Books from Austria — The Book Roads

Thomas Bernhard

For more than thirty years, music critic Reger has returned to the same bench in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum to contemplate a painting by Tintoretto. But he is not there simply to admire art: he studies masterpieces in search of their imperfections, convinced that nothing created by human hands can be truly flawless. Through his friend Atzbacher, we encounter Reger’s fiercely critical mind, his grief over the death of his wife, and his contempt for the hypocrisies of Austrian society. Over the course of a single day, art becomes the starting point for a merciless examination of culture, philosophy, nationalism, and the absurdities of human existence. Darkly comic and deliberately provocative, Bernhard’s novel challenges the reverence we attach to great artists and celebrated institutions, suggesting that sometimes the only honest response to perfection is to question it.

1985