Miles Goetz
06-12-2013, 10:06 PM
Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) perhaps epitomizes the idea of a failed genius. Famous throughout Europe for his novels "Hunger," "Pan," and "Victoria," Hamsun alienated and enraged many of his admirers with his unabashed support for Adolf Hitler and National Socialism during the second world war, including giving his Nobel Medal to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and welcoming the German invasion of Norway with open arms.
Many base their view of Hamsun on his unfortunate political views rather than the novels he crafted. It is a shame how so many people deprive themselves of reading his works due to this.
Today I will be reviewing Hamsun's 1917 novel "The Growth of the Soil" (Markens Grøde in Norwegian.)
We are told the tale of Isac, a man unknown. He ventures beyond into the woods to scratch a living out from the soil. He toils and bleeds, until one day the burden is eased with the arrival of Inger, a hare-lipped, salt-of-the-earth woman who becomes his wife and the bearer of his children. Isac soon grows prosperous, and his fruitful farm is noticed by all who pass through, whether they be city-born or soil-marred nomads. After many years of sowing their rewards from the earth, tragedy befalls the clan, and all changes forever, a fitting metaphor for humanity's growing isolation from the elements that made us what we are.
Growth of the Soil is not an easy book to read. Hamsun's prose is spartan, yet, unlike Hemingway, one of Hamsun's protegees, it is lyrical and enthralling. Like Dostoevsky, the action is slow-building, but it culminates in a crescendo which will astound you.
If you seek one of the most original novels ever devised, read Growth of the Soil, and you will find yourself enchanted.
Many base their view of Hamsun on his unfortunate political views rather than the novels he crafted. It is a shame how so many people deprive themselves of reading his works due to this.
Today I will be reviewing Hamsun's 1917 novel "The Growth of the Soil" (Markens Grøde in Norwegian.)
We are told the tale of Isac, a man unknown. He ventures beyond into the woods to scratch a living out from the soil. He toils and bleeds, until one day the burden is eased with the arrival of Inger, a hare-lipped, salt-of-the-earth woman who becomes his wife and the bearer of his children. Isac soon grows prosperous, and his fruitful farm is noticed by all who pass through, whether they be city-born or soil-marred nomads. After many years of sowing their rewards from the earth, tragedy befalls the clan, and all changes forever, a fitting metaphor for humanity's growing isolation from the elements that made us what we are.
Growth of the Soil is not an easy book to read. Hamsun's prose is spartan, yet, unlike Hemingway, one of Hamsun's protegees, it is lyrical and enthralling. Like Dostoevsky, the action is slow-building, but it culminates in a crescendo which will astound you.
If you seek one of the most original novels ever devised, read Growth of the Soil, and you will find yourself enchanted.