2024
A masterpiece memoir about life in a vulnerable body.
I have a congenital muscular dystrophy. I use a wheelchair. I have a college education, a job. I’m a family man. On the surface, I’m well-off. What had to happen for me to reach this point?
I Live a Life That Is Like Your Own is about life in a vulnerable body. It is a story about work, about dreams and a longing to live like everyone else. It is a book about life, both common and uncommon.
"Into the unknown: we don’t know where we’re going. We are sailing in a leaky boat; we know that we’re dying animals. With dreams of Byzantium, we bail out as much water as we can, sailing onward, together. We are Argonauts, astronauts, adventurers, explorers. This is our journey."
A masterpiece of own life.
6 out of 6 stars
A literary masterpiece that is highly recommended!
6 out of 6 stars
Jan Grue’s portrayal of his life is better than most Norwegian autobiographical non-fiction. [...] The book will, in all likelihood, linger as a milestone signifying that a new maturity is reaching autobiographically based literature in Norwegian non-fiction, too.
What fascinates, moves and makes me think is the extraordinarily successful combination of the deeply personal and the universal. […]. If anyone asks about my favourites from the current rich variety of Norwegian non-fiction, this book will be up there with the best of them.
It is an exploration of identity, of premises, boundaries and transgressions in which Grue opens up a broad horizon in language that is free and refined. The outcome is literature of relevance and greatness.
Reality literature has almost become synonymous with washing one’s dirty laundry in public. That’s not how it is in this flawless autobiography, which has instantly assumed a place high up in the Norwegian autobiographical canon.
Great language, enormous skill and a great deal of reflection. This is Grue’s story, but it’s also a tale of what it is to be human. [...] A powerful and important book!
So sympathetic, so successful, so precise, with such a light literary touch.
6 out of 6 stars
Jan Grue
Anne Valeur
