Book Tamers| book reviews

Inspired by the author’s experiences, Knut Hamsun’s novel sits under the sign of hunger and imminent insanity. The autobiographical elements directly mingle with fiction, rendering the narration pretty contemporary.

Restless hunger

The hero, in fact the sole character of the book is a young writer, on the threshold of despair, deprived of any means to support himself. Poor as church mice, Hamsun’s tramp lives day by day only by chance. Otherwise a very intelligent man, his only weapon is his writing, which he sometimes uses to work for a newspaper whose director repays him generously.

Incapable of staying under one roof more than a week, he wanders Christiania’s streets looking for food. The acute hunger sensation doesn’t disappear and his only escape would be writing for the newspaper. But inspiration doesn’t take into account the urgent physiological factors and comes by seldom, giving him, at the same time, ideas like the terrible article on philosophical knowledge, which could obviously not soften the fire in his stomach.

Escape in surrender

“The escape”, his relief, is in his own words. Even if he scolds or encourages himself, his interior monologues were considered forerunners for those met later on in Kafka’s writing, for example. The extravagance of his logic is even more impressive as he realizes his flaws, but he delivers himself to them consciously. He rambles, he knows what he is saying but has no other option. He just surrenders.

Owner of a very imaginative mind, the hungry wanderer builds, like a sad child, stories of magic and glory, where the love story that he craves for unconsciously, has an essential place. Reality makes it so that a woman appears in his life but proves herself to be only a pale version of the one he has fancied in his imagination. Generally, people who find themselves in his way are cold and self-absorbed. Attached to nobody and nothing, the wandering romantic needs a change. A change that he will fully embrace, even If a man in his situation has to take some risks. No matter where they take him.

Written by: Ioana