Reviews

The Loser by Thomas Bernhard, Jack Dawson

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citrusclient's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

mollyvh's review against another edition

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1.0

If it weren't for book club, I wouldn't have finished this book. It is written as a stream of consciousness and made me feel like I was going insane. There were no chapter or paragraph breaks, and almost every sentence was a run on sentence. Not only that, but the entire thing was so repetitive. On one page alone I counted the word "unhappy" / "unhappiness" a total of 14 times.

The content was interesting and would have made a decent short story. As it stands though I could barely get through all of the rambling in this book.

maruijuana's review against another edition

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5.0

an untuned piano that W. plays day and night for two weeks: a piano because he wanted to reconcile with himself in the final act of 'bravery'. untuned because he didn't want to care how it sounded, but again especially because he feared and didn't want to face the fact that if the piano was tuned he would hurt his final illusion with how miserable he was at it. the invitations? the people he hated. they were an audience, nothing more. seducing them with money to listen to him? playing to be heard a concert? because, finally there was nothing to lose and he wanted to go with the illusion preserved in the moment of his death.

quasidaisy's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

4.0

glooria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective

3.75

casparb's review against another edition

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Thought I'd take a stab at this Austrian & will be back for more the New York Times called the work of Bernhard 'The most significant literary achievement since World War II' but he's terribly underread in the english-speaking world outside of the academy because my lord I have seen so many dissertations fawn over him.

It's very very good & brief so I don't feel I've a grasp on the Bernhardian project yet but I'm eager. Leanne Shapton has an afterword where she describes this as a love triangle between three pianists - I'm not keen to compare this to things but Sebald is an option based on narration-form & Dostoevsky perhaps.

Anyway Glenn Gould is kind of a character in this and the things we should know about him are that he was a VERy pretty boy when young & that he was a genius here he is playing Beethoven it's two minutes long highly recommend. It forms a kind of thematic atmosphere-in the planetary sense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPVJy_GAiVM