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Hunger

by Knut Hamsun, Isaac Bashevis Singer (introduction)

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 10,438 ratings · 725 reviews

Written after Hamsun’s return from an ill-fated tour of America, Hunger is loosely based on the author’s own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890 and set in fin-de-siècle Kristiania. The novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man, whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis. While he vain...more

Paperback, 232 pages

Published 1967 by Noonday Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (NY) (first published 1890)

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Mar 06, 2012 s.penkevich rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who can read

Recommended to s.penkevich by: The poetry of Charles Bukowski

Shelves: nobel-prize-winners, favorites, hamsun

I often catch myself staring, rather lovingly in fact, at my bookshelves. Each shelf is swelling nearly to the point of overflowing with books, each authors collection seemingly positioned at random - yet, somehow, the location of each work holds some secret form of order that is beyond even me. I'll caress each spine with my eyes, occasionally running a finger down it to feel a spark of retrospection and for a moment recall the times when I held a particular book during the course of absorbing...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1800s, classics, classics-european, literature, ebooks

Discombobulated…frenzied…distracted…rambling…and oh so BRILLIANT.

Knut Hamsun's fevered, stream of consciousness classic is something special. Unwaveringly "in the now," this novel's every word felt as if it had fallen from the narrator's mind, unfiltered, unrestrained, and unreflected upon. Wow, was this something. The unnamed narrator, with his exaggerated and unjustified notions of his own superiority reminded me a lot of Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment, while the disjointed style and u...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: you dropped your books

Recommended to Mariel by: s.pen and manny

I have a confession to make. Well, it's not really a confession if I've alluded to it in the past. I'm cheap. I spend freely, I mean, and it doesn't take much convincing for me to go ahead and make some purchase (especially if it's a book) when I really shouldn't. Don't ever take me shopping in hopes that I'll convince you not to make that purchase, either. So I downloaded the free kindle version of this. I have too many books and I do that shit anyway. I think there's something wrong with the k...more I have a confession to make. Well, it's not really a confession if I've alluded to it in the past. I'm cheap. I spend freely, I mean, and it doesn't take much convincing for me to go ahead and make some purchase (especially if it's a book) when I really shouldn't. Don't ever take me shopping in hopes that I'll convince you not to make that purchase, either. So I downloaded the free kindle version of this. I have too many books and I do that shit anyway. I think there's something wrong with the kindle version. I don't care about the errors (I don't notice a lot of grammatical errors anyway. "Blank author breaks all of the cardinal rules of writing you say? There are cardinal rules? I didn't notice!" and stuff like that). I mean there's a weird bit of dialogue towards the end that summarizes the whole book in one sentence. It seemed really out of place. I read there is some long standing heated debate between these guys that hang out in bars and coffee places and talk about books. "No, I like translation number one the best!" The second guy prefers number two and the third guy prefers number three. I don't know which this is. It seemed really, really out of place (the more that I think about it the reallys add up). Hunger is pretty perfect no matter what else you do to it. The following sentence should have gone back to the beginning like a never ending time loop. Maybe I'm not a shark who must keep on swimming in the sub-frozen subhuman subterranean depths lest I realize I've eaten every opportunity ever put on a plate before me. Don't speak up, speak down to the side, to the cracks in the next sidewalk and the next sidewalk until everything good is gone. It's not too late and I didn't just fuck up everything. Oh wait, I did. Hunger is the gnawing belly of the brain. Hunger and never growing pains. That guy will help me! That guy won't help. I just remembered... I left that miracle salvation in the other coat pocket.

It's not really a confession if I've said it before. I talk to myself all of the time too. If Hell is made up of rings it is because it's circular.

