The Loser

When one reads Bernhard, one never reads anything else the same again. In fact, every story feels false by comparison. Maybe it’s because The Loser is written in one unbroken paragraph or because it repeats a line ad nauseum or because the story, in any other writer’s hands, would feel mawkish.

But this novel about a triangular intellectual relationship between piano virtuoso Glenn Gould and his two students is anything but. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and confusing. The way life is. 

To play music written in another century and played thousands of times since is to live and play inside infinite comparisons: between the way something sounds in your head, and the clumsier way your fingers deliver it; between your interpretation and a famous recording; between your effort and a classmate’s. In The Loser, Bernhard imagines the lives of two students studying piano alongside a fictional version of the real-life virtuoso Glenn Gould. Their recognition of Gould’s brilliance starts their own lives unravelling. The first-person narrator ruminates and rants without pauses or paragraph breaks, flapping memorably at the edges of… show more.

Another crazy narrative, The Loser is 169 pages devoid of chapters and paragraphs. Its narrator explains how he and his friend Wertheimer got to study with the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. But they become so overwhelmed by his talent, so smitten, that the narrator gives up any attempts to become a concert pianist. Wertheimer commits suicide. Let yourself be hypnotised by this novel’s strange repetitions, its relentless tone, its odd philosophising, and unusual reportage. Bernhard, an Austrian who died in 1989, studied music then became a poet, playwright, and novelist. His fictions won Germany’s three most prestigious literary prizes,… show more.