Volume 32, Number 5 · March 28, 1985
Calling Dr. Angst
By D.J. Enright
Concrete
by Thomas Bernhard, translated by David McLintock
Knopf, 156 pp., $12.95
The Inner Man
by Martin Walser, translated by Leila Vennewitz
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 276 pp., $15.95
On the jacket of his new novel, the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard is likened to Kafka and Beckett, while reviewers are quoted as linking him with Broch, Strindberg, and Musil. Whether these constitute sure-fire recommendations is a matter of opinion. Are we certain we need another Kafka? Or that we want another Beckett or Strindberg (or even Broch)? We could never hope for (what is he doing here?) a second Musil. In the event it is Beckett, though a more loquacious Beckett than we have met of late, whom Bernhard comes nearest to.
Review, 2709 words
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