I've seen some times in life, and on goodreads (that's not life?), this argument that some such author was a misogynist or some such other author was a racist or hate Jews because they were a product of their times. Stamped out and rolled out on the conveyor belt, all with their set mental conditions timed to go off and implode at collective times? Don't ask them to step out of time and fancy feet with you. Shake them by the shoulders. How could you? Didn't you read? Didn't you know there was more than that? Haven't they met some such bigots walking tall or hiding in the grass on their own strolls? I grew up listening to my grandfather's meant to be amusingly colorful tales from military reform school about "rolling queers". I cried and cried. That person is fodder for years of therapy. It was by no means the only thing about him that he was a racist (he was quite Bill Cosbyish at times, despite mouth frothing loathing the man). I had other family members with their own shades of some shitty human excuse to feel better than other people based on something no one could help, have met other people doing the same. Isn't it always? I generally think that people should read more books to cure this. That couldn't have been Knut Hamsun's problem. He wrote Hunger. He could not have had any problem walking in someone else's shoes with all of those pebbles they can never seem to shake out of the gaping holes. Well, I don't think he did anything other than support the Nazis? One certainly didn't have to hate Jews to do some Princess Leia's home planet crying out at once mass murder. Hey, they did it for their career advancement. Hunger isn't a tribute to Goebbels (it was written in 1890?). I don't know what it is a tribute to except thinking that there's room between all of the colliding thoughts that trap someone in their fucking awful routines. Sumo wrestler sandwich. I'm not hungry. I look at it as the other side of the wormy part of the brain that thinks it's the best thing out there. (Eugenics is STILL the rage. People think that genetically selecting their babies to not be girls or to be pretty is an okay thing to do. Product of what times???) You could clean out the worms, eat them, vomit them and do something better than "Some of my best friends are black!" Confessions, confessions. If you're gonna shake someone to see what comes lose. It's the hope of getting some sense. I don't feel like writing off with "product of their times". Hunger doesn't write off. It walks and it hops trains (doesn't pay for the ticket).(less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Rod rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Rod by: Billy Childish

Shelves: in-translation, favorites, classics, down-n-out

I'm pretty lucky, I guess; I've been middle-class all my life, never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from or if there would be a next meal. I've never known starvation, despite saying stuff like "I'm starving!" when it's a half-hour past lunchtime and I haven't eaten yet. So why do I identify with the undernourished protagonist of Hunger so strongly? Perhaps it's because I'm an introvert; like the protagonist, I sometimes have internal conversations with myself in the third pers...more I'm pretty lucky, I guess; I've been middle-class all my life, never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from or if there would be a next meal. I've never known starvation, despite saying stuff like "I'm starving!" when it's a half-hour past lunchtime and I haven't eaten yet. So why do I identify with the undernourished protagonist of Hunger so strongly? Perhaps it's because I'm an introvert; like the protagonist, I sometimes have internal conversations with myself in the third person, or refer to myself (internally) as "we," or say "Let's go" to myself when there's no one else around. I also tend to superstitiously keep an antennae out for signs from the universe when making inconsequential decisions ("Hmm, Nature's Own bread or Pepperidge Farm? Hey, that kid just dropped a container of pepper. Pepperidge Farm it is!"). And sometimes I shake my fist (figuratively speaking) at God or the Universe or the Fates or whoever it is throwing me curveballs in life and probably having a good ol' time watching the results.

Alright, so these are personality quirks, minor neuroses, subconscious whatevers that really don't do me any harm because my conscious mind is able to say "That's ridiculous" and move on. Hunger's protagonist, I think, for whatever reason, lacks that filter. He is so in tune with his own subconscious that he allows his subconscious to essentially do the driving. His rational, conscious mind watches himself from the outside as his subconscious makes him do things that he knows knows are ridiculous or harmful, but he can't help himself. He is his own audience surrogate; the observer and the observed. It is the lucid conscious mind that communicates with us, sidling up next to us, crossing its arms and shaking its head, good-naturedly lamenting, "Get a load of this guy, will you? What in the world is he thinking? What'll he do next?" We're both just here to watch the show, me and him, and the subconscious is the star.

It is this convivial tone that keeps this book from being a descent into the dark murkiness of a tortured soul. Despite the Time Out quote on the cover of my edition that states, "One of the most disturbing novels in existence," it is not unremittingly bleak, as I was expecting. The tone is surprisingly lighthearted and humorous. The narrator certainly lives a grim existence, but he never feels sorry for himself, so neither do we. The fact that Hamsun never allows him to merely languish in self-pity is the source of it's great power. If this desperate, blighted man still has hope, then that certainly offers some hope to the rest of us.(less)

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Feb 29, 2012 Giulia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: preferiti, adelphi-scaffale-blu

Dato che la situazione è una matassa più ingarbugliata del solito, comincio da lontano; mi dispiace ma non posso fare altrimenti.

Mio padre aveva venti anni e studiava a Roma. Leggeva un sacco. Un libro a notte, da quanto mi racconta, anche se dubito che sia vero. Comunque, racconta che un giorno aveva voglia di qualcosa di diverso, che non fosse un Classico, che fosse qualcosa di potente e di eccitante; allora il commesso gli diede Bukowski.

