Thomas Bernhard is "one of the masters of contemporary European
fiction" (George Steiner); "one of the century's most gifted
writers" ("New York Newsday"); "a virtuoso of rancor and rage"
("Bookforum"). And although he is favorably compared with Franz
Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Musil, Thomas Bernhard still
remains relatively unknown in America.
Uninitiated readers should consider "Three Novellas" a passport to
the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard. Two of
the three novellas here have never before been published in
English, and all of them show an early preoccupation with the
themes-illness and madness, isolation, tragic friendships-that
would obsess Bernhard throughout his career. "Amras," one of his
earliest works, tells the story of two brothers, one epileptic, who
have survived a family suicide pact and are now living in a ruined
tower, struggling with madness, trying either to come fully back to
life or finally to die. In "Playing Watten," the narrator, a doctor
who lost his practice due to morphine abuse, describes a visit paid
him by a truck driver who wanted the doctor to return to his habit
of playing a game of cards (watten) every Wednesday--a habit that
the doctor had interrupted when one of the players killed himself.
The last novella, "Walking," records the conversations of the
narrator and his friend Oehler while they walk, discussing anything
that comes to mind but always circling back to their mutual friend
Karrer, who has gone irrevocably mad. Perhaps the most overtly
philosophical work in Bernhard's highly philosophical oeuvre,
"Walking" provides a penetrating meditation on the impossibility of
truly thinking.
"Three Novellas" offers asuperb introduction to the fiction of
perhaps the greatest unsung hero of twentieth-century literature.
Rarely have the words "suffocating," "intense," and "obsessive"
been meant so positively.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
June 2003 |
First published: |
June 2003 |
Authors: |
Thomas Bernhard
|
Dimensions: |
212 x 162 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
184 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-04432-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-226-04432-7 |
Barcode: |
9780226044323 |
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