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In "The Voice Imitator," translated by Kenneth Northcott, Bernhard gives us one of his most darkly comic works. A series of parable-like anecdotes -- some drawn from newspaper reports, some from conversation, some from hearsay -- this satire is both subtle and acerbic. What initially appear to be quaint little stories indict the sterility and callousness of modern life, not just in urban centers but everywhere. Bernhard presents an ordinary world careening into absurdity and disaster. Politicians, professionals, tourists, civil servants -- the usual victims of Bernhard's inspired misanthropy -- succumb one after another to madness, mishap, or suicide.
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First Sentence
Near Oslo we met a man of about sixty who told us more about the old people's home than we already knew from reading Hamsun's accounts of the last year of his life, because he had been working in the home at precisely the time during which the greatest of Norwegian writers was living there. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Near Oslo we met a man of about sixty who told us more about the old people's home than we already knew from reading Hamsun's accounts of the last year of his life, because he had been working in the home at precisely the time during which the greatest of Norwegian writers was living there. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This little collection of stories by the excellent Mr Bernhard should be in everyone's library. It contains a selection of news items and bizarre stories the author collected during his life, at least that is what the cover says. Each one last less than a page but all of them are interesting: some made me laugh out loud; others are very sad. Despite his cynicism about mankind in general Mr Bernhard never lacked compassion. If you like Donald Barthelme you will love this.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I came across two of the stories among the material for an Open University course entitled "Start Writing Fiction" (my tutor was Ashley Stokes, the author of "Touching the Starfish"). None of the stories in this collection is longer than one page. Any-one who picks this book up and pronounces, "Any-one could have written this" is sadly mistaken. Like all good writing, every word and phrase is economically used and, despite their brevity, nearly all the stories have a recognisable build-up and conclusion. My favourite is "Hotel Waldhaus". It is the only work of prose fiction which I can honestly say I can recite in its entirety from memory, even when slightly drunk.
The tone of the stories is a mixture of insanity, death, ill-luck, regret, and malign intentions. This can tend to become a bit tedious and so I recommend not reading more than about twenty or so of them per day.
The tone of the stories is a mixture of insanity, death, ill-luck, regret, and malign intentions. This can tend to become a bit tedious and so I recommend not reading more than about twenty or so of them per day.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Thomas Bernhard's Most Accessible Book
18 Dec 1997
Format:Hardcover
I'm pleased that this book is finally in print by a serious publisher. These are amazingly everyday stories, like we hear on the 11:00 news. A bus of school children goes off the road and into a ravine. What event years later would make a town recall this event?Two men look through a telescope over a glacier. One of them drops dead, and the other one lives after having looked through the same lens.On and one, these 104 short stories work on you, as the language grows more complex and compelling.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
haunting and strangely amusing
7 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
these stories stick like a long, thin, glass splinter in your core. bernhard tools scenes from the everyday, but they're not simply everyday occurences. he seems to tap into the same magical realm that garcia lorca does in his ability to write terse, packed prose that somehow floats above its literal meaning. they are tiny details and instances set briefly side-by-side as if in a complex still-life whose parts are disparate but make sense together, somehow.
in The Voice Imitator, bernhard gets to you. you can take it in little doses or all at once, but in the end, you'll be grinning and you won't know why.
in The Voice Imitator, bernhard gets to you. you can take it in little doses or all at once, but in the end, you'll be grinning and you won't know why.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Succinct, Fascinating Tales Courtesy of Thomas Bernhard
14 July 2011
Format:Paperback
In Thomas Bernhard's most capable hands, the 104 stories that comprise "The Voice Imitator" are succinct, often mesmerizing, tales recounted from genuine newspaper headlines and articles. These tales are quite literally, prose haiku, miniature essays recounting foibles of artists, politicians, scientists, and others from all walks of life. They may also seem like brief outlines for some as yet unpublished great novel, but Bernhard has packed so much detail that readers will recognize these as stories, not as outlines of novels. While this is a book best suited for those most familiar with Bernhard's work, others willing to take a chance on such brief tales will be richly rewarded by the elegant prose often pregnant in detail, as rendered in a fine English translation.
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