Knut Hamsun - Mysteries BOOK REVIEW

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Опубликовано:

16 янв 2023

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Комментарии : 131

@deadeyes7558 Год назад

"Hunger" is better than food.

@Johnconno 7 месяцев назад

Nagel can see straight through people, he knows his own fate and is powerless to stop it. He doesn't descend into madness.

@trondheien 7 месяцев назад

I am a huge Hamsun fan. I think you got i t right in most ways.

@alexjohnson9798 Год назад

Glad you've getting into Hamsun.

@RonaIdRayGun Год назад

Just wanted to thank you for helping me rediscover my love for reading. It's not easy staying focused on books in the modern technological era, but I'm slowly working my way back to reading every day! And thanks for all your great recommendations, recently read Hurricane Season and found it to be one of my favourite books ever. After finishing Ordinary Men, I will be reading The Passenger. Thanks again, Cliff.

@ellelala39 Год назад

I join those here who recommend Pan (1894). I've read it twice and would happily read it again.

@christopherpaul7588 Год назад

I love this book! So happy to see you doing a review of Hamsun.

@secularperspective9997 Год назад

Mysteries is my favorite book of all time. I read it once a year, every november.

@rancorcell Год назад

Nice, I read it 5 times in succession, it's that interesting, my favorite book.

@nikkivenable73 Год назад

Omg….I need to read this, don’t I? I’ve never read Hamsun so I guess I’ll make this one my first.

@opinion3742 Год назад

@@nikkivenable73 I recommend starting with Hunger.

@highiqgenius9910 Год назад

@@rancorcell nice, I read it to completion everyday

@N.Narwhal Год назад

@@highiqgenius9910 I read it twice every day. Once in the morning and once in the evening

@renoesmaeilian9489 Год назад

What a coincidence. I’m reading his memoir, “On Overgrown Paths.”

@joejs7659 Год назад

That’s a great one

@renoesmaeilian9489 Год назад

@@joejs7659 I know. I really like it.

@oleghrozman4172 Год назад

Knut Hamsun is one of the best writers i have ever read. He is on the same level with Herman Hesse, Alfred Doblin, Herman Broch, August Strindberg, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann. True master of prose.

@perperson199 Год назад

Read Pan

@To9R Год назад

Great review, loved this longer and almost conversational format. This is my favorite book of all time and one of the only ones I've reread several times, and you did a great job pointing out what it's all about. I grew up in Norway in a community very similar to the one described in Mysteries, and I find the dialogue and characters to be absolutely hilarious. It's all just so brash. Maybe the only book I laugh out loud with. The way Nagel argues or acts just to get a rise out of people just to backtrack a minute later, or keeps others conversational hostages like those scenes with Minutten at the hotel are just so delectably awkward, but also touching and existential in a way. Nagel is a very apt personification of the small-town contrarian/original type, and I'm the type of person who loves running into them at parties, watching them create chaos and befuddlement.

@reynoldstowns7868 Год назад

absolutely love Hamsun, Hunger is one of my favorite books of all time. Mysteries was weird as shit if I remember correctly (read them all in the early 90s). Pan is also great.

@hunterhemingway3477 Год назад

Hamsun has always been my author.

@shaneharrington3655 Год назад

My favorite thing about your review style is that you front end these videos always with an enthusiastic overview, no matter if you end up liking or disliking it in the end. And of course, loving the philosophical reflections on what you just read. Great channel.

@Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh17 Год назад

I read Pan a few months ago and Hunger before it, one of my favorite authors. Pan was such a good book. About man’s inability to live off the fat of the land because it leads to alienation and the like.

@John-sj6ui 6 месяцев назад

a baffling conclusion

@secularperspective9997 Год назад

This is an excerpt from the novel that followed Mysteries, called, Redaktør Lynge (Editor Lynge). I'm uncertain if it was ever translated into English, so I took it upon myself to translate. Hope it may be of interest to those of you that read Mysteries. "This last year Mrs. Dagny couldn't hear about a scandal of any sort without becoming shocked. She had also had her history of irregularities. There wasn't any major sins in them, not much as a stain, she was certain of that; but they could, however, be argued to be a tiny bit sinful. Ever since her miserable relationship with that young adventurer by the name of Johan Nagel, who was an inconspicuous dwarf, that appeared suddenly into her life the previous year and confused her greatly, had instilled in her a sorrow which she kept hidden. The relationship did not end with him bowing and saying goodbye with propriety, no, that wild man jumped head first into the ocean, and thus ended his life without saying a word." Some pages later she became enthralled with a speaker who used vivid imagery, and additionally, had the same political views as Nagel.

