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The Loser
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
8 posts | 13 read | 7 to read
Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) has been hailed by Gabriel Josipovici as 'Austria's finest postwar writer' and by George Steiner as 'one of the masters of contemporary European fiction.' Faber Finds is proud to reissue a selection of four of Bernhard's finest novels.The Loser centres on a fictional relationship between piano virtuoso Glenn Gould and two of his fellow students who feel compelled to renounce their musical ambitions in the face of Gould's incomparable genius. One commits suicide, while the other - the obsessive, witty, and self-mocking narrator - has retreated into obscurity. Written as a monologue in one remarkable unbroken paragraph, The Loser is a brilliant meditation on success, failure, genius, and fame.
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BarbaraBB
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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Pickpick

After piano virtuoso Glenn Gould dies, the unscrupulous narrator (alter ego of the author) and their friend Wertheimer are free to blame him for the fact they haven‘t become piano geniuses themselves.
After Wertheimers suicide, Bernhard as usual doesn‘t hold back. Again he pours out tons of criticism about Austrian society, and he mocks and taunts both of his friends with demonic pleasure. It is a pleasure to follow his linguistic brain.

Cinfhen This one doesn‘t really appeal to me but I‘m glad you enjoyed it xx 1y
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squirrelbrain Doesn‘t sound like my thing either but good job on the prompts! 1y
BarbaraBB @Cinfhen @squirrelbrain It‘s a typical #1001books author and I really enjoy getting back to him once in a while after I‘ve read many contemporary books. 1y
Megabooks Sounds cool! 👍🏻 1y
Librarybelle Hooray! 1y
Cortg Nice job with the prompts! I love reading older books that I missed along the way. This one sounds good! 1y
batsy This sounds so good! I really must read Bernhard. 1y
BarbaraBB @batsy He is totally up your alley! 1y
86 likes10 comments
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BarbaraBB
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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#WeeklyForecast 02/23

I am having the Persephone one, Harriet, in progress. Next will be another shortlisted book from the #ToB23 which I can use for #TarotTBR as well. When there‘s time I‘d like to start the tagged book by Thomas Bernhard. Not a light read probably but the man can write!

squirrelbrain I‘m going to listen to the #tob one on audio soon… perhaps the week after next? Have a good week! 1y
BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain Thanks! You too! 1y
Megabooks Have a great week B! 😘 1y
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Cinfhen I‘m hoping to listen to this #ToB shortlisted book this week 1y
Cinfhen Lots of people didn‘t care for 2am but I didn‘t mind it - it worked for me on audio but not sure how I would have felt in print. I‘ll be curious to hear your thoughts 1y
BarbaraBB @Cinfhen I still need to read that one too. 1y
71 likes6 comments
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SqueakyChu
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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I‘m almost finished this book...but not before drinking a German beer while reading this novel by an Austrian novelist who wrote in German...and wondering what happened to my daughter who was in Germany this week. I guess she‘s having too much fun to write. Back to my book. It‘s really good...as is the beer! 😃

SqueakyChu Just finished the book...Wow! 6y
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SqueakyChu
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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I am now about 3/4 if the way through this book. I am just amazed the way this author could keep repeating himself and still create a coherent, fascinating story with no paragraphs and no quotation marks! I will certainly look for more of his books in the future.

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SqueakyChu
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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Yep. I was right! This book, although fairly thin, takes some work as it has no paragraphs nor any quotation marks!!

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SqueakyChu
The Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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I decided to read this book for the #LibraryThing TIOLI challenge to read a work by or about a deceased #playwright. This is a new-to-me author. From the looks of this book, it might take a little work to get into this story. We‘ll see...

BarbaraBB What is the TIOLI challenge, if I may ask? 6y
SqueakyChu @BarbaraBB It‘s the Take It Or Leave It reading challenge which I host on LibraryThing. 6y
BarbaraBB Nice! I looked it up! 6y
SqueakyChu 😃 6y
15 likes5 comments
review
wanderer15
Loser | Thomas Bernhard
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Pickpick

I seem to rate everything "pick" even if it's a book I'd recommend to almost nobody, but I can't give this anything else. My first Bernhard - 170 pages, one gigantic stream-of-consciousness, Kafkaesque paragraph from an unreliable narrator with more than a little Salieri in him as he is both inspired and tortured by the genius of the pianist Glenn Gould. Not an easy read, but I was gripped.