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I didn't realize until the end how autobiographical this was. To the point that Ditlevsen doesn't even change any of her 4 husbands names. This is a sad story, without a happy ending. It was originally 3 short novellas Childhood (where Tove is told over and over how ugly and stupid she is) Youth (where she starts to write and come into her own & starts jumping from man to man) & Dependency (more men and throw in drug addiction) 👇

Glad I have a cat, because I am finishing these 2 incredibly bleak books tonight and will need some pet loves. I hope my next reads are a bit more fun.

I hadn‘t heard of this author, but I can see why she is considered one of Denmark‘s best twentieth-century writers. Really compelling reading. I was drawn in by her brutal honesty in describing her life.

Based on authors experiences.. really loved the entirety of this novel! I was absolutely gripped from Tove‘s childhood all the way to her many marriages and later life.

Has anyone read this? I‘m only 5 chapters in, and I‘m already loving it.

I went into this with no expectations and I can't even remember what made me originally want to read it, aside from my usual interest in Scandinavian lit. The writing, so matter-of-fact, reminded me of Natalia Ginzburg and, to a lesser degree, Ellen Gilchrist (though with very different subject matter). There are no embellishments. People are beautiful or ugly or plain, with little other description. I'm interested to read her fiction now.

Too many memoirs I've read are either sterile laundry lists of accomplishments or a series of disjointed anecdotes that don't do much to illuminate the subject. It's hard to write about things like childhood and addiction in a way that doesn't lapse into cliche, but Ditlevsen nails it here, distilling 20+ years of life down to its essence and homing in on the moments, images, and events that formed the person she became.

A brilliant memoir about growing up in Denmark, starting in the 1920s and through WWII. The final third of the book, which focused on her struggles with addiction, was sometimes difficult to get through but I respected her honesty and perseverance.

Although I don‘t normally read memoirs, even from authors whose fiction I enjoy, I was quite enthralled by this #translated #memoir about Ditlevsen‘s life in Copenhagen. It was really interesting to hear about life in Copenhagen during the 1930-50s and Ditlevsen is a very talented writer. I would really like to check out her other works that are being translated to English.

Devastating

Such stripped down brutal honesty. (Also, I can relate.) Tagged book is not poetry but her memoir which is also brutally and brilliantly honest.
#nail #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

I was really captured by Tove Ditlevsen‘s memoir. She had quite the life experiences growing up poor in Denmark, being a youth in the time leading up to the Second World War, becoming fascinated by becoming a poet, and then becoming addicted to pain medication and trying to be sober again. This was pretty depressing but overall an interesting read. 3/5

I read Vol 1 of My Struggle earlier this year and really liked Knausgard's style but wished it were shorter. As it turns out, Ditlevsen's trilogy of short memoirs is exactly what I wanted: hyper-conscious, yet carefully curated recollections. Ditlevsen is brilliant at knowing what moments to focus on and what is most fascinating about her perceptions of experiences with family, writing mentors, romantic partners, or her struggles with addiction.

Wow! Ditlevsen writes with stark honesty about her working class childhood, her alienation, her development as an artist, her love affairs, and her addiction. It's an amazing story (she became a literary success at 22 in the midst of WWII) but it's written with matter-of-factness shaded by loneliness and precarity. All three volumes are excellent, but Book 3 describing her complicated marriages, abortions, and addiction is particularly harrowing.

Because my cat needed joint meds , I‘m not Amazon prime, & don‘t want to pay for shipping . No impulse control, wait , no impulse control should be first.😄Cat paws no extra charge.I‘m looking at you 👀
@merelybookish

What a fascinating and sad story of the early life of danish writer, Tove Ditlevsen.

It‘s so cold here in SoCal (for us) and it hailed this morning and now it‘s steadily pouring down rain and windy. So I turned the heating pad on and grabbed a blanket and I‘m settling in to snuggle with my cat and read a book.