@stankosupreme3249 Год назад

No way, I just started reading this book two days ago. Looking forward to watching the review when I'm done!

@mariocoelho9380 Год назад

Please don't dismiss Tolstói, the "Death of Ivan Ilyich" is one of best books I've ever read. Plus, it's a short read. It's a perfect book for you to review between longer novels. Anyway, great video. Appreciate it.

@rishabhaniket1952 Год назад

Don’t worry, everyone knows Tolstoy is the great grand daddy of litt. The novel in its current form and almost all good writers knowingly or unknowingly are a part of his legacy.

@vladimirklipa5413 Год назад

I finally bought this book two days ago and I am so happy to find this book review today!

@Hermit_mouse Год назад

Love all the booklore you throw in.

@Liisa3139 Год назад

You actually seemed quite inspired by this book; a very lively and sort of relaxed, but accurate, review. You say that you didn't enjoy reading much of Mysteries, but I would say you enjoyed reviewing it, the way I feel, you enjoyed reviewing more than many times before when you enjoyed reading the book on a truly "better than food" -level. Interesting.

@rancorcell Год назад

I agree

@rancorcell Месяц назад

Thank you for reading it, I enjoy your reviews, and i feel great you read my favorite book. Reread and re-review. You got it. Though, wait at least 2 years.

@TheComatorium1414 Год назад

When I found your channel back in 2018 I maybe read a couple books a year. Since then I average ~30/per, a lot of the novels based on your recommendations. It's changed my life in a not so small way. I just wanted to say thank you for that.

@littledebby365 Год назад

That's impressive

@willwilder622 Год назад

In my late teens I gobbled up both Hunger and Mysteries (bon appétit!). This book hits a sweet spot if you're coming of age, a little like Hesse but different, so it would be interesting to reread it now to see if it's truly better than food. Scott Walker has mentioned Hamsun in interviews.

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews Год назад

No kidding? Huge Scott Walker fan. How interesting, thanks for that.

@thegeniusofthecrowd354 Год назад

Hamsun's the darkest of them all. Big influence on Bukowski too. His characters are compelling because they're in a state of perpetual crisis and in constant mortal danger from themselves. Great stuff.

@lionstandingII Год назад

RIP, Scott Walker...

@bernardoalabes6807 Год назад

Hello. Can i recomend a writer from Argentina? Some critics used to think after Borges, he fit the empty space he left in his time. His name is Juan José Saer. He lived in France half of his life, but always in his writing, he told stories about his childhood town in Argentina. At the beginning one can find a prose a bit overcharged with information, but at the end you understand that this is his style. Book to start: The witness (short story).

@pelodelperro Год назад

El entenado es uno de los libros más bellos que he leído.

@bernardoalabes6807 Год назад

@@pelodelperro totalmente. yo creo que la grandez está en el lenguaje que nos cuenta que tienen los indios. es una bella y triste obra

@deadeyes7558 Год назад

Do read Pan, for a more isolated character.

@reaganwiles_art Год назад

It's true that Tolstoy lacked humor, but some of his characters have that sense! If I were to recommend to someone to read Tolstoy I would not tell him or her to read the big books Anna Karenina and War and Peace peace. Hell no! I would tell him or her to start at the very beginning with Tolstoy's writings about his childhood. To get a sense of the genius of Tolstoy as a natural writer, I think it's important to start there. I can't read Russian, but even in English translation the prose is alive, it carries one along with it as if one has stepped into a "river of life," of people, nature, all the relations...

@iainscott5800 Год назад

Thanks for the introduction to Knut Hamsun.

@CorbCorbin Год назад

☕️ Damn! It’s early as hell. Just about to dive into McCarthy’s new books today. Great review. I’ll likely never read this Norwegian story, but I really dug the review.

@davidf5589 Год назад

I was given this book by a good friend as I was heading out to Peace Corps in 1986. I read it twice in the time I was away and it proved to be an eye opener in regard to the way I experienced other humans. If you have aspirations to write or live amongst other humans, you should read this book. Hunger is in my view the birth of existentialism.

@jojob8382 Год назад

The sheer size of War and Peace is threatening as hell but please read Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilych. It's brilliant and thankfully super short

@rancorcell Год назад

Thank you, this is my favorite novel. Pan is short and great also.

