Archive for October 12, 2010
CONCRETE by Thomas Bernhard
I’d read wildly different reviews of a Thomas Bernhard book. One review was overwhelmingly positive while another review thought the same book (THE OLD MASTERS) pointless. After reading both reviews and salient quotes, I leaned towards the pointless reaction, but then again, the reviewers’ reactions to the same book were so different, I was curious to try a Bernhard novel. This brings me to CONCRETE, and after reading it, I now understand how this author could provoke such vastly different reactions from readers.
October 12, 2010
Tags: 1980s, Literary, Thomas Bernhard, Unreliable Narrator Posted in: Austria, Classic, Literary, Translated, World Literature 
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WOODCUTTERS by Thomas Bernhard
WOODCUTTERS, originally written as part of a trilogy, is Bernhard’s diatribe about his disgust, revulsion, loathing, hatred and vilification of the hypocrites and losers that make up the art circle in Vienna from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. In his unique style, with not one paragraph in nearly 200 pages, this novel is told primarily in stream of consciousness from the viewpoint of a writer, one not unlike Bernhard himself. The novel is in three identifiable parts – the writer sitting in a wing chair observing a dinner party, the writer discussing his relationship with a recently deceased friend, and the conversations of an actor during dinner.
October 12, 2010
Tags: 1980s, Literary, Thomas Bernhard Posted in: Austria, Classic, Literary, Translated, World Literature No Comments
