By Linda Boström Knausgaard (2021)
Saw it in the bookshop and I know I can only survive on Knausgaard blood.
Dreamlike account of the obliteration of Linda’s memories through an extended course of ECT in a mental institution, in a sort of fugue through mental states between unconsciousness, memory, dreaming, and awakening.
The obvious comparison is The Bell Jar, but I think this surprised me at just about every turn – much has been made comparing this to My Struggle and suggesting that the mass publicity destroyed Linda’s health, but Linda is adamant in defending Karl Ove’s work. Indeed the main theme is the value of specific, individual memory to make this sort of work possible – even at great personal cost.