@madisonsykes4896 Год назад

I read that his novel, Hunger ,heavily influenced Henry Miller

@joejs7659 Год назад

It did, mysteries as well, there’s an interview with Miller on youtube, wherein he praises Hamsun. Hamsun and Celine seems to have influenced Miller quite a bit, and with good reason.

@Ernesto_the_Caffiend Год назад

My first book of 2023 was Tropic of Cancer. Loved Hunger, omw to get the mysteries.

@yxvoegl2263 Год назад

Great that you found Henry Miller, keep going with him. Hamsun is great too.

@Elena-zw3ub Год назад

Brilliant! Absolutely spot on!

@livvynut День назад

A magnificent novel by an equally magnificent author.

@marcelhidalgo1076 Год назад

Happy new year, Cliff! Always good to see a new review. Reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Hoping you check it out at some point.

@mariocoelho9380 Год назад

I actually think he has a review on it, but I'm not sure.

@marcelhidalgo1076 Год назад

@@mariocoelho9380 if he did, it was only for patrons

@Skyjacker_ Год назад

Seems like you had a similar reaction to this book that I have every time I've read it (four times now): that I really don't understand it. And I think that's why I like it so much - because it's unfathomable. Often when reading this book I felt like I was in a trance state, and according to Hamsun himself, as quoted by Robert Ferguson, large parts of it were written in a sort of trance. The book carries you along, and the frequent changes of perspective, from first to third person, is incomparably impressive. I've not read any other book where the author has such mastery of the language. What I've found reading this book many times is that every time you read it you get something new from it. The last time I read it, a scene that seemed to me to be key was his spontaneous violin performance at the town gala, in which he stunned everyone present , essentially blowing their minds. I suppose these days Nagel would be classified as suffering from a classic case of bipolar disorder - bipolar, with a sprinkling of Nietzsche and a tablespoon of mysticism. I agree that at times Nagel's self-sabotaging behaviour makes you cringe, but just as you feel like giving up on him he does, or says, or thinks, something which makes you do a double-take, and the book pulls you in once again. It's a real fucking rollercoaster of a novel. It's one of my all-time favourites. I find it...otherworldly.

@rancorcell Год назад

Great review, still my favorite book. It is a reread kinda thing without a doubt.

@nikkivenable73 Год назад

I’ve never read Hamsun before and so I think I’ll make this my first one. Cliff, I just finished A Heart So White. I was so intimidated and put it off for more than a year. I trust you and so I finally read it, no, devoured it. My God. As hard as life often is, when I finish a book like AHSW, I thank the Lord that I am alive and blessed enough to read such pages. I am experiencing a book hangover of epic proportions 😢.

@crawfordgenealogy8989 Год назад

Wow I would have guessed all Hamsun would be better than food! All his early novels have irrational isolated characters, even Victoria to some extend but Growth of the Soil is different. I like Nagel and his adventures but identify more with Lt. Glahn in Pan and rank that Hamsun's best.

@perperson199 Год назад

You do have a similar character to Lt. Glahn in Growth of the Soil, the restless wanderer Geisler (if I remember the name correctly)

@rancorcell Год назад

The Wanderer plays on muted strings

@rancorcell Год назад

His short stories are delightful also

@usmnt4423 Год назад

“Hamsun is very staunchly anti authoritarian … Which is very ironic … we’ll get to it.” Boy, did we ever get to it. I was not expecting that turn for our pal Knut.

@v.cackerman8749 Год назад

1:42 Oh yes, that book cover is very beautiful. It sets the tone for the book very well.

@igorrenfield6588 Год назад

His work Hunger is near the top of my best books ever read list.

@BookmarkwithDonNoble Год назад

great review!

@Craw1011 Год назад

Highly recommend The Morning Star by Knausgaard. The pages fly by, the characters are somehow all interesting in their own unique way and the plot works up so much steam I would say it powers the novel had I not also been captivated by the ideas present in the book

@rancorcell Месяц назад

The hermit of 69th street by Jerzy Kowsinski is a good partner to this book, also very Henry Miller-ish. Quite similar in completely different backround.

@opinion3742 Год назад

I loved Hunger but I struggled with this one. I recommend The Growth Of The Soil. It is a really great read. Apparently it was one of Hitler's favorites; a fact I am sorely glad I was unaware of when I read it.

