Thomas Bernhard Enthusiasm
Some Thomas Bernhard enthusiasm from author Claire Messud on NPR, who, she says, liberated her from the anxiety of satisfying her readers in her own writings. As it turns out, her husband, the eminent literary critic James Wood, isn't a great fan of his writings. He called him, in the context of a review of the same novel The Loser, "a drastically limited artist." (Link here. Scroll down for a screenshot titled "The Axeman of Austria." Love the title though.)
Also worth reading, a great profile of another guru of long-sentences, the Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago in the new york times magazine.
2 comments:
i think you do james wood a disservice...you're quoting him out of context based on that link. also, in his review of the savage detectives in the nytimes he cites bernhard, along with writers that i know he admires a lot like hrabal and sebald, as an example of the most daring postwar prose fiction around.
Actually I haven't read his review of The Loser. You are right perhaps. I do remember he says some insightful things about him in his essay on Sebald too.
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