You're probably the only book reviewer on RUclips who isn't obsessed with Young Adult fiction and "book tags". For that, I say thank you and keep the vids coming.
I can’t believe at my age of 70, I am listening to a book review by a kid who is quoting, Jim Carey. But your a amazing wisdom, thorough analysis of The Loser and your easy going and down to earth style of introducing the book is absolutely fascinating. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in the college. I will keep watching and listening to your reviews. Thank you so much.
i love thomas bernhard. his style is addicting. after that its hard going back to normal prose. He said about himself that he sees himself as a "story-destructor". everytime when he thinks he is telling a story he said he breaks it down
I've read almost everything by him, he's one of my favorites. Finally started reading 'Gathering Evidence', I'm halfway through, and my mind is blown. Would definitely recommend.
I think you would like No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Kokoro by Natsume Soseki. The former has a pretty similar brooding, gloomy feel to the Book of Disquiet. The latter is a little less gloomy, but you really can't escape gloom completely with many Japanese writers. Both are fantastic books; relatively short reads too!
Damn I just recently ordered this huge single volume collection containing nine of his novels for 25€, due to arrive next week. Even more excited for it now, great review.
Watching you do a book review of an Austrian author while I'm also drinking lemon water because I drank too much coffee already and living Austria. Feels a bit eerie in a way haha.
The word "Untergeher" doesn't actually exist in the German language, it's a made up word related to the noun "Untergang" which means downfall, demise etc. and the verb "untergehen" which equals to perish, to be destroyed but also to sink and drown (in water). Cheers!
Simone de Beauvoir - All Men Are Mortal Begins as a romance, focusing on a self involved actress who comes across this guy who appears to be completely out of it barely moving and not eating. We are introduced to this character, recently released from an asylum, whose meek demeanour hides the history of a man who lived on and on and on through lives taken from Sympathy for the Devil.
I love your book reviews and enjoy the way you talk about the writers but on this one I really enjoyed you talking about beautiful Sintra in my home country of Portugal. I’m a Londoner through and through but hearing other people speak so fondly of my country makes me miss it sometimes
Hi! love your books reviews you are giving me a ton of books to read! I am from Sintra Portugal and i have to say your description of Sintra its...just amazing.
To enter in such an obsessive mind as the Bernhard one, may require a bit of an effort. I would recommend to start with his Short Stories as an easier entry in his world of sickness and despair. And also because they count among his best, with his five autobiographical books. Bernhard is different to any other writer. He is kind of a genre in himself. There are also bits of a twisted dark sense of humour, would I say, in his obsessive hells. But you have to look a bit for that, to start finding it. He himself a rare bird, an outsider with apparently no sexual life at all, was as weird, as quirky as his novels. He was a sick man, his lungs having tortured him now and then. His autobiography parts of, are a mix of fantasy and reality, the borders of its sketches being conveniently erased. His quite interesting Short Stories deal about sickness in its various forms and about his always dramatically lone characters. If such a thing as a family exists in his cold and high Austrian mountain houses, it may consist only of a father and his sick son. Although while reading it, you may start doubting about which of the two is the more lunatic one. The megalomaniac or narcissistic despot or his son and victim. Many of his characters in his Short Stories are terribly isolated, and forced to remain loners all their lifes because of the high Austria geography, according to him. Bernhard had an older lady than him as his best or only friend and occasional companion. But she denied telling nothing about this mystery of a writer. Researchers and biographers tried to find out where his biblioteque was, in which of his houses. They were thinking about which were his main influences. Being so that he quoted now and then philosophers or other important writers. But it was all to finish discovering there was not such. His biblioteque was a mental one and for his quotes, he went into public libraries to wrote them down, they concluded. He lived quite a stern life, leaving a bit of a fortune to his half brother, a doctor who inheritated him. Another one who also declined to explain nothing about his famous step brother. He wrote theater dramas, that made him very popular in Austria. But soon he started refusing every award constantly given to him. He only accepted the first one they gave him, and never again. He kept being a very stubbornly hard critic of his own country. The more they praised him, the more scornful he showed himself about Austria. This said, The Loser or The Wrecked One deals about Classical Music. Bernhard personifies himself here as a pianist, something he was, in reality. Then he goes into an imaginary kind of a tough competition between two piano geniuses. Being the two of them Glenn Gould and Horowitz. He places both of them as students in the Mozarteum Institute. With himself personified as the third piano student trying to compete with both geniuses. Won't go further with this plot, not willing to reveal what happens. This is not a writer for every reader. Maybe The Wittgenstein Nephew shattered life would be the best start with his novels. For that's a shorter and easier one. Though you better have some interest in Classical music, there again. Cause it deals also about Paul Wittgenstein, the famous left single handed pianist. Who was the nephew of the well known Philosopher. A very wealthy man, as well. Bernhard knew him, and shared his interest in Classical music and piano playing and he seems to have known Paul quite well. Anyway, keep in mind his "Authobioghy" sort of novels and then his Short Stories and then it's up to you to keep following with The Wittgenstein Nephew or whatever. A quirky author I can't recommend to every reader, as said. 🤔🙄😳😒👍🆗
Oh man Ace Ventura was huge for me, my mamaw would always watch me and my brothers and we would watch Ace Ventura probably one a month, my favorite scene was when he was driving through the jungle and the jeep goes all crazy and he ends with, "Like a glove."
