My Struggle (Book One) (Karl Ove Knausgaard, 2009)

This is the first book of a multi-book series that has created a huge buzz.  The author - Norwegian - writes in great detail about early experiences.  The focus in Book One is on his relationship with his alcoholic father.  But much more ground is covered.

I've read that the percentage of folks in Norway that have read Knausgaard's work is incredibly high, and further that his life has changed for the worse due to resentment by characters in the book who are readily identifiable in the relatively small communities about which he writes.

Lots of comparisons to Proust among the reviewers; even direct references in this Book One.

My tentative conclusion:  (1) Book One is good-not-great, clearly worthwhile however; (2) I think I will read Book Two and see how it goes; (3) depending on how Book Two works out I will either keep going, or drop the project and re-read Proust (which I will do soon in any event).

I realize it's quite early to judge - based on just one book - but so far I don't think the comparison to Proust stands up well.  Part of this may be simply that discussions of things that occurred in the 1980s or 1990s inevitably sound less interesting or exotic than discussions of things from early 20th century?

Alcohol definitely an issue for these folks.

I read that the Mein Kampf-style title for the book was chosen deliberately though I don't recall why.