[QUOTE=GOLLUM;1517722]
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Originally Posted by Extollager  Those are interesting observations you make regarding Hamsun. I have only read Hunger so far but was impressed enough to collect his other major works including Pan, Mysteries, Growth of the Soil and Victoria. I will want to read the Hamsun works I have before being able to make a proper assessment in terms of what idiosyncratic trends or core themes may be reflected in the writing. I found Hunger to be a fascinating psychological novel definitely as you say rooted in reality, almost painfully so given the central character's self-imposed plight and Hamsun's ability to describe the human condition in such a revealing and honest manner....  |
I meant to write that Hamsun's characters are "adolescents" who can go where and when they want to -- I suppose mainly I'm thinking of the protagonists of Mysteries and Pan, my two favorites; and really it's been long enough since my last reading of Pan that my generalization might be shaky there. But I think it would hold. They are physically strong, isolated, thoughtful, sometimes paranoid, given to romantic infatuation, uncomfortable with authority, disdainful of bourgeois politics ("Buskerud"!) never lack for money (obviously I am not generalizing about Hunger), and so on; it's really a pretty complete outfit of what a certain type of adolescent feels or fantasizes about!