@thomasfranche6770 Год назад

Read this in French 5-6 years ago. Liked it better than Hunger. Clifford, what happened to those videos you did in Paris, like at the cemetery (Père-Lachaise?)? You used to have more movie reviews up too. I heard about The Addiction (which has become a favorite) from you.

@kirkalex5257 7 месяцев назад

Knut Hamsun's Hunger is one of my favorite books.

@rancorcell Год назад

Agree with the review, still my favorite, didn't care for Hunger.

@PatchyTheFox Год назад

I agree with your statement on every action being selfish. It just looks different in different people and intentions.

@trondheien Год назад

About Henry Miller and Knut Hamsun: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d0MNcNe7JPM.html

@PatchyTheFox Год назад

I don’t have any Proust. I hear him referenced all the time. Was he mentioned in The House that Jack Built? I don’t remember… been buying too many books lately so idk if the hubs will let me get more Satan lit, but I can try.

@reallycoolgal Год назад

Maybe you could read "Growth of the Soil". I'm afraid to read a 400 page Hamsun novel lmao.but this review did land "Hunger" a spot on my TBR

@gourmetghost 6 месяцев назад

it's a slow burn but worth the reward. All of his books should be read by readers regardless, but I appreciate you being the only comment to reference "...Soil"...underrated.

@rancorcell Месяц назад

I would completely agree with the comment above.

@felicityyoon2612 Год назад

Hello, sergeant Cliff, Could you please do a review of Jane Eyre? I really wanna know your thought on it since Bronte's narrative was influenced on James Joyce and Marcel Proust.

@veniceismine1 Год назад

I think this is somewhat related, though I can’t make a super strong case for it. I think the best way is in the blunt, seemingly matter of fact prose Hamsun seems to write in but you should read House of Hunger, a novella by Dambudzo Marechera, with some accompanying short stories. He seems to me to be one of the best African writers who wrote about his time as an outcast in both Rhodesia (obviously now Zimbabwe) and his time at Oxford. He was a troubled genius, a bit of a rebel but House of Hunger, for how short it is, is really quite moving. It’s violent, blunt, beautiful, bleak and forlorned. Another amazing writer gone too soon. It’s a quick read but I recommend multiple readings of it. And I have supplementary poetry of another artist, billy woods, that I think adds or at least is in dialogue with this novella in number of ways. Love your stuff, we have similar tastes so I think you’d like it

@ibricee5089 Год назад

If you have time, try reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk or maybe the White Fortress !

@nicolymoreira3641 Год назад

the monty python parrot reference haha

@MR._OMAR_KING Год назад

👏👏👏

@irena7777777 Год назад

What one book should I really read next? Over anything else

@tobiastranetellefsen4203 Год назад

Are you of Norwegian/ Scandinavian descent? At least there's something Norwegian about your way of being and thinking in a way I find kinda hard to explain, at least I get those vibes as an Norwegian myself.

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews Год назад

Yup part Norwegian.

@thomaskember4628 Год назад

I read somewhere that Hamsuns sympathy for the Nazis was due to his hatred of America. He had been there for some time and had had a bad experience. I once went to a lecture on Norwegian where the lecturer explained that there are two main dialects of Norwegian both equally prominent. I asked a question ; what dialect did the playwright Ibsen write in? The answer was, neither of them, he wrote in his plays in Danish! I didn't have time to ask the same question about Hamsun. I would be interested to know.

@perperson199 Год назад

long and complicated story, so there is no good answer, nor should there be. I would say though that he writes in Norwegian. He wrote during a time of transition which unfortunately has never been completed

@sk8shred Год назад

It's time for you to review Mann's The Magic Mountain one day soon ^^

@elrincondeirina2251 Год назад

Last January I started this book with a lot of enthusiasm and I was unable to finish it. I had no idea what was the book about and couldn't care less about the caracters... It felt like a total waste of my time 😑

@Philliben1991 Год назад

For some reason I've never really connected with any Scandinavian novel and I've read a few. I wonder if it's a language/translation issue.

@PatchyTheFox Год назад

I should tell you sometime about the time, well weeks, I was high on edibles and went dancing in the street hours at a time.

@rancorcell Год назад

Henry Miller being my 2nd favorite writer

@trondheien Год назад

I saw your reaction to "Sult" or "Hunger" in English, and find it very interesting to learn your reactions. Funfact: Sigmund Freud told his students to read "Mysteries" to study the unconscious mind. If Hamsun had died in the 30s, I have read that he was a very good friend, but a hell to be in family with. To me, he is one of the greatest of all time, but he destroyed hes reputation by supporting Hitler in the most shameful way (although his personal meeting with Hitler ended with Hitler throwing him out). How could a man writing so beautifully as in "Pan" give his Nobel price to Goebbels? I dont get it. Hamsun was. himself a mystery.