Thanks for your review, just subscribed! The Loser was my first Bernhard too. Just finished it. Maybe you’d enjoy Depentes as well? Her Vernon Subutex Trilogy is frequently likened to Houllbeque (? sorry, not sure how his name’s spelled 😋) Also, Bernhards “Wittgensteins Nephew” sounds interesting, it is about Bernards friendship with Wittgensteins nephew, whom he meets while being at the hospital. Wittgenstein is a patient at the psychiatric ward and Bernhard is being treated for his lung issues. Thanks for recommending the documentary about Glenn and please excuse my grammar/spelling, english is not my first language 😅
One of my favorite Bernhards. Actually the translation takes something away. The german title "Der Untergeher" is more cynical then just "Loser". Anyways this book made me laugh and think a lot. I read it after a surgery in a period i studied acting. So i could Unserstand the Obsession for perfection of an Artist. Maybe the loser wouldnt take his life if he had read Emil Cioran and had let his pressure "to be something" go. Its interesting to see you speaking about books I know too. You catched the content of the book pretty well.
I have indeed recommended Tropic of Cancer on twitter and you've acknowledged it just wanted to recommend it again because I have finished very recently and want to hear your take on it
reading "Glenn Gould Reader" these days, and I take this wonderful "an eccentric genius, a lonely God amongst mere mortal musicians." down in my book notes ;)
This is fun commentary. I’m about halfway through the book at the moment. To be honest, I’ve mostly wanted to smack the shit out of the narrator… for multiple reasons. I guess that is part of the magic of what Bernhard was doing. But, I love your take aways and it gives a fresh light into the themes and metaphors you have relayed here. Kudos.
And I feel like I'm gonna get shit for saying it, but as a pianist.... I wasn't a big fan of Glenn Gould's interpretations of Bach until much later [and then... probably only his Goldberg Variations. His recording of the Partitas was very dull to me] because I thought I was losing my mind when I heard him humming and it really irritated me. Much preferred some of his other works, like I think he did a transcription of Wagner's Siegfried Rheinfahrt from Gotterdammerung that was every bit as amazing as the original.
Yes! I'm so glad you reviewed the book. It's one of my personal favorites and I think you did a very good job of explaining why. It's also very funny to me that you mention Pessoa because The Book Of Disquiet is my favorite book of all time; I read it every single day. It never occurred to me that they are in anyway similliar, but while you were talking about it, I kind of got it. Both books are very me, and it makes up this fucked up wounded figure of a teenager I am. I feel and think everything Pessoa writes about, and I always partake in the perspective Bernhard puts toward us in his books. Also, I can't remember any book I bursted out of laughter harder than while reading Der Untergeher. I laughed about, and at, myself, I laughed about the characters, I laughed about Bernhard himself, and I laughed about the world arround me. A truly cathartic experience. In a weird way, through the humour, Bernhard is negating his nihilism... As you said, nothing matters, and it's fabulous. Fantastic book, fantastic review!
Hi, again! I have been binging your videos and promptly ordering them off of Thriftbooks. Sometimes I like to buy books in used or questionable condition... it is interesting to see what those before me highlighted or dog-eared. Cannot wait to start Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet followed by The Loser (and eventually Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem/A Season in Hell by Rimbaud). I am currently in the middle of Camus' Exile and the Kingdom. I enjoy the short stories within this book so much so because I see so much of Camus' philosophy so blatantly in them, and yet I am almost always surprised at how he concludes each one. Classic Camus. Although, I did enjoy the Fall and the Stranger a bit more.
Book of Disquiet is one of my favorite books so I must read this. I highly recommend you check out Kobo Abe's Woman In the Dunes. Japanese New Wave filmmaker Hiroshi Teshihagara created a brilliant film adaptation.
a tidbit about Gould -- obv he drove sound engineers crazy with the humming but he didn't like it either. One time he tried to record *wearing a gas mask*. This from "Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy" by Robert Jordain, the best book I've ever read on cognition, period, viewed through prism of music.
i subscribed to ur channel after seeing ur Blood Meridian review....happy to c a channel where i can get to know abt serious literature rather than teen problems......hoping u may review Salman Rushdie or Philip K Dick or even a Haruki Murakami novel......best wishes man....👍
What a review! If Celine & Houellebecq are somehow comparable to describe this book then this is definitely a must! (for me at least) What's your take on The Idiot by Dostoyevsky?
