Why would anyone invest a large percentage of their reading time in Knausgaard’s 3600-page novel? Is it worth it? I started reading it because I was curious about this Norwegian writer’s experiment with a new form of writing, which emphasizes frankness, speed, quantity, and courage. I continued reading because he has the capacity and the large canvass to explore big questions about art, society, and relationships. Instead of inventing characters and scenes like other novelists, he examines his own life as if it were in a Petri Dish. His novel records a kind of data we’ve never seen before.
Knausgaard, Karl Ove. My Struggle, vol. 6. Archipelago Books, 2018. p. 237