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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Vomit
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny
A single-minded book. Hunger at its most fundamental. A nameless man wanders Christiania in the late 19th century, going long stretches without food. His pride or arrogance prevents him from taking steps towards improving his situation. He suffers but will not help himself.
Interesting book. But not anything that particularly impressed me.
3.5 Days Without Bread out of 5
Interesting book. But not anything that particularly impressed me.
3.5 Days Without Bread out of 5
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
An annoying book about some guy wallowing in self-pity. Doesn't reveal anything to the reader.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
More so than any other psychologically driven piece of literature I've read this truly felt like it was diving into the mind of someone unhinged. This book is filled with a sudden and inexplicable changes in our narrator's mood and bizzare thought processes and decisions unlike anything else I've read. This was such a brilliant book and if your a fan of Chuck Palahniuk or similar authors I think you'd really appreciate it.
This book itself really deserves a five star rating, but it's hard for me to do that while acknowledging that the author was a racist and Hitler supporter. So a 4.75 is where I've landed.
This book itself really deserves a five star rating, but it's hard for me to do that while acknowledging that the author was a racist and Hitler supporter. So a 4.75 is where I've landed.
One might find themselves starving at any time for any number of things. Love, respect, artistic fullfillment, or of course one of our most innate desires - the constant need for sustenance. Without the fundamental fuel our body and mind require to continue functioning, all the aformentioned wants and needs become unreachable, or at the very least are thrown into dissaray.
Hunger explores, with a disturbingly vivid approach, how this occurs. It burrows unflinchingly into the gradually degrading psyche of a man faced with perpetual destitution and despair, all but strapping the reader down, prying open their eyes so that they might be incapable of looking away. To this end, Hunger utilises the first-person perspective with powerful results, the prose itself distorting and snapping to the unstable mental character of the protagonist.
Much like Dostoevsky - a very aptly repeated point of comparison - Hamsun manages to illustrate with gorgeous detail each and every seemingly minute incident with respect to how it contorts the protagonist's conception of the world around them. A series of subtle incidents and warped observations is what effectively constitutes the plot of the book - a stream of conciousness wandering the streets of late 1800's Oslo, making note of all it experiences.
To be sure, the protagonist faces far more complex psychological issues than merely those which result from wrestling with his desparaging circumstances. Made only more acute as the novel progresses, his uncompromising adherence to a semblence of morality and absolute refusal to let go even a single ounce of his pride amounts to what is essentially a prison of his own creation. This irrational cell, gradually reinforced by his increasingly spiraling mania, raises a fascinating question - Were the seeds of psychological decline already present before he began drowning in destitution (perhaps even causing it), or was his madness simply an inevitable result of his dire situation?
As a writer, the protagonist's struggles often return to his seemingly hopeless efforts to create worthwhile art, to satisfyingly express his ideas. Even with plenty of food on one's plate this can be a monumental challenge, so it pains me to imagine just how many artists out there right now will live and die without ever actualising their potential, unceasingly distracted from their passions by the ruthless demands and restrictions of their impoverishment.
Hunger explores, with a disturbingly vivid approach, how this occurs. It burrows unflinchingly into the gradually degrading psyche of a man faced with perpetual destitution and despair, all but strapping the reader down, prying open their eyes so that they might be incapable of looking away. To this end, Hunger utilises the first-person perspective with powerful results, the prose itself distorting and snapping to the unstable mental character of the protagonist.
Much like Dostoevsky - a very aptly repeated point of comparison - Hamsun manages to illustrate with gorgeous detail each and every seemingly minute incident with respect to how it contorts the protagonist's conception of the world around them. A series of subtle incidents and warped observations is what effectively constitutes the plot of the book - a stream of conciousness wandering the streets of late 1800's Oslo, making note of all it experiences.
To be sure, the protagonist faces far more complex psychological issues than merely those which result from wrestling with his desparaging circumstances. Made only more acute as the novel progresses, his uncompromising adherence to a semblence of morality and absolute refusal to let go even a single ounce of his pride amounts to what is essentially a prison of his own creation. This irrational cell, gradually reinforced by his increasingly spiraling mania, raises a fascinating question - Were the seeds of psychological decline already present before he began drowning in destitution (perhaps even causing it), or was his madness simply an inevitable result of his dire situation?
As a writer, the protagonist's struggles often return to his seemingly hopeless efforts to create worthwhile art, to satisfyingly express his ideas. Even with plenty of food on one's plate this can be a monumental challenge, so it pains me to imagine just how many artists out there right now will live and die without ever actualising their potential, unceasingly distracted from their passions by the ruthless demands and restrictions of their impoverishment.