Summary
Knut Hamsun: On overgrown paths
"What charges me - the only thing and only my articles in the newspaper. There is nothing else that can be blamed on me. To that extent, my account is very simple and clear. I did not report anyone, I did not participate in any meetings...", this is how 88-year-old Knut Hamsun defended himself at the trial. The Norwegian Nobel laureate did not deny his sympathy for the fascists, but he tried to explain that he was alone, old, deaf and completely isolated - without a deeper knowledge of the essence of things.
Because of his beliefs, he became a loner who lost everything: property, wife, friends, admirers, even hearing and sight, and this confessional prose represents his last word. Along the overgrown paths is a work of diary-fragmentary character, stopped halfway between document and fiction; you can feel the trembling of Hamsun's hand and distorted handwriting, but also many qualities of the former, pre-war and everyone's favorite Hamsun. Upon its release, the book brought him great recognition from critics, sold-out editions from the audience and confirmation of what is still clear to everyone today: Hamsun was a very, very good writer, but also a very, very bad politician...
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