Ha, of course you're here too. It's been a while since I saw a comment of yours. Any album that dropped recently you'd recommend? I mean beside the big ones, something like Stara Rzeka or Oiseaux Tempete? To make this comment not completely unrelated, I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and enjoying the crap out of it. One of Dostoyevsky's best ones for sure.
@BetterThanFoodBooksReviews: Its a such a ride. Really interested in your thoughts about it! I get that Mr. Zulawski was really into it as well! Im always psyched to see his influences distilled. @AllofthemMilkingwithGreenFleshyFlowers: Long time no see man! Always happy to recommend! The new Blown Out - ''Celestial Sphere'', Aluk Todolo - ''Voix'' & Haikai No ku - ''Temporary Infinity'' are getting constantly played. They're these long instrumental rawish psyched out jams. I think they're fucking awesome, hit straight to the marrow. Any good records in your opinion? Sorry for the spam Mr. Sargent!
Tordah90 Oh yeah, Aluk Todolo's new record is fantastic, been spinning it the whole year, so far. I definitely need to check out the other two mentioned, though. I'm currently mostly digging the new Virus record Memento Collider. Also loving the shit out of Thumbscrew's Convallaria. I usually don't like Jazz with electric guitar but here it works perfectly - Halvorson, Formanek and Fujiwara are just so great together. Also anything Mats Gustafsson dropped, especially his collaboration with Chippendale and Pupillo called Melt. Probably the most alive and visceral free jazz formation out there right know. Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith's A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke is pretty good too. Oh, and to name some great metal I'd highly recommend Plebeian Grandstand's False Highs, True Lows. Incredibly good french black metal band who incorparate post hardcore and math rock in there sound in an unrelenting but beautiful way. There's so much more great stuff but I leave it at that, I think.
Even though "The Loser" is excellent, I think his best works are "Correction" and "Woodcutters". There is one I haven´t seen in English, but in Spanish it´s called "La Calera". Man, you gotta read all Bernhard, he is simply a giant. Greetings from Costa Rica :)
Another fine review for the ages Cliff, nice work! Would you ever consider reviewing 'The Third Policeman' by my fellow Irishman Flann O'Brien (real name Brian O'Nolan) or perhaps 'At Swim Two Birds'? As regards poetry, I have a sneaking suspicion (though I may be overly presumptuous here) that you would enjoy 'Crow' by Ted Hughes. Keep up the good work, and a fine day to you sir! Domhnall
Excellent review. thanks for introducing me to Thomas Bernhard. I will read some. My recent discovery: John McGahern, Amongst Women. About a 50ish year old hard nut of a man in rural Ireland and his relationship with his 3 daughters and 2 sons. An excellent writer who has the feel of a John Williams, Stoner.
Another austrian writer: Konrad Bayer might be of interest. The novel Der Kopf des Vitus Bering. (The head of Vitus Bering) is an amazing avant garde novel about the danish arctic explorer Vitus Bering. great reviews on this channel.
I read Concrete and Gargoyles about a year a go, haven't read this one. I think I should go back to those two then also read this one. Thanks for the review.
Have you read Rosemary' Baby by Ira Levin? I just read it last week and loved it. Gave it four out of five stars and I am very picky when it comes to my fave genre, which is horror:) Hope you will read and review it. Pleeeeeeease. Greetings from Norway:)
I'd recommend Cloud Atlas by I think you might find it gimmicky. By Night in Chile is a great read, heard it burrows some of the stylistic and structural elements of Bernhardt's novels. I think you might like Hard Rain Falling, if you like bleak noir stuff.
@@johnmulligan455 Oh he would most definitely despise it. Which makes me want to see that scenario. I mean the guy hated most things to a degree and something as obnoxious as The Mask would probably make him explode or write something brilliant about it. I guess I just wish to see him direct his articulate hatred at more topics. He was something else.
@@johnmulligan455 haven’t read enough to call him a favourite yet but I loved the Loser and Wittgenstein’s Nephew and I’m planning to read the autobiography next. Which is his best work, do you think? And in which language did you read him? His german seems hard to translate.
I can understand why one would be hesitant to read and review that book. Everything to do with that task is long and exhausting. I'm currently almost 500 pgs through my second read of GR. Not only is getting some semi-solid grasp of the concepts, themes, and a basic *plot* of the book hard as shit, but how can you really review that book? It's such an insane chaotic hurricane whirlwind of death and sex and erotic deathly sex. so I understand why he's not keen on it.
