This excellent novella by Austrian author Thomas Bernhard was well-written and depressing. It was an eloquently reminicent stream of consciousness requiem for a school friend after his suicide. The narrator attended a music school with two other men, one of which was Glenn Gould – the famous piano virtuoso – and another Austrian man nicknamed “the Loser.” Both friends have died at age 50 and 51 respectively, so there is also underlying thematic element of aging and hitting that point in your life where it’s all downhill going forward.
I played the piano for about ten years growing up and could relate in a minimally superficial way to the three characters. Bernhard used a rhythmic writing structure, reminiscent of playing the piano, but with intentionally run-on up-tempo sentences and awkward interruptions at times, much like hitting a key accidentally with your pinky and throwing off the sound slightly. It was jolted and difficult to read in some parts, but that may possibly be due to translation; the translator’s foreword mentions that Bernhard’s ‘peculiar orthography’ is unusual for English-speaking readers reading his novels for the first time. It was also written in one long paragraph with no breaks and unusual punctuation.
Overall I liked this absurdist and repetively rambling story and look forward to reading more of his work.
Book 8/40
Stella Blue Books 