Concrete (Vintage International)

ISBN: 1400077575

Author: Bernhard, Thomas

Condition: New

Instead of the book hes 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 Rudolphs sister, whose help he invites, then reviles as malevolent meddling; 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, finally, his escape to the island of Majorca, which turns out to be the site of someone elses very real horror story.A brilliant and haunting tale of procrastination, failure, and despair, Concrete is a perfect example of why Thomas Bernhard is remembered as one of the masters of contemporary European fiction (George Steiner).