Just a small comment on pronunciation. "Ss" in Portuguese is said as "s" in the English word "person", it's "s" that sometimes is said as "sh" or "z". So it's Pessoa and not Peshoa. "Der Untergeher" is pronounced "untergayer" as from the word "gay". Btw, forvo.com is a great site to check foreign names' pronunciation. I hope you don't mind the corrections, but you seem like you care to say things correctly, so I thought you'd like to know.
I was going to say that if a well-known writer is not attacked by old ladies with umbrellas on a bus, he is doing something wrong. But with Salman Rushdie in grave condition in hospital, I’ll bite my tongue. Ouch.
You choose some great authors to review. I got here from Ligotti who scared the crap out of you... and me. I guess now you have to go listen to some motivational youtube videos like you said on your "how to handle depressing lit video. lol. Try coconut water sometime. A 16oz can usually has almost a gram of potassium and some of them taste almost like the real thing. If you want to read something really captivating although not depressing per se. Read Robertson Davies "The Deptford Trilogy". It's three books long but you'll be so glad that's true.
@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews What's wrong with giving up? It get's a bad rap. Most people struggle for things that when they finally get them are worthless.
I´m over 7 minutes into this review and he didn´t even start to talk about the book but about himself; just a little bit on Bernhard and now G. Gould. I´m giving up.
You're probably the only book reviewer on RUclips who isn't obsessed with Young Adult fiction and "book tags". For that, I say thank you and keep the vids coming.
Thanks man. I legitimately don't know what a book tag is. Happy to do so. Thank you!
Better Than Food: Book Reviews yes!! Just discovered today!
Thats becuase he is a MAN. A full grown MAN.
@@shiv26196 soooo... Women can't review books?
@@Rafa-uj2oi I'm not being funny but have seen many of the women who do book reviews on YT? They literally fall into this category 90% of the time.
I can’t believe at my age of 70, I am listening to a book review by a kid who is quoting, Jim Carey. But your a amazing wisdom, thorough analysis of The Loser and your easy going and down to earth style of introducing the book is absolutely fascinating. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in the college. I will keep watching and listening to your reviews. Thank you so much.
i love thomas bernhard. his style is addicting. after that its hard going back to normal prose. He said about himself that he sees himself as a "story-destructor". everytime when he thinks he is telling a story he said he breaks it down
Vienna is actually a magnificent place. One of the greatest and most underrated cities in Europe.
Then I guess I'll go. Thanks for the tip skip
You definitely should ;) Keep up the good work!
Absolutely! New stuff tomorrow. Thanks for watching!
Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz.
Just finished the book and watched the documentary you linked, what a treat! I absolutely loved both! Thanks a lot
I've read almost everything by him, he's one of my favorites. Finally started reading 'Gathering Evidence', I'm halfway through, and my mind is blown. Would definitely recommend.
I think you would like No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Kokoro by Natsume Soseki. The former has a pretty similar brooding, gloomy feel to the Book of Disquiet. The latter is a little less gloomy, but you really can't escape gloom completely with many Japanese writers. Both are fantastic books; relatively short reads too!
Kokoro is the bomb
"No longer human" sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
@@foolyanr.1 7 years later and I would still recommend it!
Lived in the neighborhood where Dazai lived and I read the book there. Very surreal moment for me...
Damn I just recently ordered this huge single volume collection containing nine of his novels for 25€, due to arrive next week. Even more excited for it now, great review.
Watching you do a book review of an Austrian author while I'm also drinking lemon water because I drank too much coffee already and living Austria. Feels a bit eerie in a way haha.
or you simply live the same inanely postured microlife of a faux-human withering away with smaller and smaller repertoires of patterned consumption
You have to read "Old Masters: A Comedy". It's amazing!
I read Bernhard's "Yes" when I was in high school and I loved it!
The word "Untergeher" doesn't actually exist in the German language, it's a made up word related to the noun "Untergang" which means downfall, demise etc. and the verb "untergehen" which equals to perish, to be destroyed but also to sink and drown (in water).
Cheers!
Right ; and so title " The Loser " is not very well translated.
@@MrIchbins666 i was always seeing "the loser" everywhere, took me a while to figure out that it's the translation for "der untergeher" haha
Simone de Beauvoir - All Men Are Mortal
Begins as a romance, focusing on a self involved actress who comes across this guy who appears to be completely out of it barely moving and not eating. We are introduced to this character, recently released from an asylum, whose meek demeanour hides the history of a man who lived on and on and on through lives taken from Sympathy for the Devil.
I love your book reviews and enjoy the way you talk about the writers but on this one I really enjoyed you talking about beautiful Sintra in my home country of Portugal. I’m a Londoner through and through but hearing other people speak so fondly of my country makes me miss it sometimes
Hi! love your books reviews you are giving me a ton of books to read! I am from Sintra Portugal and i have to say your description of Sintra its...just amazing.
