Reviews

Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, David Foster Wallace, Steven Moore

calif0rnia's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

andrewfinkel1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

papelgren's review against another edition

4.0

This experimental novel is just short enough that its conceit doesn't overstay its welcome. The main narrator has a lot to say and ponder about and it made me start questioning my own reality. The DFW afterword was a little treat after such an intellectual workout.

casparb's review against another edition

This a wild number, more or less unspoken of in the UK, or, I'm just not listening hard enough. But it should be louder, what an installation. There's a real trend toward the fragmentary / aphoristic / vanishing prose - I'm thinking of something like Jenny Offill's Weather - which is probably a distant relation of Wittgenstein's Mistress, but often they seem to aim toward the transcendental, the divine. This is no Lispector-work, not an atom's voice. Character is very real in a monomaniacal way, obsessing as one does over (roughly) Europe: returns upon returns to Classics, dallying with yr Renaissance & after. Vermeer ; Rubens ; Rembrandt. I contrast with Lispector because I think there's an immense vapidity behind it which is possibly intentional - a big EDUCATION flag which as if by design won't convince. & speech's defensive certainties like in Pereira Maintains. a real nice piece anyway & I want to find more of Markson

augustus's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

ti_leo's review against another edition

4.0

Sehr strange. Sehr cool. Quasi postapokalyptisch, aber anders als alles, was ich im Genre bisher so las. Eine Frau ist allein auf der Welt. Sehr wahrscheinlich. Wir können es nicht überprüfen, da wir einzig ihr Wort haben. Laut David Foster Wallace quasi angewandte Wittgensteinsche Philosophie, aber damit kenne ich mich nicht aus. Eine Selbstversicherung. Ein wenig wie Bernhard, ein wenig wie Beckett, repetetiv, eliptisch, aber nicht trocken, auf den ersten Blick belanglos wirkend, aber nicht oberflächlich. Die Nachworte von Jelinek und Wallace werten die deutsche Version auf, sind sehr lesenswert.

Ein sehr witziges Buch.

rhudak's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

daddymax77's review against another edition

3.0

I’ll give it props for style, and I love it as a thought exercise. But there’s no substance to it

samwreads's review against another edition

5.0

Third try reading this book but this time it really stuck. It was definitely difficult to get in to. Unlike my time with the Recognitions (the other book I read recently full of allusions and references both direct and oblique), I chose to pass over most references that I didn't get immediately, which was wise as I began to realize, for more reasons than one. Not going to spoil much here but let's just say it's best not to take everything at face value.

What's not immediately apparent but what ultimately made me love the book was the deadpan humor which comes from interpolating classical mythology/history with modern philosophy. After I finished it I really didn't want to read anything else since the prose is, while not flowery or ornate, a very singular voice. Singular for its consistency and its indomitable sameness. It seems weird to praise that but really, the depths to which the figures of speech (used in refrain) get sunk in your brain is pretty funny, and actually enjoyable.

inconsequential_perplexities's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

5.0

...literally me...