2007 books

[peteryoung]

12) Knut Hamsun, Dreamers, 1904
A mild comedy of manners set in a Norwegian fishing village at the turn of the 20th Century, centred around the errant escapades of Ove Rolandsen, the local, genial, all-round reprobate. All the characters are to a degree trapped in their situations and hoping for something better, and it takes the unlikely ingenuity and improvisations of Rolandsen, simply by living out his own complex inner nature, for things to turn out right for everyone in the end. Hamsun was gently poking fun at all his characters but was also noticeably sympathetic towards them, a trait which separated his more aggressive earlier books from later novels such as this one. A very likeable story indeed.