Knausgaard at his darkest, and most sluggish.
A photography student strikes a deal with, perhaps, the Devil.
Knausgaard’s acclaimed six-volume autofiction epic, My Struggle (2012-2018), inevitably drew accusations of extreme narcissism for the author. But the Karl Ove character conjured up in those books was defined by his ordinariness; this bleak, somewhat overstuffed novel truly is a portrait of self-absorption. Kristian Hadeland is an aspiring art photographer who, in 1985, has left his native Norway to study in London. Disdainful of his teachers’ criticism of his work, he decides to cut his own path, often in troubling ways; for instance, he attempts to boil a dead cat down to its bones in his apartment for the sake of a vague photo project. After cutting off contact with his parents in a fit of pique, his sole friend is Hans, a mysterious Dutch expat working as a stage designer for a production of Doctor Faustus. And this novel is essentially the Faust tale with a modern spin, following Kristian’s path after the Mephistophelian Hans befriends him, pivoting on an altercation between Kristian and a homeless man who dies after they tussle over a cigarette lighter. Hans has pulled some levers to help Kristian escape a manslaughter charge, freeing him to pursue photo-world glory. But at what cost? Many familiar Knausgaardian elements are at play here: Granular explorations of youth and art-making, philosophizing on religion, a scatological detour. But the author is more concerned with ethics than in his previous books, and this novel is overly bulky for the kind of straightforward morality play it imagines. It also asks the reader to spend a lot of time with a profoundly unlikeable young Kristian, who repetitively bemoans how every career opportunity is beneath him and that family and women are drags on artistic greatness. As in the Faust story, comeuppance arrives, but it takes a while.
Knausgaard at his darkest, and most sluggish.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593832806
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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