Una decina di anni fa ero imbambolata davanti alla libr...more

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May 05, 2012 Hend rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nordic-literature, nobel-prize-winners, favorite-novels, knut-hamsun, unique-novels

I can now eat without feeling guilty anymore :)
What is really fascinating in this novel is how the protagonist try to maintain his dignity until the last breath,
Although at some times his disparate need to eat make him lose dignity,gradually and cursing his fate and looking down at himself and feeling inferior because of the fact he is poor and that he can do nothing to change it…..
It explores the depths of the human soul against the bitterness of hunger
which could push someone to the borders of...more

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view all 14 comments

s.penkevich I like that quote. I think that is an excellent analysis on her as well. She saw the good in him despite the madness, and that touched the good deep i...more
May 11, 2012 08:42am

Hend s.penkevich wrote: "I read somewhere that Hamsun was quite the lady-killer in his younger days though, and that he would travel around all poor and di...more
May 11, 2012 09:41am

Sep 12, 2012 Emilian Kasemi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Dostoevsky, Kafka, Fante, Bukowski, Celine

Shelves: favorites, reviews

Hunger was immediately added to my favorite shelf! With other precious books I love the most!
As the title may suggest, this is a book about hunger. But not the collective hunger as we are used to know. But rather the individual hunger, told in the first person. Hunger is the description of the loss of the human being against the absurdity of the modern world in its cold and real ruthlessness.
The protagonist, weakened and exasperated, has increased in its extreme his sensitivity and the ability t...more

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Dec 18, 2012 ميّ أحمد rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

لم أكن أقرأ بل كنتُ ألهث هذا ما يفعله الكاتب كنوت هامبسون في رواية الجوع يجعلك تلهث كأنك تجري في سباق تسابق بطل الرواية فقط لتمسك به تود لو إنك تهزه وأنت تصرخ توقف ! هل كان هو الجوع فقط أمم إنه الذريعة لكل هذا المس الجنوني والتصرفات الخارجة عن السيطرة كل هذا الهذيان هذا التطرف في الأفكار هذا الغضب هذه السخرية وهذاالكبرياء!

اللعبة في الرواية إن جاز لي تسميتها بذلك كانت تكمن في الحالة النفسية التي خلفها الجوع أو لعله العكس تماما كما بدا لي أحيانا .. هذاالرجل جائع لحد الموت ومغررو أيضا بصفاقة ولا أد...more

لم أكن أقرأ بل كنتُ ألهث هذا ما يفعله الكاتب كنوت هامبسون في رواية الجوع يجعلك تلهث كأنك تجري في سباق تسابق بطل الرواية فقط لتمسك به تود لو إنك تهزه وأنت تصرخ توقف ! هل كان هو الجوع فقط أمم إنه الذريعة لكل هذا المس الجنوني والتصرفات الخارجة عن السيطرة كل هذا الهذيان هذا التطرف في الأفكار هذا الغضب هذه السخرية وهذاالكبرياء!

اللعبة في الرواية إن جاز لي تسميتها بذلك كانت تكمن في الحالة النفسية التي خلفها الجوع أو لعله العكس تماما كما بدا لي أحيانا .. هذاالرجل جائع لحد الموت ومغررو أيضا بصفاقة ولا أدري كيف ممكن أن يجتمع الأمرين معا !
أرغب أحيانا في تحليل الأمور وهذه الرواية تتيح لك ذلك فيصبح الأمر متعة خالصة ، خاصة وإنها مزيج من الواقعية والخيال توصلت إلى إنه ربما لأن بطل الرواية كاتب مبتدىء في عالم غير مهتم به وبوجوده وبنوعية مقالاته فإن ذلك يفسر هذه الأنفه والكبرياء والجنون والتظاهر بالقوة ..
ولعل وقوفه بين رئيس التحرير بكل إنصياع تام وجذل كان يوضح شيئا من هذه العجرفة فعلى الرغم من أن رئيسه يطلب منه أن يختار موضوعات لها شعبية عند القراء يجنح هو إلى الفلسفة والمقالات الفكرية ، المقالات التي يندر أن تجد لها قراء وهي بالتأكيد المقالات التي لا تبيع ..
أفكار لا تُشترى تظل محبوسة في الرأس ومع شدة الجوع يتداعى العقل يتشتت يعجز عن التفكير السليم .. وينفجر حين يصبح الكاتب محاصرا بجوعه وقلة حيلته

يغلب على الرواية السرد الذاتي وهي رواية مليئة بالإنفعالات الصاخبة والهذيان والصراع الداخلي بصوت عال يصل لدرجة العنف وإيذاء النفس
التصرفات التي يقوم بها بطل الرواية المحاصر بالهواجس التي يغذيها الجوع إنها أكثر من تلك الحالة تحولت إلى لعبة يستمتع بها وكأنه يستشف علو قدرته على تحمل كل هذا الألم
لعل هذا الألم وما يصحبه من رؤى وتهيؤات هو ماكان يلهمه للكتابة أو ربما هي طريقته في الحياة..

