emsemsems's review against another edition
4.0
‘The truth is that I have always hated the Viennese coffeehouses because in them I am always confronted with people like myself, and naturally I do not wish to be everlastingly confronted with people like myself, and certainly not in a coffeehouse, where I go to escape from myself.’
My first Bernhard. Not sure why I took so long to read one. Bernhard needs no praise at all, many readers have given him tons, and there is no need to reiterate all that that has been said before, repeatedly; he’s just brilliant that way. But I think I just haven’t really gotten used to the way he writes (yet). But I’m curious and keen. Still a whole bunch of them left to read, gladly. The ‘right’ amount of dark and funny. Can’t say I enjoyed any of the opera ramblings (which because I am not interested in enough, felt rather self-indulgent to me), but the rest is so gloriously composed (in its (I would argue) beautiful simplicity). A rather brief one, but strongly impressive. I quite like short reads with a huge impact, and this was just the perfect example of that.
‘The Wittgensteins, like the rest of their kind, had basically no interest in art, but were keen to patronise it.’
‘On one occasion, however, Paul said that his uncle Ludwig was the maddest member of the family. After all, to be a multimillionaire and a village schoolteacher is a bit perverse, don’t you think?’
‘As the healthy see it, the sick have forfeited whatever rights they once had (here I am speaking of the gravely sick, those with chronic diseases, like Paul Wittgenstein and myself). Their sickness has robbed them of their rights and thrown them upon the charity of the healthy. —A sick person who returns home always feels like an intruder in an area where he no longer has any business to be. It is a well-known pattern the world over: a sick person goes away, and once he is gone the healthy move in and take over the place he formerly occupied, yet instead of dying, as he was meant to do, he suddenly returns, wishing to resume and repossess his former place. The healthy are incensed, since the reappearance of this person whom they had already written off forces them back into their previous confines, and this is the last thing they want. The sick person. The sick person needs the most superhuman strength if he is to resume and repossess his former place.’
‘What is the Frankfurter Allgemeine, for instance, compared with The Times, I have often asked myself, what is the Süddeutsche Zeitung beside Le Monde? The answer is that the Germans are just not English and certainly not French. From my early youth I have regarded the ability to read English and French books and newspapers as the greatest advantage I possess. What would my world be like, I often wonder, if I had to rely on the German papers, which are for the most part little more than garbage sheets—to say nothing of the Austrian newspapers, which are not newspapers at all but mass-circulation issues of unusable toilet paper?’
‘For let us not deceive ourselves: most of the minds we associate with are housed in heads that have little more to offer than overgrown potatoes, stuck on top of whining and tastelessly clad bodies and eking out a pathetic existence that does not even merit our pity.’
evancdent's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
dayface's review against another edition
4.0
I'll keep this brief, as the novella itself is short and certainly deserving of a read.
Borderline obnoxious, histrionic, but nonetheless sympathetically endearing; just as I like it. I can see where Haber got his influence for his Saint Sebastian's Abyss and Reinhardt's Garden. Likewise, it directly references Wagner and Nietzsche, leading me to believe this is written in the style of their friendship - Ecce Homo comes to mind.
It reminds me of a poem, by T.S. Elliot: The Hollow Men -
Good to see some Karajan appreciation, ahahah! I was listening to his rendition of Holst's The Planets the other day because I'm a Karajan normie.
I can sincerely buy the interdependence of the two, each having found themself in some way in the other. It makes me think of my relationships, and where I've erred. Life is difficult, and particularly when mental distress is concerned.
Thomas understands the nuances of mental debilitation and the effects of convalescence on the body. Also, the dependency ON that convalescence that some, particularly hypochondriac, develop.
For let us not deceive ourselves: most of the minds we associate with are housed in heads that have little more to offer than overgrown potatoes, stuck on top of whining and tastelessly clad bodies and eking out a pathetic existence that does not even merit our pity. But the day will come when I really will visit Paul, I thought, and I made some notes about things that I intended to discuss with him, things that I had been unable to discuss with anyone for so many months.
Borderline obnoxious, histrionic, but nonetheless sympathetically endearing; just as I like it. I can see where Haber got his influence for his Saint Sebastian's Abyss and Reinhardt's Garden. Likewise, it directly references Wagner and Nietzsche, leading me to believe this is written in the style of their friendship - Ecce Homo comes to mind.
