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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
While it's always fun to read an antisocial old man seethingly pick apart an 'artistic dinner' of the pretentious Viennese bourgeois and their pseudo-artistic hangers on, I thought, sitting in the wing chair, the repetitive nature of the work and the fact that there are only two paragraph breaks tend to have an overall soporific effect.
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another brilliant piece by Bernhard. This one goes down a little smoother than the rest, a little easier. There's a little more humor (even a few audible-guffaw moments) to go with the ever-present acid.
But don't be fooled, there's still hypocrisy, suicide, and hatred all around. Can it be redeemed by art? That's the question the harried narrator asks himself throughout, and which remains unanswered.
Apparently this is part of a loose trilogy with _The Loser_ and _Old Masters_.
As with all Bernhard, this is not for everyone. But it's good stuff.
But don't be fooled, there's still hypocrisy, suicide, and hatred all around. Can it be redeemed by art? That's the question the harried narrator asks himself throughout, and which remains unanswered.
Apparently this is part of a loose trilogy with _The Loser_ and _Old Masters_.
As with all Bernhard, this is not for everyone. But it's good stuff.
The perfect little novel--entertaining, despite being "ranty" -- just plain fun to read.
You get to "know" the narrator and cannot help but identify with his wavering opinions of those he's observing.
What he is saying/writing is "talking" -in a way- to and with what is being said.
Perhaps this is a definition of stream of consciousness, but it's not really a stream-- in this case it's more like a dance, or a play, except it's all happening at the level of language and thought.
You get to "know" the narrator and cannot help but identify with his wavering opinions of those he's observing.
What he is saying/writing is "talking" -in a way- to and with what is being said.
Perhaps this is a definition of stream of consciousness, but it's not really a stream-- in this case it's more like a dance, or a play, except it's all happening at the level of language and thought.
1*
Any and all entertainment value this book might have springs from its turbulent publication history, so here we go:
Bernhard was a famously difficult personality; he often described Austria and especially Vienna in the ugliest terms and was of course both rewarded and punished for it by the Austrian population who bought his books en masse in order to rant against them in reviews. In this book he went a little bit too far, lowly insulting famous people of the rich Austrian cultural life, people who had up until then been on decidedly friendly terms with him and even financed his writing for decades - and he made the mistake of either not veiling their identities enough or just straight-up using their real names. The couple who served as inspiration for the Auersberger couple found out via a mutual literary critic friend after the book had already been published and delivered to bookshops and dragged him to court over it, which resulted in the only court-ordered confiscation of books in the history of the Second Republic. (Yes, that included actual police going into bookshops and seizing cratefulls of Holzfällen.) Bernhard defended his book, rather embarrassingly, as not being autobiographical at all, and in a fit of revenge forbid his publisher to sell any and all of his writings on Austrian soil - until the Austrians had learned to appreciate his insults to them, presumably. It all ended, as these scandals do, with a big fat plus in the publisher's account books, and not much more; the parties solved the matter between themselves, the insulted couple allowed the book to be sold without a single retraction and Bernhard allowed his publisher to deliver to Austrian bookshops again.
And they lived happily ever after.
Any and all entertainment value this book might have springs from its turbulent publication history, so here we go:
Bernhard was a famously difficult personality; he often described Austria and especially Vienna in the ugliest terms and was of course both rewarded and punished for it by the Austrian population who bought his books en masse in order to rant against them in reviews. In this book he went a little bit too far, lowly insulting famous people of the rich Austrian cultural life, people who had up until then been on decidedly friendly terms with him and even financed his writing for decades - and he made the mistake of either not veiling their identities enough or just straight-up using their real names. The couple who served as inspiration for the Auersberger couple found out via a mutual literary critic friend after the book had already been published and delivered to bookshops and dragged him to court over it, which resulted in the only court-ordered confiscation of books in the history of the Second Republic. (Yes, that included actual police going into bookshops and seizing cratefulls of Holzfällen.) Bernhard defended his book, rather embarrassingly, as not being autobiographical at all, and in a fit of revenge forbid his publisher to sell any and all of his writings on Austrian soil - until the Austrians had learned to appreciate his insults to them, presumably. It all ended, as these scandals do, with a big fat plus in the publisher's account books, and not much more; the parties solved the matter between themselves, the insulted couple allowed the book to be sold without a single retraction and Bernhard allowed his publisher to deliver to Austrian bookshops again.
And they lived happily ever after.
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fun, fast and unique read. In this first person stream of consciousness in the form of one unbroken paragraph that runs through the entire book, Bernhard develops a rich cast of characters by circling, crow-like, through his own neurotic psychobabble over the course of an evening.
Bernhard's scathing critique of the Viennese bourgeoisie reminds me of Nietzsche's condemnation of the Wagner crowd. His deep personal connection to the group he despises expresses itself through self loathing.
Woodcutters comes highly recommended for the holidays! For those who are traveling to spend time with people/family you'd rather not be with, bring this book along and snicker your way through the misery of company...
Bernhard's scathing critique of the Viennese bourgeoisie reminds me of Nietzsche's condemnation of the Wagner crowd. His deep personal connection to the group he despises expresses itself through self loathing.
Woodcutters comes highly recommended for the holidays! For those who are traveling to spend time with people/family you'd rather not be with, bring this book along and snicker your way through the misery of company...