قد يقفز القارىء إلى عدة استنتاجات حين يقرأ هذه الرواية خاصة حي يمر على مشهد الحب الوحيد والتي تظهر فيه براعة الكاتب في الحوار وردود الأفعال
وكيف ربط الجوع بالحب وكيف ممكن أن يكون كلاهما سببا لأقصى حالات النشوة أوأقصى حالات اليأس حقيقة لقد كان مشهدا غريبا صادما ومؤذيا ..

رواية الجوع من الروايات النفسية والذكية الهامة
والتي تستحق حقا أن تعطيها جزءا من وقتك
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Apr 30, 2012 Emir Never rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

CHRISTIANIA(Oslo), Norway-- Knut Hamsun, 31, has published his first novel called Hunger, about a young man who starves himself. Hunger met with surprisingly wide acclaim, despite veering from traditional novelistic route.

"It is a work devoid of plot, action, and--but for the narrator--character. By nineteenth century standards, it is a work in which nothing happens. The radical subjectivity of the narrator effectively eliminates the basic concerns of the traditional novel," said Paul Auster, a...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Rakhi Dalal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This powerful work of writing by Knut Hamsun, clearly lets you think what the state of ‘hunger’ can do to a human being. Yes, by ‘hunger’, the author does really refer to the state of starvation in the absence of food. This idea of ‘hunger’, which looks like just another figure when it makes its appearance in one’s view in the form of some statistics, something which the well-to do people cannot even imagine about, is the essential sketch of this extremely thought provoking work by Hamsun.

Tellin...more This powerful work of writing by Knut Hamsun, clearly lets you think what the state of ‘hunger’ can do to a human being. Yes, by ‘hunger’, the author does really refer to the state of starvation in the absence of food. This idea of ‘hunger’, which looks like just another figure when it makes its appearance in one’s view in the form of some statistics, something which the well-to do people cannot even imagine about, is the essential sketch of this extremely thought provoking work by Hamsun.

Telling us about a young writer, who isn’t making much in terms of money, the author exceptionally explains what ‘hunger’ can do even to the mind of a well educated person. The struggle of the young writer, while going on without bread for days at a stretch, is displayed here in a bone chilling manner. Sometimes, it drives the poor soul into delirium. He plunges into imagining things and events, talking to himself, inventing new words or furiously trying to work over a new idea for a story or a piece of writing so as to be able to sell it to a newspaper to earn some crones. Sometimes, when overpowered by hunger, he also tries to frighten people and to mock them. This gives him an outlet and a momentarily refuge from the agonizing pain inside. Though he soon recovers his senses and reproaches himself for doing such things.

He keeps looking for a job but doesn’t succeed. One by one he pawns every thing that belongs to him to get some crones for food till at last, he is just left with a blanket and the clothes that he wears everyday.

His struggle makes something inside you break. You feel a sense of anger growing inside for not being able to help that feeble, slowly decaying person. More so when he is wet from sleeping on a bench and extremely cold. But what really fills you with anxiety is that the poor man, though almost broke, plunging into the state of hunger every now and then and never once sleeping on a full stomach, still exhibits a strong moral character. He, perhaps because of pride, doesn’t tell anyone about his state of condition. Once, when he is given some exchange money accidentally by a shopkeeper, the weight of those coins in his pocket keep weighing upon his conscience. Till at last, he gives that money to a cake seller voluntarily and goes penniless again. It makes you more anxious. What was he trying to prove? Can anyone imagine parting from the last meagre sum of money when one is already hungry for some 3-4 days and literally dying of starvation? Would I ever do the same if I ever was in same condition? Sitting comfortably in my chair, surrounded by material things which provide a sense of security, I will perhaps answer ‘yes’. But what, if otherwise? It is too dreadful even to imagine that.

Here the author succeeded in shaking me hard and let me to think what this feeling of ‘hunger’ could do to poor, illiterate persons? People who haven’t got the faculty of thinking and whose conscience doesn’t bother them? Wouldn’t it make thieves, murderers and vilest creatures out of them?

Thinking such led me to ponder upon another form of ‘hunger’, a ‘hunger’ of acknowledgement, of empathy, of the feeling of being understood and loved and cared for. What if this necessity to be understood by someone, to be able to talk to someone and to express one’s innermost feelings is suppressed by the pressure of earning a living, by the load of expectations of people around, by the every day’s struggle to assert an existence in the world? What all can happen then? Perhaps, it can lead to a state of insanity or perhaps the person, intoxicated by the fever of these pressures; succumb to one moment’s whim hence by turning into a vile character. Aren’t a large number of crimes that we witness, somehow a result of this ‘hunger’?