It reminds me of a poem, by T.S. Elliot: The Hollow Men -
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
[...]
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
It was only with Karajan, whom he detested, that he met his match. [...] I must say that I have admired Karajan ever since I was a child, and that this admiration is based on experience; I have respected him at least as much as have all the musicians with whom Karajan has ever worked. Paul had a fervent hatred of Karajan, whom he habitually described as a mere charlatan, but I regarded him, from decades of observation, quite simply as the greatest musician in the world. The more famous he became, the better he became, but my friend, like the rest of the musical world, refused to see it.
Good to see some Karajan appreciation, ahahah! I was listening to his rendition of Holst's The Planets the other day because I'm a Karajan normie.
You’re my only friend, the only person I have, the one and only, he would stammer to the person he was embracing, who was at a loss to know how to calm the poor wretch, how to relieve his tension.
I can sincerely buy the interdependence of the two, each having found themself in some way in the other. It makes me think of my relationships, and where I've erred. Life is difficult, and particularly when mental distress is concerned.
Don’t rush things, I told myself. It’ll take time to get back to the kind of conditions that will one day make it possible to start work on a new book. When a sick person returns home after a long absence, he finds everything strange, and the process of familiarizing himself with it again, of resuming possession of everything, is long and arduous. Having lost everything, he has to rediscover it. And because a sick person is always deserted—to say anything else would be a gross lie—he must try to develop a quite superhuman energy if he wants to carry on from where he left off months before
Thomas understands the nuances of mental debilitation and the effects of convalescence on the body. Also, the dependency ON that convalescence that some, particularly hypochondriac, develop.
A healthy person, if he is honest, wants nothing to do with the sick; he does not wish to be reminded of sickness and thereby, inevitably, of death. He wants to stay with his own kind and is basically intolerant of the sick.
kilburnadam's review against another edition
5.0
Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard offers a unique blend of fiction and memoir, delving into themes of friendship, madness, and the human condition. Bernhard, recovering from surgery, discovers that his dear friend Paul Wittgenstein, a relative of the famous philosopher, is confined to the mental ward of the same hospital. Through Bernhard's characteristic vitriol, he explores their parallel experiences of madness and illness, reflecting on the value of their deep intellectual connection. The book is a tribute to their friendship and serves as an introspective exploration of life's complexities. Bernhard's rants against various aspects of society add a touch of his trademark crankiness, but at its core, Wittgenstein's Nephew celebrates the enduring power of true friendship amidst a world that can seem increasingly unstable.
cgpc's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
nicolasrumpf's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
wiksor's review
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Forced institutionalization
lookhome's review against another edition
4.0
Bernhard's Wittgenstein's Nephew provides a deep dive into friendship, madness and intellect.
Much like in The Loser, Bernhard's writing and 'story' focuses on extremes.
In his oeuvre, he, so far, seems to favour people who either choose to live or, are compelled to live, with highs and lows rather than mediocrity. It seems one should favour pain and agony as oppose to neutrality.
As a whole, the prose and narrative feels like they are being spoken in long winded, excited, repetitive sentences by someone who's had too much coffee after a night of binge drinking.
The writing starts out with a wild flow of words and sentences, an ecstasy of energy that runs in circles around its subjects only to dwindle down as the content itself slows down, a man realizing his friends are getting tired and the best parts of the night have already come and gone.
A memorable reading experience.
Quotations to follow.
Much like in The Loser, Bernhard's writing and 'story' focuses on extremes.
In his oeuvre, he, so far, seems to favour people who either choose to live or, are compelled to live, with highs and lows rather than mediocrity. It seems one should favour pain and agony as oppose to neutrality.
As a whole, the prose and narrative feels like they are being spoken in long winded, excited, repetitive sentences by someone who's had too much coffee after a night of binge drinking.
The writing starts out with a wild flow of words and sentences, an ecstasy of energy that runs in circles around its subjects only to dwindle down as the content itself slows down, a man realizing his friends are getting tired and the best parts of the night have already come and gone.
A memorable reading experience.
Quotations to follow.
mslaura's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5