"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Bernhard fans will recognize the restrained rant, the execution of an idea carried to a logical, caustic extreme. The rant creates, of the novel, a grand philosophical speculation: What is devotion to one's art? What is it to truly understand one's art and to not misuse one's gift? And, alas, The Loser can also be read as the profound consequence of perfectionism, whereby all efforts to create or execute anything of note are squashed in the critical mind's ruthless self-scrutiny. The narrator works, for example, on his Glenn Gould essay for nine years, grateful, in the end, that he has published nothing. "How good it is that none of these imperfect, incomplete works has ever appeared, I thought, had I published them.... [T]oday I would be the unhappiest person imaginable, confronted daily with disastrous works crying out with errors, imprecision, carelessness, amateurishness." The one regenerative act seems to be that of self-destruction. Destruction, indeed, becomes the flip side of perfectionist rigor. Thomas Bernhard (1931-89) was his own unique genius and in The Loser, one of his most acclaimed novels, he creates a chilling portrait of tragic compulsion, teasing and testing our assumptions human behavior. --Hollis Giamatteo
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781400077540
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 1400077540
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # BKZN9781400077540
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 1400077540-2-1
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Thomas Bernhard was one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. His formal innovation ranks with Beckett and Kafka, his outrageously cantankerous voice recalls Dostoevsky, but his gift for lacerating, lyrical, provocative prose is incomparably his own.One of Bernhard's most acclaimed novels, The Loser centers 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. "Originally published in German as Der Untergeher by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, 1983; This translation originally published in hardcover . 1991, and subsequently in trade paperback . in 1993"--T.p. verso. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781400077540
Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ00XGJ4_ns
Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # WB-9781400077540
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 208. Seller Inventory # 261057169
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 742613