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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Adaptations of prose to comics often don't work. Adapters often retain too many words rather than showing what is happening, and then try to draw exactly what is already described by the text. This one gets the balance just right, while cutting out what I imagine to be at least 75% of the original text.
This also shouldn't work because almost nothing happens. A man sits on a museum bench, as he does every other day, and complains about all the paintings, and the building, and the state, etc.
But it works brilliantly. I can't explain why.
This also shouldn't work because almost nothing happens. A man sits on a museum bench, as he does every other day, and complains about all the paintings, and the building, and the state, etc.
But it works brilliantly. I can't explain why.
In which we get the rambling thoughts of Reger, an 82-year-old music critic, whose irascibility is only matched by his erudition, as he sits in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum before Tintoretto's 'Portrait of a White Bearded Man'. Reger hates almost everything but reserves great passion for those things he loves. The prose - in a single paragraph, a la Garcia Marquez - is hypnotic.
"...I am basically always unhappy, I am sure you understand, Reger said then. Even though this is nonsense, Reger said then..."
The narrative voice hugely reminded me of one of my favourite writers, Max Sebald. So I looked it up and found that, yes, Bernhard was a great influence on Sebald. I read the novel in the beautifully designed Penguin Central European Classics version - a pleasure in itself. The music critic as hero - this book was bound to appeal to me, then. I shall definitely be seeking out another Bernhard novel to read.
"...I am basically always unhappy, I am sure you understand, Reger said then. Even though this is nonsense, Reger said then..."
The narrative voice hugely reminded me of one of my favourite writers, Max Sebald. So I looked it up and found that, yes, Bernhard was a great influence on Sebald. I read the novel in the beautifully designed Penguin Central European Classics version - a pleasure in itself. The music critic as hero - this book was bound to appeal to me, then. I shall definitely be seeking out another Bernhard novel to read.
This is a masterpiece that must be read by everyone who wants to be a writer, musician, artist. The whole book (all 250 odd pages of it) is a single paragraph in a single place, events don't move forward, action doesn't move forward, people stay where they are (in an art-museum in Vienna). It is a literal piece of opinions, of Reger, the music-critic, on just about everything in music, art, politics, society and philosophy. No holy cows here, everything is ripped apart, vitriolic but humorous and at the same time poignant.
The ending is perfectly understated. After hearing (reading) Reger's opinionated diatribe on all kinds of performances, it is a perfect anti-climax to have his friend (the narrator) state that they went to the theatrical performance of the play (that Reger wanted to go with him to) and then have the last line read, "The performance was terrible"
Oh, and I just loved the bit on Heidegger, just couldn't stop laughing.
The ending is perfectly understated. After hearing (reading) Reger's opinionated diatribe on all kinds of performances, it is a perfect anti-climax to have his friend (the narrator) state that they went to the theatrical performance of the play (that Reger wanted to go with him to) and then have the last line read, "The performance was terrible"
Oh, and I just loved the bit on Heidegger, just couldn't stop laughing.