Customer Reviews

The Wanderer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When do you play 'on muted strings'? When you are 50 and seeking to make sense of the path you trod. This is the duo of tales Hamsun produced in his middle years, that draws the curtain on his early triumphs and (as it transpires) sets the scene for his later masterpieces the Wayfarers and Growth of the Soil. The division between the narrator and the author is threadbare here, artistically necessary; and through this you get an insight into the characters that burned so brightly in the earlier works but who were much more detached from the writer. Hamsun sets this scene in the opening pages, the sense of being back to somewhere he knew before. And then the muted strings can play. A masterpiece again.

I can see how this book might have a limited appeal for the general reader, for it is kind of "out there". But I must admit that now and then I relish reading something a little offbeat and cockeyed, and this book by Hamsun satisfies that description quite well. The narrator of the two short novels which make up this volume certainly marched to the sound of a different drum-actuated by the myriad impacts of nature on his senses and by the rhythms of his own emotions.

At the beginning of the first novel the wanderer, Knut Pedersen, has fled the city, seeking peace and nurturing from nature. We see him at the end of the second novel wintering alone in a cabin near the mountains, once more seeking peace through solitude in nature and reflecting on what he has learned of life. These scenes bracket the story of his experiences as an itinerant peasant, and particularly his relations with Captain Falkenberg and his wife, wealthy members of the gentry.

Knut, in his peasant role is an extremely enigmatic character. He is an able and versatile worker who does many things well, and even has a flair for inventing. Even though we are privy to his thoughts through the narration, there is a sense of mystery and profound depths about the man. His relations with other people seem terribly erratic-sometimes very poised, other times inept and bumbling.

This is nowhere more evident than in his ambiguous attachment to Mrs. Falkenberg, a young woman who obviously feels neglected and unhappy in her marriage. Knut, in late middle age and far below her station in life, is smitten to his depths and can't seem to suppress an almost pathological desire to achieve some type of intimacy with her. In his more lucid moments, usually after being humiliated, he admits to himself that he is ridiculous. Through his perspective from the background, we see a domestic tragedy unfold. But this breakdown of a marriage, and its attendant unpleasantness for master, mistress, and servants, would all be rather conventional if not seen through the emotionally charged temperament of Knut.

His endless speculations about human behavior are sometimes very penetrating, sometimes self-delusional. But he remains unrepentant for his emotional involvement in the affairs of others, seeing life as something to be experienced through participation, even when painful; rather than being something to be studied at a remove, like literature. Sometimes he is a meddler, sometimes guardian angel. His past is shadowy and there are hints that he has gone through cycles of emotional involvement, then renunciation and search for peace. His background is cultured and he walks a fine line trying to fit in with the everyday life of the peasants. Some of his experiences are strange indeed, even macabre, such as his taking a thumbnail from a graveyard, and subsequently being harassed by the previous owner.Something in Knut's soul seems to be a magnet for episodes of intense emotional content.

Nature, with its serenity and its impersonal immensity, it's intimately caressing sound and scent, is ever present for him in a vital way. It seems that ultimately his goal is to tell truthfully, without sparing himself, of the forces impacting his psyche from both within and without. The translators seem to have done a wonderful job of capturing the poetic spirit of of these novels, although there are occasionally passages that I find a little obscure; which may be more my fault than theirs. I highly recommend this volume for anyone who savors great fiction presented from an original angle.

This is my least favorite out of the four by Hamsun I have read. As in most of what he wrote I think a lot of his personal screwiness comes through in the main character of the book. In this case its a man who spends his life roaming from town to town in Norway doing random labor for hire. He gets stalkerish obsessions with women who it is in innappropriate for him to have interest in, namely the wives of his employers. Mainly this book focuses on the main characters obsessions, manipulations and petty intrigues involving these women. The Wanderer isn't a bad book but its definitly not where you want to start if you want to read some of Hamsuns work.