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A Time for Everything Paperback – Deckle Edge, November 20, 2009
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The writing glows with an intense awareness of the here and now, and loving observations of landscapes and objects . . . this is an extraordinary novel, and completely original. —The Independent
Knausgaard joins the ranks of the greatest storytellers of our time. His glittering prose is purposeful, precise, and poetic. . . . There can be no doubt about his extraordinary talent: only the work of a master can be thought-provoking on so many levels yet retain a lightness of touch. —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The breadth of the history of ideas in Knausgaard’s second novel has a span like the wings of an archangel and brings together Old Testament psychology with modern deconstruction . . . Knausgaard’s insight into Cain’s love and his battle against ignominy are described in masterly psychological prose. —Politiken
There is little doubt that Knausgaard had written himself into literary history. —Dagens Naeringsliv
…this strange and serious novel of ideas is an admirably imaginative contemporary reinterpretation of characters whose odd, splendid appearances in Christian mythology are made all the more mysterious for being matter-of-fact and never fully explained. —Metro UK
A marvelous book. . . . Knausgaard's most evident strength as a writer is his gift for minute description, especially of nature, but also of the human psyche. . . . The descriptions of forests, floods, streams, fields, and Henrik Vankel's secluded island are ravishing and . . . create the feeling that we are being transported, again and again, into some primordial world. —Ingrid D. Rowland, The New York Review of Books
It may well become a cult novel. —The Guardian
Knausgaard joins the ranks of the greatest storytellers of our time. His glittering prose is purposeful, precise, and poetic. . . . There can be no doubt about his extraordinary talent: only the work of a master can be thought-provoking on so many levels yet retain a lightness of touch. —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The breadth of the history of ideas in Knausgaard’s second novel has a span like the wings of an archangel and brings together Old Testament psychology with modern deconstruction . . . Knausgaard’s insight into Cain’s love and his battle against ignominy are described in masterly psychological prose. —Politiken
There is little doubt that Knausgaard had written himself into literary history. —Dagens Naeringsliv
…this strange and serious novel of ideas is an admirably imaginative contemporary reinterpretation of characters whose odd, splendid appearances in Christian mythology are made all the more mysterious for being matter-of-fact and never fully explained. —Metro UK
A marvelous book. . . . Knausgaard's most evident strength as a writer is his gift for minute description, especially of nature, but also of the human psyche. . . . The descriptions of forests, floods, streams, fields, and Henrik Vankel's secluded island are ravishing and . . . create the feeling that we are being transported, again and again, into some primordial world. —Ingrid D. Rowland, The New York Review of Books
It may well become a cult novel. —The Guardian
About the Author
Karl O. Knausgaard was born in Norway in 1968 and made his debut with the novel Ute av verden (Out of the World). A Time for Everything, his second novel, was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize. It is his first to be translated into English.
James Anderson’s literary translations from the Norwegian include Berlin Poplars by Anne B. Ragde, Nutmeg by Kristin Valla, and several works by Jostein Gaarder.
James Anderson’s literary translations from the Norwegian include Berlin Poplars by Anne B. Ragde, Nutmeg by Kristin Valla, and several works by Jostein Gaarder.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By
Steve George
on November 21, 2010
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
one of the most remarkable books i have read in a long time.
knausgaard is using language in a way i have not encountered before --
and that's saying something, believe you me.
i do not mean to say that he is avantgarde or innovative in his use of language.
he is not.
nor is his language particularly beautiful.
it is not.
it is that he does something extraordinary in his writing.
almost like god himself he creates the *natural* world through the word.
the natural world devoid of our (human) impact on it.
devoid of our feelings evoked by it.
devoid of our perceptions of it.
the world fresh and new
as it is -- was -- would be:
unobserved.
as proust presented the world as conceived/perceived/constructed via human perception
knausgaard somehow manages to present the world as though unperceived by humans.
utterly astounding.
knausgaard is using language in a way i have not encountered before --
and that's saying something, believe you me.
i do not mean to say that he is avantgarde or innovative in his use of language.
he is not.
nor is his language particularly beautiful.
it is not.
it is that he does something extraordinary in his writing.
almost like god himself he creates the *natural* world through the word.
the natural world devoid of our (human) impact on it.
devoid of our feelings evoked by it.
devoid of our perceptions of it.
the world fresh and new
as it is -- was -- would be:
unobserved.
as proust presented the world as conceived/perceived/constructed via human perception
knausgaard somehow manages to present the world as though unperceived by humans.
utterly astounding.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By
archipelagoreader
on January 27, 2010
Format: Paperback
1 Comment
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Wings of Desire
from Bookforum, Feb/Mar 2010
by Eric Banks
By the time Antinous Bellori encounters angels in what we can euphemistically call the flesh, the creatures are no longer those divine messengers familiar from the Old Testament. Nor have they yet mutated into the chubby, rosy-cheeked babies hoisting puffy clouds that Tiepolo et al. gloried in depicting. The eleven-year-old Antinous, lost in the darkening forest near his northern Italian home circa 1562, stumbles on a pair of the flickering fallen ones just as they're sinking their bared teeth into a raw fish. The sight is horrible, more sublime than miraculous: "Their faces are white and skull-like, their eye sockets deep, cheekbones high, lips bloodless. They have long, fair hair, thin necks, slender wrists, clawlike fingers. And they're shaking. One of them has hands that shake." As they devour their sushi, their rolled-back eyeballs make them look blind--or even dead. Then with a dazzling light they depart; for Antinous, the experience is transformative.
