Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes November: John Ringo - Ghost December: James Branch Cabell - Jurgen 2012: January: G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday Febuary: M. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage March: Joseph Heller - Catch-22 April: Zack Parsons - Liminal States May: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood June: James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man July: William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch August: William Faulkner - The Sound & The Fury September/October: Leo Tolstoy - War & Peace November: David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas December: Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night 2013 January: Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Liebowitz Febuary: Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination March: Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains Of The Day April: Don Delillo - White Noise May: Anton LeVey - The Satanic Bible June/July: Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell August: Michael Swanwick - Stations of the Tide September: John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids October: Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House November: Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory December: Roderick Thorp - Nothing Lasts Forever 2014: January: Ursula K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness February: Mikhail Bulgalov - Master & Margarita March: Richard P. Feynman -- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! April: James Joyce -- Dubliners May: Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- 100 Years of Solitude June: Howard Zinn -- A People's History of the United States July: Mary Renault -- The Last of the Wine August: Barbara Tuchtman -- The Guns of August September: Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice October: Roger Zelazny -- A Night in the Lonesome October November: John Gardner -- Grendel December: Christopher Moore -- The Stupidest Angel 2015: January: Italo Calvino -- Invisible Cities Current:My Struggle: Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard. About the Author Karl Ove Knausgård (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈkɑɭ ˈuːvə ˈknæʉsˌgɔɖ]; born 6 December 1968) is a Norwegian author, known for six autobiographical novels, titled My Struggle (Min Kamp).[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Ove_Knausg%C3%A5rd Discussion, Questions & Themes: Please let's stick to the English title otherwise I'm gonna get freaked out. Apparently this is six books? We're just reading the first one. Y'all picked this one so y'all talk about it. Pacing No pacing or spoiler rules this month especially since it's a short month and I've gotten the thread up late (sorry!) Final Note: If you have any suggestions to change, improve or assess the book club generally, please PM or email me -- i.e., keep it out of this thread -- at least until into the last five days of the month, just so we don't derail discussion of the current book with meta-discussion. I do want to hear new ideas though, seriously, so please do actually PM or email me or whatever, or if you can't do either of those things, just hold that thought till the last five days of the month before posting it in this thread. Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book!
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2015 16:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 23:13 |
|
|
Each translated volume has an alternate English title, and you could always just change the thread name to A Death in the Family, if you're really that worried. Only echoing what I said in the WDYJF thread: I enjoyed it a lot. There's very little in the way of Norwegian peculiarities (aside from maybe the mentions of food -- do Scandinavians really eat that much bread?), so it came as a sort of comfort to read through the banality of Karl Ove's boyhood and early career as a writer. Like a lot of online reviews have said, it felt like cracking open the diary of a long-lost friend. Can't for the life of me understand why his father's family would take issue with the book (maybe the later installments are more scandalous), because I didn't find anything at all damning by the time I finished.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2015 16:55
|
|
|
I started reading the first book a while ago but never finished, hopefully this'll serve as some motivation. Mira posted:
Like I said I never finished the first book but I'm living in Sweden and I don't think Swedish culture is that different from Norwegian but I'd say Scandinavians eat a lot less bread than Americans. Here people have bread at breakfast and maybe as a snack but almost never for lunch or as a complete meal.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2015 00:32
|
|
|
Just started reading. I don't know how good the translation is, but the norwegian prose is really good. I can confirm that norwegians eat a lot of bread, at least I do.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2015 19:48
|
|
|
Mira posted:(aside from maybe the mentions of food -- do Scandinavians really eat that much bread?) Bread is a staple food in these parts. Many of us eat bread daily, and maybe even more than once a day, such as breakfast, lunch, on the side with soup, as a snack in the evening, etc. Its also commonly served in ceremonies like weddings, funerals, and so on. I haven't read the books, but I will presume that whatever Knausgård mentions about bread will be pretty accurate.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2015 10:53
|
|
|
Has Knausgard ever said why he picked such a loaded title?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2015 02:54
|
|
|
Fun fact: The German edition of the book was titled "Sterben" (zu sterben = to die). Translating the title directly would be of course be unthinkable.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2015 21:58
|
|
|
cloudchamber posted:Has Knausgard ever said why he picked such a loaded title? I found this video interview -- he discusses the title in the first few minutes (I timestamped it at 1 minute 38 seconds) and admits that it was intentional. If you don't want to watch the video: He wanted to explore some kind of dialectical relationship between something that he considers 'pure ideology' (Hitler's Mein Kampf) and the mundanity of everyday living. Sounds pretty half-baked when I read it out like that, but I think he executes it fairly well in the first book. Apparently Book 6 of the series has a 400-page essay discussing Hitler's life.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2015 22:26
|
|
|
Before I even realized "oh poo poo isn't that the title of Hitler's book" I assumed it was just an ironic way to frame a meticulous chronicling of an ordinary life as a heroic epic
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2015 00:28
|
|
|
Wrapped this up today and I really liked it. Reminded a bit of the Rabbit Series by Updike. The prose was totally on point in the Don Bartlett translation. The US title of Death in The Family is obviously a much better indication of what you're getting yourself into. I'd love to get my hands on the second book. In the meantime I'm going to dig into some Proust and keep the nostalgia train going.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2015 08:55
|
|
|
The weirdest part about these books for me was the realisation that I [used to] hang out in most of the same places Knausgård did when he was a student. Like, jesus christ is there overlap
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 17:13
|
|
|
V. Illych L. posted:The weirdest part about these books for me was the realisation that I [used to] hang out in most of the same places Knausgård did when he was a student. Like, jesus christ is there overlap I was reading a Kent Haruf novel recently where he describes a student apartment building in Fort Collins and I was suddenly like "Oh poo poo, I lived there."
