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Loading... Hunger (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (original 1890; edition 1998)by Knut Hamsun (Author), Sverre Lyngstad (Translator)
Work InformationHunger by Knut Hamsun (1890)
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[Hunger] is about a starving writer who is, you guessed it!, hungry. I loved it. The main character is a young man trying to make it as a writer, but he is so poor and unable to find work that pays, that he is literally starving. Instead of writing, he spends much of his time looking for shelter and sustenance, or walking around trying to take his mind off of his hunger. In between, he works on his writing and sometimes comes up small sums of money, either for his work or by accident. He's obviously educated and I wonder why he had no support system at all. It's also clear that some of the people he interacts with have no idea just how close he is to starving to death. Not much happens in this book. The main character interacts with a few people, but largely the book takes place inside his head and stomach. In some ways, when I reflect back on it, I have a hard time putting my finger on why I liked it so much. I think it's because it was honest, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and because the main character is both maddening and admirable. What a rollercoaster! Reading this book took a lot out of me. Not because it's hard to read, but because the main character's (unnamed) constant changes in mood. He'll be riding on clouds at first, then he's acting as if he's the scourge of the earth. You really get caught up in it, and that all points back to the author's ability. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas the adaptationInspiredAwardsNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: A must-read for fans of modernist literature, Hunger is a literary tour de force that was influenced equally by Dostoyevsky and Zola but made new by author Knut Hamsun's unique creative approach. The novel details the descent into near-starvation of a young intellectual and the downward spiral of misadventures he encounters in the course of trying to find food. .No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.8236Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Danish and Norwegian literatures Norwegian literature Norwegian Bokmål fiction 1800–1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Nevertheless , there is another side to our young artist, a side that if we are honest with ourself resides in all of us. There is the sin of pride, there is the sense of entitlement, that when we don’t get what we want to make everybody else responsible. However, personally, I do not see that quite as negative for this often springs from the need to overcompensate, a natural defense mechanism of our psyche and to me makes our suffering writer even more sympathetic. In its conclusion the novel and fate of the young writer remains open-ended; however, the description and subsequent event anticipated within the last lines of the novel is very close to the American psyche and mindset and therefore to us Americans optimism prevails.
The Hunger is a masterpiece, fortunately and quite unlike the imaginary writer of his novel, Knut Hanson received the recognition he so deserved for it. ( )