He fears and flouts the dominance of the many, and his heroes, who are nothing but slightly varied images of himself, are invariably marked by an originality of speech and action that brings them close to, if not across, the borderline of the eccentric. Instead, he must be classed as an individualistic romanticist and a highly subjective aristocrat, whose foremost passion in life is violent, defiant deviation from everything average and ordinary. Hearing of it, one might expect him to prove a man of the masses, full of keen social consciousness. The enthusiasm of this approval is a characteristic symptom that throws interesting light on Russia as well as on Hamsun. It spread long ago over the rest of Europe, taking deepest roots in Russia, where several editions of his collected works have already appeared, and where he is spoken of as the equal of Tolstoy and Dostoyevski. His reputation is not confined to his own country or the two Scandinavian sister nations. Both these, however, seem to have less than he of that width of outlook, validity of interpretation and authority of tone that made the greater masters what they were. Those approaching most nearly to his position are probably Selma Lagerlöf in Sweden and Henrik Pontoppidan in Denmark. Easily a 4 out of 5 stars for me.Since the death of Ibsen and Strindberg, Hamsun is undoubtedly the foremost creative writer of the Scandinavian countries. I found this book to be unsettling and it has rattled around in my head weeks after finishing, which to me is a mark of a fantastic horror novel. It's like a horrifying car accident that you can't pull your eyes away from no matter how much you want to. The things he says and does and even thinks while facing starvation and humility are so jarring and off-putting, but at the same time entrancing. If you have ever faced anything similar (the humiliation that goes with being poor, hungry, and desperate), you will easily relate to the protagonist.

There's nothing over the top gore-y but one of the reasons it's so impactful is that this is very true to life. And because this is told in first person, you have a front seat view of his descent. The reason why I thought it was horror: The protagonist faces extreme desperation and virtually loses his mind. This is told in first person and in a sometimes rambling and 'stream of consciousness' style. In Hunger, we follow Hamsun's retelling of his impoverished youth where he faced tremendous mental and physical hardships. Written by Knut Hamsun, an influential and controversial writer, who has won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 and also openly supported Hitler and Nazi ideology. This is one of those non-horror books that easily could have been categorized as horror.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun