Reading 1001 discussion

Hunger Knut Hamsun (Norway)

3 Stars

I got to the end of this book and fully expected the narrator to end with "and then I woke up" the narrative was all over the place and had a really trippy feel that didn't appeal to me.

Apparently this book is about a starving writer, however when various people give him money (I am assuming out of sympathy) instead of buying food he proceeds to try and get rid of it as quick as possible onto anyone else and then spends the rest of the chapter regretting this decision. When he does eat he makes bad choices that make him ill and sick meaning he gets no benefit from the food. His behaviour is increasingly bizarre and I am amazed everyone doesn't run a mile when they see him coming (this could be due to starvation messing with his brain).

Overall this book just didn't really speak to me at all.

Hunger/Sult by Knut Hamsun.

3,5 stars

With the famous words “All of this happened while I was walking around starving in Christiania – that strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him” - Hamsun opens the book Hunger (Note: I read it in Norwegian, so the opening line may not be completely accurate).

We are in the 1880s Kristiania, and the I-person is a poor journalist who lives on the hunger border. The hunger is taking its turn on him, and he struggles to think of anything else. At the same time, he does not want any kind of compassion, as he is much too proud for that!

While the hunger tears him up and contributes to his decay, he struggles to write articles so that he can earn a living. But it's hard to write something that's really good when all his thoughts are occupied trying to figure out where the next meal is going to come from.

In the book, Hamsun makes a solid analysis into the soul of the young journalist. It’s said that this book is sort of autobiographical and that Hamsun himself was starving before he broke through as an author. I am not sure it would be possible to write such a book without having any personal experience.

I see that the book gets mixed reviews, as the protagonist is quite hard to empathize with, giving the fact that his pride is preventing him for accepting the little good fortune he experiences now and then, and a such he is not the most likeable character. Even so, I am very fond of Hamsun’s writing, and this book was no exception.

I started with a paperback copy, which I unfortunately managed to leave behind on a flight (being approx. 50 % in). I then decided to switch to a new and more modern audio recording (read by Aksel Hennie in Norwegian), and I think it was good fortune after all losing my copy. The audio was excellent, and I really enjoyed his interpretation of the protagonist. The dry spots and the repetition that I found a bit boring when reading the book was not present when listening to the book. 3,5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

PS: For those of you who haven't read Growth of the Soil, it is a much better book, one of my all time favourites.

1 star

Nothing about this book worked for me. It is told my a narrator that I detested. It is written in a stream of consciousness style with very little punctuation, and so far the only books written in that style that I liked were all written by Faulkner. If the character is not one I like I need a good plot, and unfortunately the plot is non-existent.

The book is about hunger and it left me hungry -- for a book I would enjoy.

Hunger, not sure but it is at least a 3 but probably 4 stars. I need to think about it a bit. This is a loosely autobiographical novel about a writer down on his luck, starving to death and the slow decline as he sells of bits and pieces of his life. While he wanders about the town he runs into several characters. This unnamed narrator is quite proud and can barely allow anyone to help him. He would rather give away than receive. It reminded me a bit of Dostoyevsky and also a bit of Ulysses as the main character wanders about the town meeting up with various people. This is a turn of the century psychological driven novel and the irrationality of the mind. Of Christiana (Oslo) the protagonist states, “no man departs without carrying away the traces of his sojourn there. The contrast is the outer respectability, mental and physical decay. Symbols of the decay are the words starved, winding sheets, Autumn, die, room compared to a sinister coffin. The winding sheets (for wrapping the deceased body) repeats several times.

In reading some of the reviews above, I can appreciate this book a bit more than immediately upon finishing it, but I cannot say I enjoyed it at all. I tried to have sympathy for the starving man, but I just could not find any. Things go from bad to worse for him, and although I wanted to understand the difficulty of trying to write/work in such trying times, I felt he often made his situation worse through bad decisions. At several points various people do try to help him, yet his pride and choices keep him from being able to make any progress. Additionally, I wanted more from the ending.

I read this book for the January 2020 food related challenge, and it fits that well as the narrator's thoughts are often consumed by what he can find to eat and the results of his attempts.

read Jan. 2022

I thought this book would be much more harrowing (like Down and Out in Paris and London or The Jungle). The problem was I found the narrator to be ridiculous. I do understand that he had (like anyone) a hard time thinking straight due to his starvation but it was almost like he went out of his way to make his situation worse. He was very entitled, and couldn’t forsake his pride even when it would have helped him a great deal. I also found the part with the young woman completely unbelievable. Thankfully it was short. 2*