Norwegian Book Notes

Accompanying Books

In preparation for my trip to Norway following a week in Paris, I began reading Book 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's six book magnum opus My Struggle ( written from 2009-2011). Even though I began reading it a few months ago, I cannot recall how I decided to read the book out of order. Set in southern Norway in the 1970s, Book 3 focuses on Knausgaard's childhood.

Knausgaard is major literary figure in Scandinavia and considered so in the U.S., but he is lesser known here. His books are autobiographical novels known for candor and their wide scope. He writes about exploring his suburban neighborhood with his best friend Geir – playing soccer, swimming and getting into boyhood mischief. Young Karl Ove must also deal with his abusive father, but that drama slowly builds throughout the book.

I finished Book 3 before I left stateside and liked it enough to bring a copy of Book 2 (again, what is my problem?) where Knausgaard is a successful novelist living in Sweden but as a new father he loves his wife and young family but resents them because it takes him away from his writing.

It is unclear whether My Struggle is an autobiographical novel or a memoir, but the author is a brutally honest narrator. (George Orwell once wrote that "an autobiography is only to be trusted only when it reveals something disgraceful.") He adeptly mixes commentary about writing and culture with his banal daily routine. Geir— who also becomes a writer but not a "successful" one— summarizes Knausgaard's ability like so: "he can spend twenty pages describing a trip to the bathroom and hold his reader spellbound."

However, I did not start Book 2 until I was taking the train from Paris to Berlin to join my older daughter Cynthia before the two of us went on to Norway. On this train trip, I lost my copy of The Myth of Sisyphus, that I purchased earlier in Paris. Could I have been pickpocketed when the train broke down and I was jammed shoulder to shoulder with the soccer fans who flooded the cities and rail lines? Hosted by Germany, the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament was in full match-on mode when I overheard the police in the Cologne train station cautioning travelers to be vigilant.

Book Shops

Cynthia and I did visit "a calm bookstore with international titles" Tronsmo Bokhandel located near the University of Oslo. Not only did it have a sizeable English language book section, but the entire basement area was devoted to graphic novels and such. I inquired whether they had Albert Camus’s autobiography First Man which is available as a graphic book, but unfortunately, they did not. In First Man, Camus gives an account of growing up in poverty on the streets of Algiers. I still remember the passage when he lies to his grandmother that he lost two francs in the family latrine (he used the money to enter a soccer game), and how ashamed of himself he was when he discovers later she had fished in the excrement with her bare arm looking for the money. This is an autobiography you can trust.

I settled for Paul Beatty’s Slumberland because I needed a replacement for my alleged pickpocketed Camus book— an anecdote I invented to hide my own absentmindedness.)

Cynthia and I also spent some time in the Oslo's Deichman Municipal Library (the building is on the right side of the photo) which was completed just four years ago. The place was buzzing on a Saturday afternoon, proving once again of the Field of Dreams adage: “Build it and they will come.”

Unexpected Lit Experiences

A ferry from the across the Oslo Harbor to Bygdøy Peninsula takes you to three museums: The Norwegian Maritime Museum, The Polarship Fram Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum. The trio is huddled together and it is easy to visit all three places within a few hours.

The Fram Museum focuses the various polar expeditions including the Fram expeditions to the South Pole and the North Pole. The actual boat itself is in the museum. Part of the museum is dedicated to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) who led the expedition that was first to reach the South Pole in 1911. The museum bookshop includes many history books, but what caught my eye was a book on the wit and wisdom of Amundsen who I guess was quite a quipster despite the sour demeanor.

The Kon-Tiki Museum focuses on the journeys of Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) who intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between Peru and Polynesia. In 1947, Heyerdahl and five others followed the Pacific currents to travel for a 100 days. Heyerdahl wrote a book about it and they made a documentary about his voyage as well. I am old enough to remember all those Kon-Tiki mass market paperbacks that flooded libraries and secondhand bookshops for decades. (The profits were used to fund other adventures including explorations of Easter Island and the Galapagos.)

The original boat itself is in the museum.