Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgård Book Analysis

In Karl Ove Knausgaard’s book Autumn, the topics of “Piss”, “Mouth”, “Vomit”, and “Toilet Bowls” are all connected to the second “Letter to an Unborn Daughter” by the connection of routine. In contrast, all the previously mentioned entries are all linked through beauty or pleasure. 

In the entry titled “Piss” Knausgaard states, “Of all the things we do, pissing is one of the most routine.” (39) When he says this, it quite literally uses the word routine in his wording. To add to the earlier quote, he also says, “not once has [pissing] felt alien to me,” (39) in which he is stating that in the “total number of times that [he has] pissed” (39) it has always been natural, like a routine. In this entry he also says that despite the “stench” (39), it is “also possible to find pleasure in [the smell],” (40). 

In the next entry titled “Mouth” he says it is an opening “which pushes pieces of food in between the chomping gums, the first step in the process of digestion,” (74), in which the word process is in relation to the word “routine”. Digestion is the body's routine of absorbing nutrients and disposing of wastes. Knausgaard says, “[chewing’s] labour is accompanied by many pleasurable sensations,” (75). 

In “Vomit” he says, “the instinct that protects us against eating something tainted and poisonous . . . When [my children] were young, vomiting was just something that happened,” (182) he is speaking about how vomiting is part of the bodies defense routine from “tainted and poisonous” food. He is also speaking about how it used to be routine for small children to vomit, compared to as they age, when it feels as though it is forced. Knausgaard considers vomit as “something beautiful . . . not unlike a landslide at the bottom of a valley,” (181) despite it being considered as “repulsive” (182) coming from the depths of another person’s body.

In “Toilet Bowl” he says, “we piss and shit in the toilet bowl, and sometimes even vomit. Everything about the toilet bowl is consistent with its function,” (205) in which he is speaking about the body's routine of pissing, shitting, and vomiting. Most often, one uses a toilet bowl while doing one (or more) of those three things. Knausgaard also speaks of the Toilet Bowl’s routine, “a little sluice gate is opened, and the water in the cistern gushed down the inside of the bowl,” (206) “to conduct our waste matter away from the body and out of the house as effectively as possible,” (205). He also speaks about the “gracefulness” (205) of a toilet bowl’s design. He says that the design appears to “defy gravity” (205) or “run counter to it,” (205). 

The second “Letter to an Unborn Daughter” is dated September 29. In this letter, he says that his daughter is “repeating a developmental stage that the human being has undergone,” (84) which is able to link all four of the book's entries said above through the central idea of routine. He goes on to list all the body parts as they are found, counted, and checked, which is a typical routine of a prenatal ultrasound appointment. To go along with the earlier statement, Knausgaard states that "The day began as usual," (83) which says that he had a routine each morning of waking up Anne's siblings, feeding them, putting them on the bus, and then proceeding to work for a time. 

A second link between the second “Letter to an Unborn Daughter” and the 4 entries is the topic of beauty and pleasure. He speaks about how the ultrasound image’s movements are “almost dreamlike” (83).

In Autumn Knausgaard is suggesting that people connect inanimate objects, actions, views, or ideas to those found in nature. He compares an ultrasound image to an place “far, far away, in outer space or . . . the depths of the ocean,” (83-84). In the entry titled “Vomit”, he is comparing the “beauty” (181) of “vomit on parquet flooring,” (181) to “a landslide at the bottom of a valley,” (181) which connects a view to a an “experience of nature”.  

In conclusion, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s book Autumn, has a central idea that beauty and pleasure can be found in everything in life, which is what he is writing these books to his “unborn daughter” about. 

Works Cited:

Knausgaard, Karl Ove. Autumn. Trans.Ingvild Burkey. Toronto: Knopf, 2017.