Dreamers

Hamsun is an author everyone should read - his clear and precise language, his ability to pick details that build fully human characters, and his wicked sense of humor all make for reading at its best.In this novel, a young but ambitious telegraph operator who is a womanizing drunk as well as a clever inventor seeks capital to make his dreams of better, cheaper fish-glue with dye as a byproduct. Along the way one meets the fiancee he can't get rid of, a curate with a hell-fire-brimstone manner and a wife who is spoiled and childish, lay-helpers with hidden hatreds ... a whole village of believable characters acting in very human ways.This is not a deep, philosophical novel but through the characters' actions there is a sense of hopefulness that overpowers the foibles.

What a delight this little book is! And to think that I expected Hamsun to be either experimental, or to have a heavy writing style so common among classic writers... Snip: (...).

Light as gossamer, beautiful, and surprisingly insightful. Hamsun is a master of the human experience. His simple, visual style disguises a deep understanding of life. Dreamers is short and sweet - a great way to discover a Nobel prize winning author