Wow, I am jealous, that may be my favorite town. Thanks for watching.
Life just is, and I don't know what I'm saying. So I adore it- - - -
To enter in such an obsessive mind as the Bernhard one, may require a bit of an effort. I would recommend to start with his Short Stories as an easier entry in his world of sickness and despair. And also because they count among his best, with his five autobiographical books. Bernhard is different to any other writer. He is kind of a genre in himself. There are also bits of a twisted dark sense of humour, would I say, in his obsessive hells. But you have to look a bit for that, to start finding it. He himself a rare bird, an outsider with apparently no sexual life at all, was as weird, as quirky as his novels. He was a sick man, his lungs having tortured him now and then. His autobiography parts of, are a mix of fantasy and reality, the borders of its sketches being conveniently erased. His quite interesting Short Stories deal about sickness in its various forms and about his always dramatically lone characters. If such a thing as a family exists in his cold and high Austrian mountain houses, it may consist only of a father and his sick son. Although while reading it, you may start doubting about which of the two is the more lunatic one. The megalomaniac or narcissistic despot or his son and victim. Many of his characters in his Short Stories are terribly isolated, and forced to remain loners all their lifes because of the high Austria geography, according to him. Bernhard had an older lady than him as his best or only friend and occasional companion. But she denied telling nothing about this mystery of a writer. Researchers and biographers tried to find out where his biblioteque was, in which of his houses. They were thinking about which were his main influences. Being so that he quoted now and then philosophers or other important writers. But it was all to finish discovering there was not such. His biblioteque was a mental one and for his quotes, he went into public libraries to wrote them down, they concluded. He lived quite a stern life, leaving a bit of a fortune to his half brother, a doctor who inheritated him. Another one who also declined to explain nothing about his famous step brother. He wrote theater dramas, that made him very popular in Austria. But soon he started refusing every award constantly given to him. He only accepted the first one they gave him, and never again. He kept being a very stubbornly hard critic of his own country. The more they praised him, the more scornful he showed himself about Austria. This said, The Loser or The Wrecked One deals about Classical Music. Bernhard personifies himself here as a pianist, something he was, in reality. Then he goes into an imaginary kind of a tough competition between two piano geniuses. Being the two of them Glenn Gould and Horowitz. He places both of them as students in the Mozarteum Institute. With himself personified as the third piano student trying to compete with both geniuses. Won't go further with this plot, not willing to reveal what happens. This is not a writer for every reader. Maybe The Wittgenstein Nephew shattered life would be the best start with his novels. For that's a shorter and easier one. Though you better have some interest in Classical music, there again. Cause it deals also about Paul Wittgenstein, the famous left single handed pianist. Who was the nephew of the well known Philosopher. A very wealthy man, as well. Bernhard knew him, and shared his interest in Classical music and piano playing and he seems to have known Paul quite well. Anyway, keep in mind his "Authobioghy" sort of novels and then his Short Stories and then it's up to you to keep following with The Wittgenstein Nephew or whatever. A quirky author I can't recommend to every reader, as said. 🤔🙄😳😒👍🆗
I'm four years late but you should definitely check out Bernhard's Woodcutters if you haven't. One of the funniest books I've ever read.
Frost , I think his first, is a trip.
Oh man Ace Ventura was huge for me, my mamaw would always watch me and my brothers and we would watch Ace Ventura probably one a month, my favorite scene was when he was driving through the jungle and the jeep goes all crazy and he ends with, "Like a glove."
Please, please, please do Trainspotting sometime. As good as the film is, the book blows it out of the water and covers so much more subject matter
Think you'd love 'Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould' by François Girard (1993). If you can find a copy!
Thanks for your review, just subscribed! The Loser was my first Bernhard too. Just finished it. Maybe you’d enjoy Depentes as well? Her Vernon Subutex Trilogy is frequently likened to Houllbeque (? sorry, not sure how his name’s spelled 😋) Also, Bernhards “Wittgensteins Nephew” sounds interesting, it is about Bernards friendship with Wittgensteins nephew, whom he meets while being at the hospital. Wittgenstein is a patient at the psychiatric ward and Bernhard is being treated for his lung issues. Thanks for recommending the documentary about Glenn and please excuse my grammar/spelling, english is not my first language 😅
"Wittgensteins nephew" is in my opinion Bernhards lowest novel.
Haven't read it myself, but maybe look into All Souls' Rising. Michael Gira has talked about it on multiple occasions during interviews.
It's also the name of one of his songs. One of his best in my opinion.
Swans is a great band.
Woodcutters is his best work - please give it a try as well!
