Thomas Bernhard "Concrete"
"Concrete" is
Thomas Bernhard at his very finest: a bleakly hilarious insight into
procrastination and failure that scratches the murky depths of our
souls.
Instead of the book he is meant to write, Rudolph, a Viennese
musicologist, produces this dark and grotesquely funny account of small
woes writ large, of profound horrors detailed and rehearsed to the point
of distraction. We learn of Rudolph’s sister, whose help he invites
then reviles; his ‘really marvelous’ house which he hates; the
suspicious illness he carefully nurses; his ten-year-long attempt to
write the perfect opening sentence; and his escape to the island of
Majorca, which turns out to be the site of someone else’s very real
horror story, and ultimately brings him no release from himself.