The point, as Thomas Bernhard says about halfway through this novel, is to simply sit down and write what you have to say. The inhabitants of the lime works, a older man, Konrad, with a gift for natural sciences, and his incapacitated wife, are a case study in routine, obsession, and missed opportunities. Konrad's magnum opus, The Sense of Hearing, ultimately exists only in his mind. What a shame that is, Bernhard says, inviting the reader to look at himself through Konrad's experience.
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Loitering with Intent
Muriel Spark is irresistibly witty, sly, and funny in this novel about biography and writing.
The Unseen
This stark novel by the Norwegian writer Roy Jacobsen is centered on a family's life as the only occupants of an island. The style is compact and direct, but without the elegance of, say, similarly minded works by Par Lagerkvist. At its best, The Unseen can put one in mind of As I Lay Dying with its exploration of flawed and struggling characters.
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