Though there are supernatural touches ...this long first section is primarily driven by the intrigues of realist fiction ... If Knausgaard is your thing, it reads as compulsively as anything he’s written ... Contains long essayistic stretches, quite unlike the rest of the narrative, that probe both eschatology and death itself. In these passages, Knausgaard once again proves a thoughtful and wide reader ... At times, the book’s conceptual weight and narrative sprawl feel unsustainably massive ... Although the final shape of Knausgaard’s latest enterprise is not yet visible, there’s famously no smoke without wildfires. It’s likely something wicked this way comes.
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