Towards the end, even our virtuous hero, succumb to unbearable hunger and harasses the same cake seller for some cakes, which he could eat and thus satisfy his hunger. His salvation comes in the end when he gets a job at a ship which is about to sail soon.

Does the author gives hope toward the end or does he place a big question mark before us? I would let you to ponder upon that. But it is definitely not one easy read. It engrossed me into reading it in single sitting and didn't let me even budge or take my eyes off awhile. Its style reminded me of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and hence made a lasting impression upon me.

Highly recommended!
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Sep 19, 2010 Mark Desrosiers rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, translation-fail

This seems like a grim novel, perfect for 2010, but lemme tell you, that wordslinger Robert Bly just gives us a cold turd on the doorstep in his ubiquitous translation. I know the novel's supposed to be humorless, but there's something about how Bly just goes sentence-by-sentence and clearly doesn't get some idioms (odd descriptions of necks and heads lolling to the shoulder strike me as, y'know "shrugs" and "nods" -- it's like Bly is just going literal and we shouldn't care either way). I'm hun...more

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mindaugas what did you think of lyngstad's translation? I have not read bly's translation so I no idea of the reported problems with. but I did quite enjoy lyng...more
Feb 10, 2011 06:18am

Mark Desrosiers I did review the Lyngstad translation here -- a world of difference, although on the whole I'm still not sure what the fuss about Hunger is all about.
Feb 10, 2011 03:41pm

Vincent Stewart I’m so glad I read this review, as I was just about to order Bly’s translation. I’ve already been bitterly disappointed with George Egerton’s translat...more
Oct 26, 2012 10:52am

Mar 19, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, lincoln-park-group, nobel-prize, favorites, scandinavian-lit

Hunger by Knut Hamsun is a startling narrative told by a young journalist who is literally starving throughout the novel. Hamsun's technique, achieved in this first novel of his published in 1888, is to present a first person narrative that demonstrates a man subject to delusions and psychological stress that almost reaches the breaking point. This is not unusual for a contemporary author, but in the late nineteenth century it was very unusual.

Written after Hamsun's return from an ill-fated tour...more Hunger by Knut Hamsun is a startling narrative told by a young journalist who is literally starving throughout the novel. Hamsun's technique, achieved in this first novel of his published in 1888, is to present a first person narrative that demonstrates a man subject to delusions and psychological stress that almost reaches the breaking point. This is not unusual for a contemporary author, but in the late nineteenth century it was very unusual.

Written after Hamsun's return from an ill-fated tour of America, Hunger is loosely based on the author's own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890. Set in fin-de-siecle Christiana, the novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusional existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis. While he vainly tries to maintain an outer shell of respectability, his mental and physical decay are recounted in detail. His ordeal, enhanced by his inability or unwillingness to pursue a professional career, which he deems unfit for someone of his abilities, is pictured in a series of encounters which Hamsun himself described as 'a series of analyses.' In many ways, the protagonist of the novel displays traits reminiscent of the underground man and Raskolnikov, whose creator, Fyodor Dostoevsky, was one of Hamsun's main influences. Hunger encompasses two of Hamsun's literary and ideological leitmotifs: His insistence that the intricacies of the human mind ought to be the main object of modern literature.
“The intelligent poor individual was a much finer observer than the intelligent rich one. The poor individual looks around him at every step, listens suspiciously to every word he hears from the people he meets; thus, every step he takes presents a problem, a task, for his thoughts and feelings. He is alert and sensitive, he is experienced, his soul has been burned...”

His literary program, to describe 'the whisper of the blood and the pleading of the bone marrow', is thoroughly manifest in Hunger; as seen here: “And the great spirit of darkness spread a shroud over me...everything was silent-everything. But upon the heights soughed the everlasting song, the voice of the air, the distant, toneless humming which is never silent.”
And he also demonstrated a depreciation of modern, urban civilization. In the famous opening lines of the novel, he ambiguously describes Christiana as "this strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him . . .." (p.3)
In Hamsun's story you have the unnamed narrator imagining actions of others, impersonating other people and living on the brink of an existence that seems surreal. In effective clear prose this rises to the level of a nightmare in print. The beauty and power of this book makes it a great read and one that I will not forget.(less)

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Sep 05, 2007 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A wiser man than me (read: Chris Rock) once said, "If a homeless person has a funny sign, he hasn't been homeless that long. A real homeless person is too hungry to be funny." But what happens when you've just become homeless, when you tell yourself you'll spend just one or two nights outside, before your clothes have become tattered, and before hunger has completely set in?

Knut Hamsun's first novel, Hunger, published in 1890, reads like a play-by-play of one man's descent into poverty and insa...more

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Mar 02, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

A man in dirty clothes approached my brother and his wife as we were leaving a restaurant in Seattle. He asked us for our leftovers. As he was getting it, he said "Wait! Is there meat in here? I don't eat meat. Then the threw a fit.