One of my favorite Bernhards. Actually the translation takes something away. The german title "Der Untergeher" is more cynical then just "Loser". Anyways this book made me laugh and think a lot. I read it after a surgery in a period i studied acting. So i could Unserstand the Obsession for perfection of an Artist. Maybe the loser wouldnt take his life if he had read Emil Cioran and had let his pressure "to be something" go.
Its interesting to see you speaking about books I know too. You catched the content of the book pretty well.
Totally agree on the title. Wertheimer definitely isn’t a loser, he is an Untergeher, which is a big difference.
I have indeed recommended Tropic of Cancer on twitter and you've acknowledged it just wanted to recommend it again because I have finished very recently and want to hear your take on it
When you've come to Thomas Bernhard, it's difficult to find new authors any more, after.
Hart Mut Donald barthelme
reading "Glenn Gould Reader" these days, and I take this wonderful "an eccentric genius, a lonely God amongst mere mortal musicians." down in my book notes ;)
This is fun commentary. I’m about halfway through the book at the moment. To be honest, I’ve mostly wanted to smack the shit out of the narrator… for multiple reasons. I guess that is part of the magic of what Bernhard was doing. But, I love your take aways and it gives a fresh light into the themes and metaphors you have relayed here. Kudos.
lol I was instantly reminded of Edie Monsoon saying "Lacroix, dahling, it's Lacroix" in Absolutely Fabulous ahaha
And I feel like I'm gonna get shit for saying it, but as a pianist.... I wasn't a big fan of Glenn Gould's interpretations of Bach until much later [and then... probably only his Goldberg Variations. His recording of the Partitas was very dull to me] because I thought I was losing my mind when I heard him humming and it really irritated me. Much preferred some of his other works, like I think he did a transcription of Wagner's Siegfried Rheinfahrt from Gotterdammerung that was every bit as amazing as the original.
Yes! I'm so glad you reviewed the book. It's one of my personal favorites and I think you did a very good job of explaining why. It's also very funny to me that you mention Pessoa because The Book Of Disquiet is my favorite book of all time; I read it every single day. It never occurred to me that they are in anyway similliar, but while you were talking about it, I kind of got it. Both books are very me, and it makes up this fucked up wounded figure of a teenager I am. I feel and think everything Pessoa writes about, and I always partake in the perspective Bernhard puts toward us in his books.
Also, I can't remember any book I bursted out of laughter harder than while reading Der Untergeher. I laughed about, and at, myself, I laughed about the characters, I laughed about Bernhard himself, and I laughed about the world arround me. A truly cathartic experience. In a weird way, through the humour, Bernhard is negating his nihilism... As you said, nothing matters, and it's fabulous. Fantastic book, fantastic review!
;D
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Joe Shite the Ragman
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me
all of them milking with green fleshy flowers SAY WHAT YOU WANNA SAY
Neutral Milk is a great band.
Hi, again! I have been binging your videos and promptly ordering them off of Thriftbooks. Sometimes I like to buy books in used or questionable condition... it is interesting to see what those before me highlighted or dog-eared. Cannot wait to start Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet followed by The Loser (and eventually Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem/A Season in Hell by Rimbaud).
I am currently in the middle of Camus' Exile and the Kingdom. I enjoy the short stories within this book so much so because I see so much of Camus' philosophy so blatantly in them, and yet I am almost always surprised at how he concludes each one. Classic Camus. Although, I did enjoy the Fall and the Stranger a bit more.
Book of Disquiet is one of my favorite books so I must read this. I highly recommend you check out Kobo Abe's Woman In the Dunes. Japanese New Wave filmmaker Hiroshi Teshihagara created a brilliant film adaptation.
Love Bernhard, thanks for the review! Gould does excellent interpretations of Schoenberg if you're interested.
a tidbit about Gould -- obv he drove sound engineers crazy with the humming but he didn't like it either. One time he tried to record *wearing a gas mask*. This from "Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy" by Robert Jordain, the best book I've ever read on cognition, period, viewed through prism of music.
i subscribed to ur channel after seeing ur Blood Meridian review....happy to c a channel where i can get to know abt serious literature rather than teen problems......hoping u may review Salman Rushdie or Philip K Dick or even a Haruki Murakami novel......best wishes man....👍
What a review! If Celine & Houellebecq are somehow comparable to describe this book then this is definitely a must! (for me at least) What's your take on The Idiot by Dostoyevsky?
Haven't read. Should.
Ha, of course you're here too. It's been a while since I saw a comment of yours. Any album that dropped recently you'd recommend? I mean beside the big ones, something like Stara Rzeka or Oiseaux Tempete?
To make this comment not completely unrelated, I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and enjoying the crap out of it. One of Dostoyevsky's best ones for sure.
@BetterThanFoodBooksReviews: Its a such a ride. Really interested in your thoughts about it! I get that Mr. Zulawski was really into it as well! Im always psyched to see his influences distilled.
