Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun

Rating:
Summary: Put 2 And 2 Together People: Read This Book!
Review: i bought this book. i read this book. i lost this book on a bus in one city. i saw someone reading this book in a different city months later. we discussed knut hamsun for 5ive hours. in another city i bought this book again. who among us could read hunger, pan, mysteries, victoria, dreamers and under the autumn star without wanting to know all we can about the author? this is as natural as stubbing your toe. if reading the afore mentioned books doesnt make you want to know everything about knut hamsun, you are defective. this should be against the law. like not dying of thirst when you refuse to drink water.

they call this book ENIGMA people. figure it out. they call it that because knut hamsun was an extremely intresting person composed of complex contradictions. and this book also gives a synopsis of every major work hamsun ever produced. something like that could very well be termed invaluable, couldnt it? it also is packed full of anecdotes from hamsuns life. but then again, what did you expect?

did you know that he was a nazi sympathiser? did you know that he found a fingernail in a graveyard when he was a child and was consequently tormented by a ghost for some time?

oh yeah, if you were worried about whether its "well written" or not, i can assure you that it is. but maybe ive presumed too much.

Rating:
Summary: not hungry
Review: I wanted the writing here to be as great as Knut Hamsun's own Hunger--and of course, it simply can't be. I'm not at all sure that it's Ferguson's fault. I wanted to know what Hamsun's mindset was at the time of struggling through his masterpieces like Hunger and Pan and Victoria, I wanted to be able to get inside the great writer's mind...and it just can't be, because the author of this bio wasn't there. If you want psychological insights and great writing you must go to the source: Hamsun's own novels. Yes, you'll get dates and details here in Enigma, but that does not make for interesting and/or engaging reading. I was disappointed. The gifted, self-taught Knut Hamsun remains a favorite, though. One of the giants.