How can a hungry, homeless man pass up food? He must still have his pride. He might just have said, "I have preferences goddammit! I am a man!"

Pride can get in the way of charity. This man does not wish to merely exist; He wants to live.

This book is an incredible pic...more

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Mar 07, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Shelves: 1001-core, 501

By Jove! This novel is beautifully depressing! It is beautiful because of the way it is written: magical stream-of-consciousness style with the meager plot and with no misplaced or excess words at all! It is depressing because of the theme: hunger. It is not hunger for love or something. It is the hunger that most Filipinos know: hunger for food.

The novel, originally written in German and first published in 1890, revolves around a struggling writer in Christiana (now Oslo). Herr Hamsun did not n...more By Jove! This novel is beautifully depressing! It is beautiful because of the way it is written: magical stream-of-consciousness style with the meager plot and with no misplaced or excess words at all! It is depressing because of the theme: hunger. It is not hunger for love or something. It is the hunger that most Filipinos know: hunger for food.

The novel, originally written in German and first published in 1890, revolves around a struggling writer in Christiana (now Oslo). Herr Hamsun did not name the writer but during his first apprehension as a street vagrant, he falsely give his name as Tangen. The story tells us about his bouts of hunger. The story started with him owing rent for his room. His application to become a bookkeeper was turned down because he dated his letter wrongly (because he was hallucinating due to hunger). In haste, he wrote an article and submitted it to the newspaper editor. While waiting, he was kicked out by his landlady. His article got published for few shillings but was enough to feed him for just few days. He slept in the park, cemetery, train station, etc until his next article gets published. That cycle was repeated a number of times until the end when he opted to leave Christiana for an unknown destination.

The minor characters are interesting and Tangen's interactions with them bring out the beauty of Tangen's true character: that despite being poor, Tangen has a heart of gold. I am not saying that he is Gandhi-like as there were scenes that shows he is not: those because of hunger, he chewed off the wooden post of his former apartment, bit his finger or in that ultimate shocker when he tried to eat pieces of raw meat clinging on the scrap bone he begged from the abattoir. At one time, he even questioned and cursed God for his miserable life. However, when he has money, no matter how meager, he makes sure that he gives some to people who asked for help. He even had the time for love. A rich lady got interested on him as she thought that he was only not too careful about his appearance but not as poor as what he is in reality.

However, Tangen maybe poor in terms of money but he is rich in talent and creativity and in the end we know that wherever he will go, he would have a rich life ahead of him. That hope is what made made this a worthwhile read.

This novel is said to be semi-autobiographical. Knut Hamsun also stayed in Oslo and later migrated to the US. He went back to Oslo as poor as when he first left it. However, Knut Hamsun (born in Norway) is now considered as one of the best European modernist authors and his stream-of-consciousness style was later adapted and popularized by Henry James, William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. How is that for an original style? (less)

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Sep 26, 2012 Youmna Higagy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"وخيمت حولي الظلمات.. تلك الظلمات الأبدية الحالكة البعيدة الغور التي اغتاظ منها فكري دون أن يقوى على إدراكها.. و يا ليت شعري.. بأي شئ يمكن مقارنتها؟ بذلت مجهودا يائسا لأجد لفظا يكون من السواد بحيث يمكنه أن يصف هذه العتمة.. لفظا أسود قاتما يسود فمي عند النطق به!!!"

شخصية عجيبة!! متناقضة!! كل ما أحس بالشفقة ناحيته يفاجئني بتصرف وقح..
كبرياء.. غرور.. كذب.. سخط.. هستريا.. تشتت.. تضرع.. دموع.. و ندم!!!

متشرد.. عاطل..

جوع.. برد.. وحدة

مين السبب؟؟ هل فعلا قدره كدا؟؟ أم جناه يداه؟؟
وصل لكدا إزاي؟؟

وهل كل ا...more

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Feb 09, 2009 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: swedish-and-norwegian

Started reading the original Norwegian edition today. I'm fluent in Swedish but don't really know Norwegian, though I have read maybe half a dozen Norwegian books. Comparing with English, it's rather like reading something in broad Scots dialect that's been written down phonetically. Iain Banks fans will be able to relate.

So far, it's pretty good, but I'm only 15 pages into it.

*****************************************************

I come down the main staircase of the hotel. At reception, Zenit,...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Gloria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Gloria by: Rod

Stream-of-consciousness.