@AllofthemMilkingwithGreenFleshyFlowers: Long time no see man! Always happy to recommend! The new Blown Out - ''Celestial Sphere'', Aluk Todolo - ''Voix'' & Haikai No ku - ''Temporary Infinity'' are getting constantly played. They're these long instrumental rawish psyched out jams. I think they're fucking awesome, hit straight to the marrow. Any good records in your opinion?
Sorry for the spam Mr. Sargent!
no apologies necessary
Tordah90 Oh yeah, Aluk Todolo's new record is fantastic, been spinning it the whole year, so far. I definitely need to check out the other two mentioned, though.
I'm currently mostly digging the new Virus record Memento Collider. Also loving the shit out of Thumbscrew's Convallaria. I usually don't like Jazz with electric guitar but here it works perfectly - Halvorson, Formanek and Fujiwara are just so great together. Also anything Mats Gustafsson dropped, especially his collaboration with Chippendale and Pupillo called Melt. Probably the most alive and visceral free jazz formation out there right know. Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith's A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke is pretty good too. Oh, and to name some great metal I'd highly recommend Plebeian Grandstand's False Highs, True Lows. Incredibly good french black metal band who incorparate post hardcore and math rock in there sound in an unrelenting but beautiful way.
There's so much more great stuff but I leave it at that, I think.
Great review. Anyone know the link for that Leo Actualized video on patience? Also I'm 100% going to visit Sentra and Ronda they look gorgeous.
Even though "The Loser" is excellent, I think his best works are "Correction" and "Woodcutters". There is one I haven´t seen in English, but in Spanish it´s called "La Calera". Man, you gotta read all Bernhard, he is simply a giant. Greetings from Costa Rica :)
Another fine review for the ages Cliff, nice work! Would you ever consider reviewing 'The Third Policeman' by my fellow Irishman Flann O'Brien (real name Brian O'Nolan) or perhaps 'At Swim Two Birds'? As regards poetry, I have a sneaking suspicion (though I may be overly presumptuous here) that you would enjoy 'Crow' by Ted Hughes.
Keep up the good work, and a fine day to you sir!
Domhnall
Which book should I start with?
Excellent review. thanks for introducing me to Thomas Bernhard. I will read some. My recent discovery: John McGahern, Amongst Women. About a 50ish year old hard nut of a man in rural Ireland and his relationship with his 3 daughters and 2 sons. An excellent writer who has the feel of a John Williams, Stoner.
Another austrian writer: Konrad Bayer might be of interest. The novel Der Kopf des Vitus Bering. (The head of Vitus Bering) is an amazing avant garde novel about the danish arctic explorer Vitus Bering. great reviews on this channel.
I read Concrete and Gargoyles about a year a go, haven't read this one. I think I should go back to those two then also read this one. Thanks for the review.
Have you read Rosemary' Baby by Ira Levin? I just read it last week and loved it. Gave it four out of five stars and I am very picky when it comes to my fave genre, which is horror:) Hope you will read and review it. Pleeeeeeease. Greetings from Norway:)
I'd recommend Cloud Atlas by I think you might find it gimmicky.
By Night in Chile is a great read, heard it burrows some of the stylistic and structural elements of Bernhardt's novels.
I think you might like Hard Rain Falling, if you like bleak noir stuff.
Jim Carrey was my idol in elementary school! That Cannibal Corpse scene in Pet Detective is still hilarious.
@@johnmulligan455 cliff mentions/quotes Carrey
@@johnmulligan455 ah ok. I thought you were confused at how he brought up Carrey in a Bernhard review.
@@johnmulligan455 I would give a lot to see Bernhard react to The Mask, to be honest.
@@johnmulligan455 Oh he would most definitely despise it. Which makes me want to see that scenario. I mean the guy hated most things to a degree and something as obnoxious as The Mask would probably make him explode or write something brilliant about it.
I guess I just wish to see him direct his articulate hatred at more topics. He was something else.
@@johnmulligan455 haven’t read enough to call him a favourite yet but I loved the Loser and Wittgenstein’s Nephew and I’m planning to read the autobiography next. Which is his best work, do you think? And in which language did you read him? His german seems hard to translate.
Definetly sound interesting. Wanna check this book out. Great review as always!
YOU NEED TO READ "HARD RAIN FALLING"
AND READ PLEASE " THE MAN SUIT BY ZACHARY SCHOMBURG"
Bernhard!!! Yes sir. One of my favs. If you don't want to write for the New Yorker, you should play Ace Ventura in Ace Ventura remakes.
You know anyone at the New Yorker? I hear they pay Money.
Location: 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. Ask for David Remnick. I don't know if they pay Money.
Could you please review Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon?
