4.0 out of 5 stars
A smooth and good novel, Aug 30 1999
This review is from: Under the Autumn Star (Paperback)
"Yesterday the sea was smooth as a mirror; it is smooth as a mirror today." That way the novel opens and it continues elegant and skilfully crafted by the master Knut Hamsun. It is the story about the wanderer Knut Pedersen (actually Hamsun's real name), wandering around the Norwegian countryside doing such work as he can find, while having his eyes wide open to study nature and his fellow human beings. "Under the Autumn Star" was first published in 1906 and the story about Knut Pedersen is continued in "On Muted Strings" from 1909. Both novels manage to hold the story and the atmosphere on the same high level all the way through, and they have earlier been published together in the same volume called "The Wanderer". Oliver and Gunnvor Stalllybrass have also done a very good translation. This is writing of very high quality and joyful reading, but not as fantastic as Hamsun's masterpieces as "Hunger", "Mysteries", "Pan", "Victoria" and "Growth of the Soil", though some pieces can remind a bit of "Mysteries", among else when he has a go against Henrik Ibsen who died the same year "Under the Autumn Star" was published.
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