
The Loser
'When indefatigable obsession looms large as it does in Thomas Bernhard (and his revered precursor Kafka) the result for the reader is a strange exhilaration and the thrall at being admitted into the mind of a maddened, magical genius.' - Edna O'Brien Mid-century Austria. Three aspiring concert pianists - Wertheimer, Glenn Gould, and the narrator - have dedicated their lives to achieving the status of a virtuoso. But one day, two of them overhear Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, and his incomparable genius instantly destroys them both. They are forced to abandon their musical ambitions: Wertheimer, over a tortured process of disintegration that sees him becoming obsessed with both writing and his own sister, with whom he has a quasi-incestuous relationship culminating in death; and the narrator, instantly, retreating into obscurity to write a book that he periodically destroys and restarts. Written as a monologue in one remarkable unbroken paragraph, Thomas Bernhard's dazzling meditation on failure, genius, and fame is a radical new reading experience: musical, paralysing, raging, and inimitable.
Reviews
Hamed Khalidi@hamedkhalidi
jess@visceralreverie
Safiya @safiya-epub
Molly M@molsmcq
Arman Keyvanskhou@armankey
David McDonagh@toastisme
Meelahn@iacovibus
Lee Mellor@lee-m
Yusuf Ziya Karabicak@yzkbicak
Michael Chen@docmc03
Eva Talmadge@evatalmadge
Highlights
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 143
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 135
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 132
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 114
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 68
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 67
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 66
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 60
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 54
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 50
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 31
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 10