Around the World in Books discussion

Discussion on our August Book selection, the Loser starts here.The Loser

It is posted! thanks so much. didn't see it in the other thread.

If Austria is anything like Thomas Bernhard suggests, I don't ever fancy visiting...

Okay, well this is quite the book. Really, Mar there is actually another paragraph in it? I've only found one so far. So far the best thing about the book is the depiction of Glenn Gould, a very famous Canadian and a very famous pianist. Anyways, need to read on in case I come upon another paragraph.

I had to obtain a copy of the book through an inter-library loan. Only library that had it was the local university. From what I can tell the book had never been opened despite being catalogued a number of years ago. Perhaps there is a Cole's notes edition?

Yes, Coles Notes (Chapters/Indigo/Coles Bookstore) sounds like the equivalent in Canada! I am using a Kobe e-reader these days (Canadian equivalent of Kindle). However, the supply of library books available by e-books is still very limited so am still finding the need to read real books from the library!

I read this book on Kindle as well, and the structure definitely affected my reading experience. Generally, when I am ready to stop reading, I prefer to stop at the end of a chapter, or at least at the end of a paragraph, so I was thrown off a little by having to just find a random place to stop reading.

My Kindle version had an afterword that put a historical perspective on the book, and a personal perspective on the author. It said that the author thought that his fundamental task and pleasure as a writer was to denounce, scandalize, and just plain get on people's nerves. "'To shake people up, that's my real pleasure,' he once admitted."

I have to admit that I was a little offended by the narrator and the character of Wertheimer -- I thought they both acted like spoiled brats, never having to work a day in their lives, choosing music as a path just because it irked their parents, and then giving that up too, just to withdraw into their "studies." I thought that the author's portrayal of the class differences was interesting -- that the characters seem intrigued by the "other half" (the working class), which was portrayed as base but happy, while the upper class characters were portrayed as bored and unhappy. When Wertheimer attempts an act of charity (trying to send money to Africa which was "gobbled up by the Catholic organizations he entrusted the money to"), the author makes fun of it.

However, reading the afterword about how Bernhard grew up in impoverished circumstances, and how he writes in order to shake people up, I took his characters less seriously.

I'm still reading this book and I'm not quite sure what to think about it. It does get me interested in learning more about Glenn Gould, that is one thing it's accomplished so far! I feel like I should be reading it without taking a breath..haha.