@kellylazette5080 Год назад

Charles Bukowski was also a great admirer of Hamsun.

@bobcabot Год назад

...ja you can read Hamsun like love was no illusion - i guess that´s why Hank did like him ...( i did never say this before: i believed in "Better than Food" once, but it wasnt books...

@MarcoPolo-fs5uw Год назад

13:16 lol

@sandager4628 2 месяца назад

I cant remember when was the last time I smiled for 25:13 minutes straight

@kingfisher9553 Год назад

🍔

@PatchyTheFox Год назад

I haven’t read the book, never heard of it or the author, but by the way you talk, is it a possibility our protagonist is ‘on the autism spectrum’?

@freeri87 Год назад

Markens Grøde is his best work.

@perperson199 Год назад

Agreed

@steelgray789 Месяц назад

Col. 3

@PatchyTheFox Год назад

Monty Python…

@Bolaniullen Год назад

If you read Pan and many other works by Hamsun there a heavy Pagan undertone to it. Not even undertone sometimes, that's a more likely reason for his admiration for National Socialism. The reason he hated the english is, couple reasons: because they 'brought' christianity and killed the old faith Also the industrial revolution, destroying nature, kapital etc And then more recently you have england associated with analytic philosophy / empiricism which almost all people who consider themselves poets hate. And ofcourse if you think that this kind of philosophy leads to liberalism and if you are against that, it's another reason to hate the english At least this is what i think his reasons where.

@filmfanatic9084 Год назад

Please do ‘The Shards’ by Bret Easton Ellis (I imagine you would be)

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews Год назад

Yup it's on the way 👍

@alexjohnson9798 Год назад

How much does it cost for you to review a book? I have a total obscurity which will change your life called 'The journal of Albion Moonlight'

@CorbCorbin Год назад

Have you checked the Patreon page? He probably has a price there, or how to contact him to do it.

@milfredcummings717 Год назад

21:26 ...this is irrelevant isn't it 🤣

@paxtonanthonymurphy3733 Год назад

Why do you keep slamming Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment on completely different book reviews?

@lionstandingII Год назад

Cultural Life of Modern America, 1889......hmmmm......

@thJune-ze7dn Год назад

I think he's the poster boy for separating art from the artist. I think his lawyers did try to get him off on insanity when he went on trial after WWII, but they were constantly undermined by Hamsun himself shouting from the sidelines "I'm NOT insane, how dare you good sir." or something like that. Other people try to blame his far right views on his second wife's influence, but that seems like a misogynistic get-out-of-jail-free-card to me; he seems at the very least to be an "ur-fascist" even during his younger days, which probably feeds into some of what you were talking about here. I've only ever read Hunger (loved it), and wondered what should be my next Hamsun, this was a really interesting video, thank you!

@arthurtrommel1438 Год назад

In short he always has been a horrible person

@Liisa3139 Год назад

The main character comes across as a textbook example of somebody with borderline personality disorder.

@davidnevett5880 Год назад

This is truth about separating art from the artist, but there is so much art produced by artists who didn't behave like groveling cowards that I think one may pass over this one, who by the way wasn't far from mediocre.

@davida.rosales6025 10 месяцев назад

To be honest, and to side with Hamsun, Tolstoy does suck. Ever notice how all real writers worth their salt bow down before Dostoyevsky but not Tolstoy? Tolstoy is garbage for the masses.

@waffle.23 2 месяца назад

Not really, Nabokov is known for disliking Dostoevsky whilst appreciating Tolstoy

@thegeniusofthecrowd354 Год назад

I'd take Hamsun over Dostoyevsky any day. He's overlooked because he went mad himself in old age and gave his Nobel Prize to Goebbels.

@basreiziger6689 11 месяцев назад

I do not now who Gerry Bothmer is, but Sverre Lyngstad is considered to be a reliable translation of Hamsun. Hamsun is not translated just like that.

@NoOne-tg9tk Год назад

Knut was a disciple of Fyodor

@rishabhaniket1952 Год назад

Did you just casually slag off War and Peace?? The encyclopaedic source that you might find so many of the books you love have knowingly or unknowingly lifted from. Love your guts😅