thestoryofaz 's review for:

Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard

5.0

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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At first glance, Woodcutters may seem just like any other closed-box novel - going about in circles, never arriving at a point, and raising doubts about the existence of any point anyway. However, its myriad aspects reveal themselves one by one, taking the reader by surprise. For one, the novel is immaculately well-connected. Humor, albeit of the unlikely sort, stud the unending vitriol spewed by our narrator which is, at once, laser-sharp, obnoxious, questionable and hypocritical. Notwithstanding the general and often forced pessimism and cynicism, the novel ends on a hopeful note: we go on, in spite of life, in spite of society, against the uglies, because of them all.