”JF: One thing that I think is not talked about often enough with these books is that they’re very funny. They’re very funny. At one point, I think it’s in book two, your editor calls to ask what you’re up to, to which you reply I’m working on my self-esteem, which is probably what every writer says when their editor calls. How important to you is humor in finding meaning either in literary terms or in personal ones?
KOK: My favorite book of all times is Céline’s Death on the Installment Plan because I laughed, I was on the floor laughing with that book. I love it. That’s very important, but it has to be, that humor is so dark you wouldn’t believe it. But it’s still extremely funny. I’m well known for being very, very serious. Very un-ironic. Very… I mean I have been crying on Norwegian TV. That’s the image of me being that kind of figure, but in my writing I can write things I find very funny, and some people don’t understand that I’m trying to be funny. They just don’t believe that I could be able to make a joke even. And I think the books are read like that.”
Citerat ur ”Knausgaard on Masculinity, Excrement and Quitting” i nättidskriften Lit Hub, John Freeman intervjuar Karl Ove Knausgård. Som är ett ovanligt underhållande intervjuobjekt.
Ola Wihlke
BearBooks 