Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Alchemist of the Ordinary
Novelists worship him. Critics fall over themselves to explain his genius. His celebrity fans say his books are like drugs. \u2018I just read 200 pages and I need the next volume like crack. It\u2019s completely blown my mind,\u2019 Zadie Smith tweeted. What they\u2019re all raving about is Karl Ove Knausgaard\u2019s bestselling series of six autobiographical novels, 'My Struggle'. The books recount in microscopic detail every aspect of Knausgaard\u2019s own life: his bullying alcoholic father, his marriages, the raising of his children. As James Wood, the literary critic at the New Yorker, has said: \u2018Many writers strive to give you the illusion of reality. Knausgaard seems to want to give his readers the reality of reality. And he achieves this. You read Knausgaard as if in real time.\u2019 What is it that makes Knausgaard\u2019s highly confessional books so addictive? What does it say about our voyeuristic urges that the minutiae of his life are so gripping? On October 29, Karl Ove Knausgaard came to the Intelligence Squared stage for an...\nSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.\n\nSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices