HOEL, SIGURD

born Dec. 14, 1890, Nord-Odal, Nor. died Oct. 14, 1960, Oslo novelist who is considered most representative of the interwar generation of fiction writers in Norway. Hoel discontinued his training as a mathematics teacher when he won a Scandinavian prize for a short story. His first great success was a satirical novel, Syndere i sommersol (1927; Sinners in Summertime), in which he ridiculed the popular use of psychoanalytic terms. Hoel was himself influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic theory, as is shown in En dag i oktober (1931; One Day in October). He even attempted to attribute the compulsive tyranny of Nazism to the restrictions of childhood in Mte ved milepelen (1947; Meeting at the Milestone). Veien til verdens ende (1933; Road to the World's End), a novel of childhood, proved the best-loved of his works in Norway.