According to Karl O. Knausgaard's A Time for Everything, the encounter leads Antinous to a life of restless theological inquiry, eventually yielding his anonymous On the Nature of Angels, published in 1584 but consigned to oblivion until its 1859 rediscovery in London. By then, of course, to speculate about angels is to be embarrassingly reminded of the superstitious past. The Norwegian author's epic biography of the fictional Antinous is one layer peeled from the strata of stories constituting A Time for Everything. This baroque novel folds a text within a text within a text to tell what happened to the nature of the divine over the course of all history, from creation to the present.Read more ›
from Bookforum, Feb/Mar 2010
by Eric Banks
By the time Antinous Bellori encounters angels in what we can euphemistically call the flesh, the creatures are no longer those divine messengers familiar from the Old Testament. Nor have they yet mutated into the chubby, rosy-cheeked babies hoisting puffy clouds that Tiepolo et al. gloried in depicting. The eleven-year-old Antinous, lost in the darkening forest near his northern Italian home circa 1562, stumbles on a pair of the flickering fallen ones just as they're sinking their bared teeth into a raw fish. The sight is horrible, more sublime than miraculous: "Their faces are white and skull-like, their eye sockets deep, cheekbones high, lips bloodless. They have long, fair hair, thin necks, slender wrists, clawlike fingers. And they're shaking. One of them has hands that shake." As they devour their sushi, their rolled-back eyeballs make them look blind--or even dead. Then with a dazzling light they depart; for Antinous, the experience is transformative.
According to Karl O. Knausgaard's A Time for Everything, the encounter leads Antinous to a life of restless theological inquiry, eventually yielding his anonymous On the Nature of Angels, published in 1584 but consigned to oblivion until its 1859 rediscovery in London. By then, of course, to speculate about angels is to be embarrassingly reminded of the superstitious past. The Norwegian author's epic biography of the fictional Antinous is one layer peeled from the strata of stories constituting A Time for Everything. This baroque novel folds a text within a text within a text to tell what happened to the nature of the divine over the course of all history, from creation to the present.Read more ›
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By
Breon Mitchell
on January 1, 2010
Format: Paperback
Comment
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A Time for Everything is one of the most intriguing works of literature to appear in the past decade. Its pages are filled with detailed and arresting imagery, strange flights of imagination, and intellectual exploration. It is also ultimately dark and disturbing. To say that it deals with the history of angels, retells the stories of Cain and Abel, and of Noah and the Flood, and ends in despair for the fictional author merely touches the surface. It is not a novel in any normal sense of the word, but rather an important work of art merging multiple literary genres. An impressive depth of emotional and intellectual engagement with fundamental issues about life and art is offered in a prose that is both powerful and striking. The author has just won the 2009 Brage Prize in Norway for the first volume of his six-volume semi-autobiography, entitled Min Kamp (My Struggle), which I hope his English-language publishers will bring out soon. Karl O. Knausgaard is a writer set to step onto the stage of major world literature.
A word about the English version: although I don't know Norwegian, and can only assume the text is even more impressive in the original, James Anderson's translation reads beautifully. This can't have been an easy text to translate--it is long, complex and demanding in every sense. Yet time and again the language and the ideas come through so strikingly that it is clear Knausgaard has been well served by his translator. Archipelago Books are to be congratulated for continuing to bring American readers into contact with the best and most challenging literature being written around the world.
A word about the English version: although I don't know Norwegian, and can only assume the text is even more impressive in the original, James Anderson's translation reads beautifully. This can't have been an easy text to translate--it is long, complex and demanding in every sense. Yet time and again the language and the ideas come through so strikingly that it is clear Knausgaard has been well served by his translator. Archipelago Books are to be congratulated for continuing to bring American readers into contact with the best and most challenging literature being written around the world.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By
las cosas
on June 28, 2012
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
Tracing the history of angels through the Bible and historical inquiry encompasses one layer of this novel. Another, connected quest is to tell the fuller lives summarized in several stories from the Book of Genesis. "The only things that have always been remembered are the story of the first people who were driven out of paradise and into the valley, the story of the two brothers Cain and Abel, and the story of the great flood." Angels inhabit these stories, but often as minor characters, with God in all of his Old Testament wrath as the cause of so much anguish.
First, the angels. The author spent a year consumed in angelology, and a world unto itself it certainly is. Thinkers for centuries expended endless effort categorizing, analyzing and pondering these Biblical creatures that exist somewhere between man and God. Artists have provided thousands of paintings and sculptures of these being, and apparently there are still pockets of belief throughout the planet. Who knew?
The novel starts with the story of one Antinous Bellori who saw angels as a lad and spent the rest of his life trying to understand angels, and to find them. His story, including his sightings of angels, is told as straight-forward storytelling without an ounce of skepticism, as are all of the Biblical stories retold in the novel. Who is the narrator, why are we being told these stories? I wondered, but wasn't overly concerned because the storytelling is so well done, and gives considerable back-story to what are short and often difficult to contextualize biblical stories.
Take Noah, for example.Read more ›
First, the angels. The author spent a year consumed in angelology, and a world unto itself it certainly is. Thinkers for centuries expended endless effort categorizing, analyzing and pondering these Biblical creatures that exist somewhere between man and God. Artists have provided thousands of paintings and sculptures of these being, and apparently there are still pockets of belief throughout the planet. Who knew?
The novel starts with the story of one Antinous Bellori who saw angels as a lad and spent the rest of his life trying to understand angels, and to find them. His story, including his sightings of angels, is told as straight-forward storytelling without an ounce of skepticism, as are all of the Biblical stories retold in the novel. Who is the narrator, why are we being told these stories? I wondered, but wasn't overly concerned because the storytelling is so well done, and gives considerable back-story to what are short and often difficult to contextualize biblical stories.
Take Noah, for example.Read more ›
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