Admittedly, not my favorite style when it's time to be engrossed in a story. Hamsun, however, managed not only to keep my attention, but to physically feel each and every one of his character's pangs of hunger.
I once fasted for 21 days. The gnawing emptiness one feels is incomparable. However, unlike Hamsun's character (and Hamsun himself, as we're led to believe this is largely an autobiographical tale), I had at my disposal clean water, juice, tea ... and, of course, th...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Con McVeety rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lately I've been in book review writing funk, try as I might I can not corral all the thoughts swimming in my head and put them into a review that makes sense and is well writtin, it certainly doesn't help that I'm too easily distracted or that I'm a horrible speller. So where to start with this classic book, It takes place and is writen at the end of the 19th Century, but feels more at place with the beginning of the 20th Century, which it's Lost Generation of the 1920's, plus other literay mo...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Nour rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

الجوع/ كنوت هامسون
هذه الرواية هي سَبْرْ لأعماق النفس البشرية ضدَّ ألدّ أعدائها: الجوع! الجوع الذي قد يدفع بالنفس البشرية إلى حدود الجنون والهذيان والموت والشك في الإله_ تنزّه عن ذلك. بطل الرواية كاتب مغمور ومبتدئ يصارع لأجل كسب لقمة العيش في شوارع مدينة كريستيانا عن طريق كتابة مقالات تصلح للنشر؛ لكنه يفشل عادةً بسبب ما يعانيه من جوع وفقر مدقع, قد يدفعه لبيع أزرار معطفه بحثاً عمّا يسدُّ به رمقه!
أكثر ما شدني في الرواية هو كيف حاول البطل الحفاظ على كرامته حتى آخر رمق, حاول أن يصمد أمام حاجته الماس...more الجوع/ كنوت هامسون
هذه الرواية هي سَبْرْ لأعماق النفس البشرية ضدَّ ألدّ أعدائها: الجوع! الجوع الذي قد يدفع بالنفس البشرية إلى حدود الجنون والهذيان والموت والشك في الإله_ تنزّه عن ذلك. بطل الرواية كاتب مغمور ومبتدئ يصارع لأجل كسب لقمة العيش في شوارع مدينة كريستيانا عن طريق كتابة مقالات تصلح للنشر؛ لكنه يفشل عادةً بسبب ما يعانيه من جوع وفقر مدقع, قد يدفعه لبيع أزرار معطفه بحثاً عمّا يسدُّ به رمقه!
أكثر ما شدني في الرواية هو كيف حاول البطل الحفاظ على كرامته حتى آخر رمق, حاول أن يصمد أمام حاجته الماسة للطعام_ والتي كانت تبدو حاجةً حيوانية معظم الوقت_ وحاول أن يظلَّ إنساناً رغم جوعه, لذلك كان بإمكانه إعطاء ما قد يملكه من نقود لأي شخص معوز قد يصادفه, رغم حاجته الشديدة بنفس الوقت لهذا المال! ولكن هذا الكرامة تتساقط تدريجياً في النهاية, فلا يعود هناك ما يربطه بهذه الأرض, فيقرر الإبحار في أول سفينة يقبله ربّانها كعاملٍ فيها؛ علّ حظه يختلف تماماً حين يرحل!
استحق هذا الكتاب نجمتان فقط مني ربما لأنني قرأت الكتاب مترجماً؛ فكانت لغته ركيكةً إلى حدِ ما, إضافة إلى تسرب الملل إلى في العديد من المواضع.
لا أنصح به لمنْ يعانون من الكآبة أو يمرون بأزمات نفسيّة أياً كان نوعها لأنه ببساطة سيزيد حالتهم سوءاً! ولكنه رائع لمن يملكون الرغبة في الوصول إلى حدود الجنون والهذيان.
الجوع: أمرٌ لا نفكر به كثيراً ربما, لكنه قد يقضي علينا تماماً لو تمكن منّا!
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Sep 04, 2012 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: norway, nobel-laureate, published-1890, autumn-2012, autobiography-memoir, re-read, paper-read, film-only, filthy-lucre, books-about-books-and-book-shops

Film time!

Per Oscarsson ... Pontus
Gunnel Lindblom ... Ylajali
Birgitte Federspiel ... Her sister
Knud Rex ... Landlord

=================

Autobiography couched in fiction

There is a fundamental root here that keeps me coming back to scenes within The Red Room(1879) by August Strindberg; no, I'm not saying it is plagiarism as such because Hunger(1890) goes the way of bleak insanity whilst The Red Room is more about social comment (with added mysoginy and absinthe). To my mind there is no doubt that Ham...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Julia Boechat Machado rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, tingle-of-the-spine, punch-in-the-stomach, norwegian-literature, 1890s

O livro mais conhecido de Knut Hamsun é exatamente sobre o que o título faz pensar: é sobre a fome. O personagem principal vaga faminto por Cristiânia (nome antigo da cidade de Oslo), e narra todo esse fantástico romance psicológico pensando em sua fome. E quem, sentindo fome, pensa em algo mais?