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2015 19:22
|
|
|
Oh crap, time flies. We already need suggestions for next month!
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 16:36
|
|
|
First time I've ever made a suggestion so feel free to shoot me down, but people seem to be talking a lot about Knut Hamsun in the forums, so I'm throwing in a vote for Hunger.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 16:51
|
|
|
Mira posted:First time I've ever made a suggestion so feel free to shoot me down, but people seem to be talking a lot about Knut Hamsun in the forums, so I'm throwing in a vote for Hunger. That's actually what I was thinking also, for the same reason (but still open to other suggestions). I've got a copy on my kindle I've been meaning to start reading for years now, and it would keep our vaguely Nazi-related theme going for two months running!
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 16:53
|
|
|
Started reading this yesterday, about 100 pages in now. I was skeptical at first, but I'm really liking it. I'm not seeing much of the oft-mentioned banality here, to be honest. Yes, the things he goes through are things all of us have been through, but it doesn't necessarily make them banal. The way Knausgaard describes them makes them something more than a friend's diary or blog. The style is very clear, almost transparent, but it's all about choosing the moments off one's life to focus on, and he does that great so far. Also, in the beginning part there were a few scenes that I think were left there as a sort of a 'key' to the whole enterprise. The discussion of death and the meaninglessness of it as seen on the TV screen - which is literally what the narrator sees in the beginning - is a big clue to answer the 'why' question. He wants to make his life meaningful by taking it to other peoples' homes, in all its minute glories and pains. Then there's the discussion of his face in the mirror that dissolves in Rembrandt's self-portrait - the greatest of his work according to Knausgaard, the narrator. Once again, to me it implies explaining himself and Min Kamp project. Rembrandt died that year, but he left his 'essence' that has withstood the pressure of centuries, and there's no goal bigger than that.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 18:45
|
|
|
I could go for Hunger. I've been really busy, so I haven't had a chance to read that much yet. Still, I'm really enjoying it. I grew up in a place close to where Knausgård grew up, and it's pretty much like reading about one of my classmates, the situations are really familiar.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 18:58
|
|
|
It doesn't have to be next month, but since so many people are trying Stravinsky's challenge it'd probably be a good idea to make The Blind Owl book of the month at some point. edit: oh crap, it's been book of the month already.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 19:08
|
|
|
Two months with Norwegian authors as BOTM picks feels pretty sweet. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2015 19:10
|
|
|
I think Hunger is a great choice. I'd definitely haunt the thread and point out some of the references to other Scandinavian authors that Hamsun sneaks in to the text. Which translation would you be recommending? There's a bit of difference in quality between some of them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 03:40
|
|
|
Hedningen posted:I think Hunger is a great choice. I'd definitely haunt the thread and point out some of the references to other Scandinavian authors that Hamsun sneaks in to the text. Please recommend us some translations, I have no idea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 04:20
|
|
|
theres no way im going to read that book. there is zero chance of me reading any of these books, op!
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 05:23
|
|
|
i did read white noise, but im trying to figure out how to completely forget it, out of spite, op
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 05:28
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Please recommend us some translations, I have no idea. The Lyngstad translation is the best. Bly's translation is all right, but mixes up a few key points in the novel - while the geography is kept slightly vague, there's a definite topography to Hunger that gets harder to follow in the older translation. And avoid the translation by Egerton - it censors and omits a lot of stuff that's kinda crucial to the text. Overall, I've taught to both the Bly and Lyngstad translations, but Lyndgstad is better for when people are reading in a mixed Norwegian/English reading group. The only benefit to the Egerton translation is that you can get it for free, but it's not worth it. A lot of early translations of Scandinavian texts got hit hard by the censors back in the day, which is especially hilarious when you consider that one of the major points of the Modern Breakthrough (the most important literary period people never seem to know about) is that open discussion of topics like sexuality and social issues in literature is the only way to prevent literature from dying. Someday, I will finish my translation of Den Bergtagna to right some of those wrongs. EDIT: Not to try and influence the choice, but I prepped a nice effortpost for the circumstances surrounding the literary climate of Scandinavia during the period and part of what Hamsun was doing when he wrote Hunger, to hopefully add some historical context to the novel. Hedningen fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Feb 21, 2015 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2015 05:42
|
|
|
Would anyone be interested in maybe doing a hot of the presses book sometime? I Am Radar is coming out tomorrow and it might be cool sometime to go into a book without any cultural or historical expectations
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 4, 2024 23:13 |
|
|
Just finished it. The main point of contention about the books in Norway has been the way Knausgård describes the other people in his family. Personally, I'm divided on the isssue. While is father is obviously a dick, it doesn't really seem fair to not give him a chance to defend himself. In My Struggle 1, most of the people that are portrayed in a controversial manner were dead at the time of writing, so how his father or grandmother would have reacted is anyones guess. However, "Uncle Gunnar" tried to stop My Struggle 1 from being published. Uncle Gunnar wrote to norwegian newspaper VG at the time of publication of My Struggle 6:Uncle Gunnar posted:After all these books, he wants the readers to feel sorry for him and his compatriots. Throughout the books he places the blame on other people: They're the bad guys that want to hurt him. The writer believes that he can write whatever he wants without consequence, and then cry about the reactions he gets afterwards. Half-assedly translated by me, the full text in Norwegian here: http://www.vg.no/nyheter/meninger/hilsen-fra-onkel-gunnar/a/10031566/ What do you think? Is there a limit for what it's acceptable to write about other people without their consent?
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2015 21:25
|
|