A review by ellist
The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Knausgård has an almost supernatural ability to portray complex people with their own inner lives. Because of the multiple narrators and first person perspective, we are essentially rocketed into the inner worlds of a variety of people, most with the worst coping skills you’ve ever seen and almost no self awareness. This makes The Morning Star’s characters almost painfully human, and while you feel like you’re always one step ahead of them in understanding where the narrative is headed, it’s a real treat to stumble your way towards the afterworld with them. 

Favorite quote: “Death similarly was taken from the cave and out into the forest, out of the darkness and into the light, where it appears to us as it is: a slight fissure in a blood vessel in the brain, a few microscopic bacteria in the bloodstream, a tiny cell beginning to multiply in the pancreas. What is happening here is death is becoming smaller and smaller, and so compelling has this development been that it is no longer inconceivable that death at some point will reach its nadir and vanish.“ -640-1