Finished a couple of books today. First off...
I had been working on this for a couple of months. The novel itself is clearly pastoral. The novel focuses around a family of woodspeople/farmers in the forests of Norway. The novel mostly deals with the tension and encroachment of civilization upon nature and the pastoral way of life. It's evident that Hamsun prefers the idyllic pastoral life. The writing is pretty simple and straightforward but definitely rewarding. I feel like for such a "simple" novel, there's a lot going on beneath the surface in terms of wealth, law, and family relations
I had some time to kill and wasn't burned out today, so I tackled this afterwards...
It's only about 60 pages, so it's a quick read. The only way to describe it is "unnerving" and certainly "filthy". The plot is fairly simple. A bartender breaks up a bar fight one night and finds a cell phone left behind. On the cell phone are pictures and videos that are unsettling, to say the least. Wheels are set in motion and shit starts to happen. While it isn't overly original, it does a good job at what it set out to do. It read quick and paid off. It's also motivated me to check out more of Ballingrud's stuff, so there's that. If you like horror fiction, this is a good/quick read worth checking out.