I can understand why one would be hesitant to read and review that book. Everything to do with that task is long and exhausting. I'm currently almost 500 pgs through my second read of GR. Not only is getting some semi-solid grasp of the concepts, themes, and a basic *plot* of the book hard as shit, but how can you really review that book? It's such an insane chaotic hurricane whirlwind of death and sex and erotic deathly sex. so I understand why he's not keen on it.
Do you think you will ever review a play?
Anyway, thanks for the consistent reviews!! Great job man!!
Sure, why not, thanks
Sweet! Looking forward to it
Have you read Geoff Dyer‘s book on DH Lawrence? It‘s a variation on the sound of a Bernhard suada. Very funny too.
Just a small comment on pronunciation. "Ss" in Portuguese is said as "s" in the English word "person", it's "s" that sometimes is said as "sh" or "z". So it's Pessoa and not Peshoa. "Der Untergeher" is pronounced "untergayer" as from the word "gay". Btw, forvo.com is a great site to check foreign names' pronunciation.
I hope you don't mind the corrections, but you seem like you care to say things correctly, so I thought you'd like to know.
Do you think you'll ever do a video on some Graham Greene? Maybe something like The Heart of the Matter.
Have you read any other books of him?
I was going to say that if a well-known writer is not attacked by old ladies with umbrellas on a bus, he is doing something wrong. But with Salman Rushdie in grave condition in hospital, I’ll bite my tongue. Ouch.
You were four when Pet Detective came out? Hell, do I feel old! Sorry, I digress, would you consider reviewing A Clockwork Orange?
If haven't yet, this is for all Gould-heads: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Two_Short_Films_About_Glenn_Gould
That's a gin and tonic - you're hammered!
Funny,,!,
I would find it really interesting if you made a video on traveling, advise, experiences and that.
Schönberg was a bad-ass composer.
More Bernhard !!! please (bitte)
Can’t recommend these books enough!
getBook.at/CarreroSeries
@#teamarrickcarrero
Let me know what you think 😃😃
Check out Bernhard's Correction.
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Wertheimer is basically Tommen Lannister
Great review! His name is pronounced 'Bairn-heart' by the way - 'Bairn' like the Scottish word for child.
You choose some great authors to review. I got here from Ligotti who scared the crap out of you... and me. I guess now you have to go listen to some motivational youtube videos like you said on your "how to handle depressing lit video. lol. Try coconut water sometime. A 16oz can usually has almost a gram of potassium and some of them taste almost like the real thing. If you want to read something really captivating although not depressing per se. Read Robertson Davies "The Deptford Trilogy". It's three books long but you'll be so glad that's true.
Wertheimer could've been a virtuoso, perhaps the greatest in Europe, but still it wasn't enough.
"but what makes him a loser" that he recognizes his limitations?? @ 10:06
always a pleasure to listen to your reviews, how about Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson?
Another spectacular review. Have you read Crime and Punishment?
"La croix" means "the cross" in French. Just in case you wanted to know, it's pronounced "kwa"
If nothing matters, why restrict your reading to non-bullshit material?
W. Somerset Maugham 'The Razor's Edge".
hehe..i can go to sintra anytime. living an hour from there. it is super romantic. the best place to fall in love
I can’t accept that you didn’t have sparkling water before 2016. I can’t.
I will send you "The Man Suit" in the mail if I have too
It's brilliant and I want you to experience it as well
"The Fixer" by Bernard Malamud
First time I've ever been first. Good job as always sir!
Thanks Number 1
I adore Bernhard and Houellebecq. Just to throw in a name- Elfriede Jelinek is a fantastic hater. A tad politically charged but I really like her.
Read Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
He shits on Austria’s... everything, in Old Masters.
DAT fizz
If you love long continuous chapters, you will simply adore ''On The Road'' by Kerouac.
Trying to read and understand TB in another language but German is utterly ridiculous.
Jim Carrey Ace Ventura Much? :D:D:D:D
IKEA bed frame?
Yeuh
Dostoyevski Crime and Punishment man!!!!!
It's gotta happen
all his books are about giving up, and giving up seems inevitable to him
Yup. He's a very self absorbed diva. Still a great writer.
Better Than Food: Book Reviews I'd rather put it as self-observing, the things he saw in himself reflects the condition of human existence
@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews What's wrong with giving up? It get's a bad rap. Most people struggle for things that when they finally get them are worthless.
please get the volume up to normal levels. pass the word :D
I'm 9minutes in and you've only said about 20seconds about the book...
I thought it was fucking banal.
nothings matters and it fabolous)
VERY ANNOYING, THIS DUDE...
I´m over 7 minutes into this review and he didn´t even start to talk about the book but about himself; just a little bit on Bernhard and now G. Gould. I´m giving up.
You can fast forward, smart one.