The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
When The Morning Star was published in the UK almost two years ago, I felt a mixture of excitement and reticence. I had gobbled up his My Struggle series, finding Knausgaard’s unrepressed honesty about his life and family/friends, and his ability to imbue even the most mundane tasks with suspense, thrilling. But then I had started his subsequent Seasons series, and could not find the same excitement in his unironic descriptions of everyday objects. He had said he was writing the series for his daughter for when she was old enough to read, but some of the topics (oral sex) also seemed a little off to discuss with small children. I probably abandoned the book too early; some of the subsequent entries I’ve read have been charming and moving, Knausgaard’s love for his daughter - and all of his children - apparent. I will go back to The Seasons quartet.
But the other reason why I hesitated before reading The Morning Star was because it was labelled as a sci fi book by those who label literature. I waited two years before reading The Morning Star. Then I was commissioned The Wolves of Eternity, the follow up to The Morning Star to review for The Spectator - the review will hopefully be published shortly after the book in October or November 2023 - and I was enthralled by it. I won’t say anymore about Wolves here - it would be bad form to do so before The Speccy piece is published, any case, it’s under embargo.
The first thing to say is that it is not kind of book you need to read with the suspension of belief that is required for sci fi. Some sci-fi is sophisticated, nuanced,and intelligent, but the genre is also populated by trashy and implausible books, films and TV programmes that would bore the average eight year-old.
No, both The Wolves…and The Morning Star work by embedding you in the daily lives of thoroughly believable characters. And because you get to know them so intimately, from the details of their marital lives to their longings and beliefs, you can feel their trepidation when their very ordinary lives are sometimes interrupted by events that make you twitch. Each of them is living an ordinary life until a celestial phenomenon - a new star appearing in the sky. At the same time, unusual events occur. Are they coincidence? Could they be related to the new star? And if so, why?