Karl Ove Knausgaard and Stephen Grosz in conversation, May 2014

‘I would rather shoot myself than have therapy. It’s part of growing up in Norway in the 1970s; you don’t cry and you don’t complain’ Karl Ove Knausgaard, Evening Standard
In May 2014, the Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop arranged for Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of the My Struggle novels, to meet in conversation with Stephen Grosz, author of The Examined Life and renowned psychoanalyst.
The two men discuss death, intimacy, art, controversy, Bruce Springsteen and more with riveting candour and insight.
Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3 and The Examined Life are both published by Vintage and available now.
Audio: / karl-ove-knausgaard-an...
vintage-books.co.uk
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[@CHIPIONES]

There are many great writers throughout our history. And there is Karl Ove Knausgard, he is for me the great writer of my time .

[@avsamali379]

His book is the only one that drove me to watch interviews, book reviews. He has a way with words that not often many people can capture. To me, he ranks among one of the greatest writers of all time

[@ameliefrenken]

The perfect interviewer, critical and thorough.

[@benjaminbjrklund743]

The finest interview of Karl Ove

[@fe12rrps]

This is a really great discussion. Can the interviewer please interview more? He’s very good.

[@roksi2210]

He is not just an interviewer. He is a writer too, and psychoanalyst...

[@equillibria]

I don't know anything about the Norwegian author, but he has really kind eyes.

[@nataschaspiera7693]

his eyes are speaking

[@schulsozialarbeiterstefans5719]

for knausgard writing meant conquering the world a second time, stating ' look this all belongs to me it's me who discovers all this. i won't have it ruined again' . who needs fiction if he can have knausgard?!

[@AlineBei]

lovely.

[@johnwaynesmom]

get karl some more water, damn

[@jandrewscali]

So interesting to watch this from the perspective of 2023! Did Karl Ove just get psychoanalyzed by the interviewer? What would the interviewer think of "Wolves of Eternity"?

[@joek6729]

i thought the first session went quite well :)

[@estebanmejia3473]

14:03

[@ameliefrenken]

Well you may write about others, but by doing so you create this image of people and the reader forms a judgement out of this image. That may be hurtful.

[@christopherthorpe6749]

Stephen Grosz is by far and away the worst interviewer of Knausgaard, I have seen. If you weren't traumatised when you went to see him he would make sure you believed you had been at some point by the time you left. When Grosz says: 'there can be guilt from becoming a celebrity' and 'when we write there is aggression'...