Boiler House Press, 2022
In a series of warm and often funny letters, Kim Adrian delivers a compelling feminist critique of the 6-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle, by Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard. The letters, addressed directly to Knausgaard, begin as a witty and entertaining response to a seminal work and transform over time into a fierce and powerful interrogation of the darker social and cultural forces informing Knausgaard’s project. A meta-commentary on the curious operations intimacy demanded by all great literature, Dear Knausgaard ultimately provides a heartfelt celebration of the act of reading itself.
An SPD (Small Press Distribution) bestseller.
- PRAISE -
“On display is a rigorous mind, a fiery intellect, a curious and engaged reader. Adrian brings lofty ideas—questions of attention and meaning, of the troubling permeability between inside and outside, of reality itself—down to the meat-and-feeling human level.” —The Boston Globe
"Personal, wonderfully engaged, intense but somehow simultaneously light-footed, and extremely intelligent. The brilliance of [Adrian's] feminist critique is that it acutely exposes vulnerabilities in Knausgaard's male universalism while affectionately acknowledging the scope and appeal of his inevitably gendered voice. A delight from start to finish."
—James Wood, literary critic for The New Yorker
“With an appreciation for how things actually look at a distance, not with voyeuristic hunger but only an open gaze . . . Adrian sees the interrelationship of fans and the famous.”
—Essay Daily
“Adrian [takes] on a daunting task: responding to the entirety of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle. If you’re seeking a heady, thoughtful response to a heady, thoughtful multi-volume work — well, we have a recommendation for you.”
—Vol. 1 Brooklyn
“[Adrian's] dynamic work of both literary and self-analysis will appeal to those passionate readers who have vacillated between adoring certain authors and wanting to throw their books across the room.”
—Publisher's Weekly
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