jakewelch • read

1/24/2025–2/17/2025 – The Morning Star is a real page turner. 666 pages long (I see what you did there, Karl Ove) and yet a breeze to read. I really enjoyed the blend of personal narratives and characters, sometimes connecting with each other, sometimes only relating to each other thematically. I did have to return, occasionally, to previous chapters to remember who someone was, but by the end I was following along no problem. It's obvious this book was an excuse for the author to explore ideas of death and the afterlife, the final chapter literally being an essay on death under the name of one of the characters we followed throughout the book, (and I confess I did not enjoy it nor did I want it to be the final note to end on, especially after some of the exciting chapters leading up to it prior.) The style of predominant personal narrative with supernatural woven in was both fun and mysterious. I'm left with so many questions that I hope will be addressed in Wolves of Eternity and the Third Realm, but something tells me he'll cover a lot of the same ground while leaving the mysteries open-ended. Regarding the narratives of the characters, they almost all felt familiar to how Karl Ove Knausgaard writes about himself in "My Struggle". It felt like, in many ways, seeing his worst thoughts and feelings about himself leeching out into his characters. Many times I thought "very few people are this insecure and afraid to appear weak, that's a you thing, Karl Ove". Also, everyone is such an alcoholic, I can't believe the amount of drinks all these characters are putting away, Jesus. Anyway, I really really enjoyed this and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series sometime later this year. Knausgaard is a reliable pleasure-read author for me now and I find his style approachable and relatable. I give this a strong 4 stars.