Hunger shares a lot with Orwell's work — not least, that its protagonist is an aspiring writer who's slowly starving to death. Like Comstock, Hamsun's hero has a broad streak of self-destructiveness, although there's also a poetic, hallucinogenic quality to Hamsun's writing that's absent from Orwell's relentless realism. Either way, unless you're actually contemplating eating your pencil (honestly, that's how bad it gets for Hunger's protagonist), it's not that bad yet.