5/21/2023 0 Comments Hunger by Knut Hamsun![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Without money, he often doesn't eat for days. A writer of questionable success, he submits his writings to a journal but rarely gets the story accepted. Thanks to Naxos for continually bringing these kinds of classic, but lesser read, texts to audiobook, and for consistently using excellent readers. In Knut Hamsun's Hunger, the narrator and protagonist roams the streets of Kristiania (Oslo) and searches for food and later lodging. I must also mention how great the reader was: I felt that his tone was perfect for the character, and that his pace and rhythm enhanced the above mentioned hypnotic nature of the text, while also accentuating the humour and pathos. I would describe it as a hypnotic journey for those with an interest in existential or philosophical literature (Kafka, Camus, Sartre, et al.), but this should not suggest that it is in any way dense or didactic: it is above all other things a highly readable and affecting examination of a man's fracturing psyche and failing body, and I would recommend it to anyone seeking good, and historically important, literature. It is harrowing, but also funny and lively, and despite the bleakness never less than scintillating. It involves a young writer's descent into poverty and starvation, and details his psychology and actions during the process. Admittedly some of this is to do with the translation, which is immensely fresh and readable, but also because the style and content differed so from the typical novels of the era. It was sometimes hard to believe Hunger was first published in 1890 while listening to this: it seemed so modern. ![]()
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