I have been working my way through Knut Hamsun's Hunger for my Around-the-World Challenge this month. While the work is fictional, the feelings are based upon Hamsun's struggles in life. We follow the main character, though his daily life, where he is living in a constant state of hunger. This hunger is never satisfied and causes altered states of mind as we learn the struggles and rationalizations of the character. This work will remind some of Émile Zola's writing style, a character study of human nature and one's actions, a look inside the mind of a person. While the descriptive language is filled throughout the short novel the following passage jumped out at me as I was reading. I could really feel the despair our characters was imagining as he gazed up this wastebasket. "....and an immense wastebasket that looked as though it could swallow a man whole. I felt sad at the sight of that huge maw, those dragon's jaws which were always open, always ready to receive fresh scrapped writings-fresh blasted hopes." [Pg. 100} |
Title: Hunger
Author: Knut Hamsun
Publisher: Penguin Group (1998)
Source: Public Library
Format Read: Paperback; ISBN: 9780141180649
[Notice: Original posting 2014-05-29 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Quotes
Author: Knut Hamsun
Publisher: Penguin Group (1998)
Source: Public Library
Format Read: Paperback; ISBN: 9780141180649
[Notice: Original posting 2014-05-29 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Quotes