The Women at the Pump

1920: The year Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize for his brilliant "Growth of the Soil", this novel was published. While "Growth of the Soil" was the story of the early settlers cultivating the land, "The Women at the Pump" is set in a small town and around the time it was written. Again the story spans a couple of decades, and is still totally in the grip of the master. Hamsun again displays his skills for portraying people, both their inner feelings and how others see them from the outside. We follow the events and gossip of the town, and the author guides us through the citizens' hopes and dreams, joys and miseries. Hamsun moves elegantly between the differences and similarities of the peasant and the academic, man and woman, the spinster, the cripple, children and youths. With his finger on the pulse of the time, ironically and tongue-in-cheek, he gives a full picture of the people and their day.

In this brilliant novel from Norway's Knut Hamsun, the readerfollows the activities of Oliver Anderson, a cripple who was maimedwhen a barrel of whale oil crashed down on him, & the gossip about him. Many questions regarding Oliver's home life & family preoccupy the minds of the women at the pump. Many things just don't add up or seem right. Hamsun uses brilliant subtlety and ambiguity to keep the reader wondering what these burried secrets really are. The novel also brilliantly juxtaposes the concepts of the primary concern for the individual & the importance of a village (society) in regards to the consequences of their actions as a whole. Don't let this one pass you by!