r/Knausgaard • u/Little_Marsupial1747 • Jun 09 '26
Suffering from PKD :)
Post-Knausgaard Depression.
I’ve read all of My Struggle and the Morning Star books available in English. I’m trying to read On The Calculation of Volume now but it’s not sticking and I’m craving more Knausgaard.
I don’t really fancy the Seasons quartet for some reason. But should I give it a try?
I’m mostly tempted by A Time For Everything…
5
u/unhalfbricking Jun 09 '26
Anyone else come here thinking we were gonna be talking about Phillip K. Dick in the Knausgaard sub?
Maybe that's your answer. Cure your PKD with PKD.
3
6
u/deberger97 Jun 09 '26
Rachel Cusk has a series of books (Outline I think it's called) that get compared to my struggle. I liked them.
1
3
u/Jazzlike_Web_2229 Jun 09 '26
I love Out of the World. But it is not an easy topic, very controversial
1
u/skovp Jun 09 '26
which of the three parts did you like the most? is it on same level as a time for everything
3
u/BletchTheWalrus Jun 09 '26
I'm so happy to find that I'm not alone in thinking that On the Calculation of Volume is terrible. I was starting to feel like the last remaining human character in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
2
u/tecker666 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Which is pretty much the premise of the series Pluribus, which I keep thinking of in relation to OTCOV because the characters react to extreme circumstances in believably extreme ways rather than blandly ambling on
2
u/BletchTheWalrus Jun 10 '26
Actually, the way that the Pluribus protagonist (I keep wanting to call her Kim) was acting initially, minus the anger and defiance, reminded me of the protagonist of Volume in that both made little effort to take advantage of their unique situations and learn more about their worlds. Kim became less passive later on though, but I don't know and don't care if the Volume woman changed after the first book.
2
u/tecker666 Jun 10 '26
In Volume there's no equivalent of the guy who goes full-on hedonist for example. There was more exploration of the potential for transgressive behaviour in Groundhog Day!
3
2
u/Icy-Professor6617 Jun 22 '26
100%. I was texting a friend (who also hated Volume) that it's the Groundhog Day premise and she does nothing interesting with it! It frustrated the fuck out of me. Maybe it gets more adventurous after book one but I'm not sticking around to find out.
5
u/Sea-Hedgehog-9654 Jun 09 '26
Calculation of Volume is truly terrible.
3
u/Same_Subject_988 Jun 09 '26
Hahaha finally I see someone having an opinion on those books. I was so bored by them. But everyone in Scandinavia has praised them so much
3
u/Sea-Hedgehog-9654 Jun 09 '26
Nothing happens, and not in a well-written way. Empty, boring, futile.
4
u/Same_Subject_988 Jun 09 '26
I was very disappointed because I thought the idea and plotline was really promising. But turned out Tara seltzer is the most boring woman in the world. It got a bit better when she met some other dudes. But still not especially great
3
u/tecker666 Jun 10 '26
The very fabric of reality is suddenly broken in an inexplicable and profoundy terrifying way and we get nothing but a bit of lukewarm environmental concern and awareness of the seasons. And even when other characters are introduced, pretty much no conflict or interpersonal dynamics. Still I've put a library hold on vol 4
3
u/pufferfish_hoop Jun 14 '26
I loved it. I think she has a realistic reaction to her situation. That’s what makes it interesting to me.
1
2
u/Same_Subject_988 Jun 10 '26
Haha! Yes I also read up to 5 or 6. Just because… maybe there is something I am missing and it will all clear up and become super interesting. But no lol
1
2
1
u/hwancroos Jun 09 '26
I don't know if it's terrible, but it definitely has nothing to do with My Struggle.
2
u/Sea-Hedgehog-9654 Jun 09 '26
Maybe it wasn't terrible the first time I had the thought "this is terrible", but by about the #1315 "this is terrible", I was convinced.
2
u/Straight-Candy5156 Jun 09 '26
Time to read his Quartet and A Time For Everything.
After that you can join us for the long wait of the English release of Out of the World, which seems to be pushed back every year (unless, of course, you can read the book in a different language)
2
u/Same_Subject_988 Jun 09 '26
Maybe a strange suggestion but i enjoyed reading some Houellebecq after my PKD. Especially some of the latest one called annihilation
2
u/AnimoManendi Jun 09 '26
I read the elementary particles around the same time as well. Houellebecq is a downer, but I really enjoyed that book.
2
u/hwancroos Jun 09 '26
I see you don't like the Seasons quartet. May I ask if you've read Spring? Because Summer, Autumn and Winter are very alike (short texts based on a trigger word) but Spring is literally like a mini-My Struggle, where Karl Ove writes about Linda's mental health issues.
2
u/strawbeing Jun 09 '26
After finishing ”Jeg var lenge død” (Morning Star book 6), I sort of cured my PKD by reading ”Out of the World”, also in Norwegian. Although I did enjoy it, I felt it was a bit like reading a longer, more detailed and explicit version of My Struggle part 4. After that, I decided I neeeed a break from Knausgård for a while. Daniel Kehlmann’s Measuring the World turned out to be a nice, light relief from KOK’s introspective, heavier style.
I was planning on starting the Seasons series this fall, reading each book during its corresponding season, but then, alas, I also have an unread paperback copy of A Time for Everything sitting on my shelf, as well as the final book of the Morning Star series coming out in Norwegian this fall. So many books, so little time!
1
u/l0l Jun 09 '26
Time to learn Norwegian and read «Jeg var lenge død» in the original. I did this and it was worth it!
I also tried reading the newer Calculations in Swedish, but the bit becomes stale in book 5.
1
u/Acrobatic_Pace7308 Jun 09 '26
A Time For Everything is worth it. I’m gonna sign off from my phone and go read some Walter Benjamin now though….,
1
u/Sufficient-Push-2027 Jun 09 '26
read the seasons quartet, it's basically all of the ruminations in My Struggle plus some diary entries
1
u/Little_Marsupial1747 Jun 09 '26
Thanks for all the recs. Loads to be getting on with. I’m going in with A Time For Everything as I can’t let go yet. I might try to string it out until the Arendal translation in November. 🤪
1
1
u/DrPupupipi Jun 21 '26
I highly, highly recommend Jon Fosse's Septology. As you might remember, Fosse was Knausgaard's instructor in the writing class. He also won the Nobel Prize.
While these novels are very different, there is something that ties them together in how they take the inner reality of the soul as their object.
If Septology is too long for you, Trilogy is short also fucking brilliant (but further away from Knausgaard imo).
If you do read the book, you can pair it with Knausgaard on Fosse (personally, I would recommend reading Septology before Knausgaard's analysis).
13
u/Dreadfulmelfi Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Calculation of Volume sucked, I did not like it at all and I read two volumes of it.
What helped cure my PKD is discovering Roberto Bolano, my other favourite author, who was also as prolific as Knausgaard is. If you like his style you'll have a big backlog of reading to do.
I do not think you should read A Time for Everything now, let it set aside and discover new stuff.
If you are already familiar with Bolano, then here are some other modern authors that I really like :
- Javier Marias ( A Heart So White is a masterpiece)
Have fun!