Fascist Romanticism

 

Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun is a strange, somewhat off kilter story about Norwegian peasants settling the far north of the country, creating homesteads from wilderness.  The main character is Isak, and it is obvious that Hamsun considers him a kind of peasant/messianic character.  Halfway through this book I felt some fascist vibes here.  I knew nothing about Hamsun, and then found out he was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler and Nazism.  That took the steam out of the book for me.  It also explained a great deal about the philosophy exposed in the novel.

That aside, it seems Hamsun should have stuck with Isak’s family in the next generation for the second part of the book.  He veers away from them, impeding the flow of the novel.