Tenho duas traduções desse livro para o português, uma das quais é do Drummond e faz parte da coleção Nobel. Acho que ainda não temos uma tradução direta.

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Dec 09, 2012 Nilesh Kashyap marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to Nilesh by: s.penkevich

Shelves: 1001-books, nobel-laureates, translated

Right now seems the right time to restart this!

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Nov 26, 2012 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bitchin

A portrait of the artist as an imbecile. Apparently this is a 'harrowing' work, which, as I found it hilarious, begs the question: am I messed up or is everyone else wrong? [It is certainly alarming how often I need to ask that].

You see, the thing is, Hamsun’s protagonist isn’t [solely] the victim of circumstances beyond his control, he essentially, willfully, attempts to bring those disasterous circumstances upon himself, or exacerbate them. There are times when he could improve his situation,...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Angus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-novel-100, nobel-laureates, reviewed-and-blogged, 5-stars

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Probably the book that best describes me

I really can’t help raving about this. I always thank my lucky stars for that day when I bought this at a secondhand book store without intending to. It must be the universe conspiring with the forces; the book spine stared straight into my eyes. I couldn’t resist; I felt a sense of literary power emanating from the book.

It was during that time when I’d just randomly pick a book. After reading this, my impulses were justif...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Niles Stanley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I went into this book expecting some really crazy shit to happen, from reading descriptions. It turns out that while nothing intensely shocking happens in it, there were scenes where I had to close the book and take a break from the insanity that was going on as this man tried to get something to eat.

The narrator, whose real name is never confirmed, and who is never described, just lets his thoughts bleed onto the pages, with no real regard for making off what is and isn't dialogue. He describes...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Stef rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

It's hard to say I enjoyed this book. It felt more like continuous sucker punches, the response being first visceral, then emotional, and I think that's what Hamsun intended. You ache and groan and end up completely exhausted and emotionally drained, much like the narrator.

I disagree w/ much of Paul Auster's introduction. There is a human element in this book that characterizes the primal tension between self and other, nature and society. Anyone who's lived in such abject poverty and desperatio...more

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Oct 07, 2008 Mr. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hunger is a remarkable first-person account of a poor writer in Oslo who is starving. Knut Hamsun was able to paint a vivid and breathtaking portrait of the psychology of nihilism and self-contempt in this novel, a work for which he will always be remembered. It was obvious to me upon reading this that Hunger is extremely influential, it seemed to have a lasting impact on the more existential writing of the early 20th century, most clearly with Franz Kafka's story, "The Hunger Artist." For all i...more

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Oct 30, 2008 Nate D rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Nate D by: Patrick and Allen via Goodreads

Shelves: fin-de-siecle, norway

I think I've seen this novel referred to as the beginning of modernism, and it makes sense. Free from conventional plot, characters, or message, Knut Hamsun's nihilistic odyssey dwells entirely in its incrementally starving writer-narrator's head as he gets hung up on random details of his surroundings, the peculiarities of his internal sensations, his increasingly fragmented thoughts. Reading this right after Great Jones Street, I can't help but find parallels between their respective narrators...more

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Nov 06, 2007 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is exactly the kind of book I usually can't enjoy enough to finish: a heavily stylistic 19th century novel in which nothing ever happens. Despite that, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A great part of the appeal is Hamsun's detailed, minute by minute account of what it's like to be at the absolute end of one's means, when every resource and safety net is finally exhausted. In the first fifty pages, Hamsun's hero is evicted from his room, pawns his last possession, and spends the money on a single...more

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About Knut Hamsun

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil." He insisted that the intricacies of the human mind ought to be the main object of modern literature, to describe the "whisper of the blood, and the pleading of the bone marrow". Hamsun pursued his literary program, debuting in 1890 with the psychological novel Hunger.

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Quotes from Hunger

“...I will exile my thoughts if they think of you again, and I will rip my lips out if they say your name once more. Now if you do exist, I will tell you my final word in life or in death, I tell you goodbye.” — 82 people liked it

“I suffered no pain, my hunger had taken the edge off; instead I felt pleasantly empty, untouched by everything around me and happy to be unseen by all. I put my legs up on the bench and leaned back, the best way to feel the true well-being of seclusion. There wasn't a cloud in my mind, nor did I feel any discomfort, and I hadn't a single unfulfilled desire or craving as far as my thought could reach. I lay with open eyes in a state of utter absence from myself and felt deliciously out of it.” — 53 people liked it

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