I Live a Life Like Yours

I Live a Life Like Yours, which won the Norwegian Literary Critics Prize, is a quietly wonderful memoir.

For Grue’s part it is in many ways a life against all odds. He describes it so beautifully and wisely that it makes one think about the great masters of the genre, like American Joan Didion (...) A literary masterpiece that is highly recommended!

So sympathetic, so successful, so precise, with such a light literary touch.

A masterpiece of own life.

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. This is not just about the author himself, but what it means to be human. 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.

Jan Grue blends elements of both fiction and non-fiction and the result is a vital, meditative and learned investigation of what it means to be a different person in the world, at the mercy of a body that does not function as normal bodies do. [...] Grue delivers original observations and a supreme degree of reflection.

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. Everyone who has read something by the author before knows what he is capable of, but with this text he arouses anticipation on just about anything. Exemplary and transcendent.

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!