Knut Hamsun's Hunger is an excellent example of the naturalism movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hamsun has a distinctive style that focuses on the body of his protagonist and his nervous and erratic behavior stemming from his near-constant starvation. Reading a book by Hamsun is almost as rewarding as reading about his life. Hamsun had a very interesting life for a turn of the century Norwegian.
Hunger is a great example of naturalism. It evokes much the same feeling as Ethan Frome, probably the defining book of the naturalist movement. The book takes place entirely in Kristiana (Oslo). The protagonist, who is not named, is a down-and-out writer struggling to survive. He is not lacking in inspiration and is constantly writing or revising something, often multiple pieces at once. However, what he lacks are food and shelter. He can barely subsist on his meager earnings as a writer, and due to his near-constant state of starvation, he can't summon the strength to write for sustained periods. Additionally, his privation sometimes causes “strange” states of mind. The protagonist's mood shifts near instantly from joyful to morose, from furtive and secretive to capering and cavorting in the middle of the street. Due in part to his extremely unbalanced psychological state, and also due to his extreme poverty, the protagonist is rarely able to complete a piece of work.
An interesting idiosyncrasy of the protagonist is his enduring generosity even in the face of abject poverty. At one point in the novel, the protagonist is accidentally given another woman's change in a store, and he proceeds to keep the few extra kroner. However, his conscience nags at him until he eventually gives the money away. Another time, a poor man asks him for some change, and he immediately pawns his only vest and gives the money to the man. The protagonist cannot help being overly generous, even when he really should be greedy and self-interested. I think the reason for this is a continued reaffirmation of his humanity. Despite his poverty, he can still fulfill what he sees as a necessary human action, that of giving.
The novel is semi-autobiographical. Hamsun himself went through multiple periods of extreme privation in Kristiana, and eventually set sail for America, where he worked many jobs including as a farm laborer and store clerk, all while trying to further his literary career. After several years in America, he returned (rather circumlocuitously) to Kristiana, and launched a literary career with Hunger, his first successful novel. Many of the episodes recounted in Hunger appear in Hamsun's correspondence.
This edition of the book is exceptionally nice due to the excellent introduction by Sverre Lyngstad, the translator. Lyngstad has written one of the best examples of an introduction I've ever read. It gives enough of a biographical sketch to understand Hamsun and his world, while not being overly in-depth. It also points out to the reader some of the primary themes of Hunger, while not explaining everything exhaustively and robbing the reader of all insight. It's a great introduction, and I found it especially good to read it a second time after reading the novel. A few odd episodes I'd noticed in the book were addressed in the introduction, but I hadn't remembered that when reading the novel.
Reading this first book by Hamsun has encouraged me to read a few other books. First, I want to read Hamsun's 3 other primary novels, Mysteries, Pan, and Victoria. Additionally, I want to read Sue Prideaux's biography of Edvard Munch. Munch was a contemporary of Hamsun, and the two influenced each other throughout their lives. A Munch painting appears on the cover of each of the 4 Hamsun novels in their Penguin editions. Some of Munch's paintings may have been inspired by his reading of Hamsun's works. The relationship between the two was alluded to by Karl Knausgård in his book about Munch, So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch, which I reviewed earlier. In that book, Knausgård mentioned the Prideaux biography of Munch as one of his sources. I've also read and reviewed Prideaux's biography of Nietzsche, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so reading her biography of Munch is certainly on my list.