Loser

Product Information

Glenn, durante toda su vida, quiso ser el Steinway mismo, odiaba la idea de estar entre Bach y Steinway sólo como mediador musical, y de ser triturado un día entre Bach y Steinway, un día, según él, quedaré triturado entre Bach, por un lado, y Steinway, por otro, decía, pensé. Toda mi vida he tenido miedo de quedar triturado entre Bach y Steinway, y me cuesta el mayor esfuerzo sustraerme a ese temor, decía. Lo ideal sería que yo fuera el Steinway, que no necesitara a Glenn Gould, decía, que pudiera, al ser el Steinway, hacer a Glenn Gould totalmente superfluo. Pero todavía no ha conseguido ningún pianista hacerse a sí mismo superfluo, siendo Steinway, según Glenn. Despertar un día y ser Steinway y Glenn en uno, decía, pensé, Glenn Steinway, Steinway Glenn, sólo para Bach. Frist off this book is a character study and I perfer books with plot. The book also like Schooled is about a character who is above the negative opinions of his classmates. In fact like Schooled Don Zinkoff seems is clueless that he is being teased. What Else? Yes! I analysed his profile picture and went to Google images to see some more of his photos. Now I don’t know why, but I convinced myself that he had the perfect face to feature in a Gangster Hollywood Movie, you know, like Public Enemies, in a negative role or along the same lines, but anything but positive. What a soul-piercing read... After I finished The Loser by Thomas Bernhard I thought: this is how you write a book! Or well, a long internal monologue that rambles on and on without any pauses. It’s simply amazing satire with a lot of absurdism, nihilism, and self-destructiveness narrated in one breath.

However, Zinkoff's uniqueness from other kids marks his own "downfall." In fourth grade, Zinkoff was discovered, along with his innocent and seemingly ordinary ways. His classmates discovered that his penmanship is atrocious, that he is such a mediocre pupil and he never gets an A in any test, and that--although he recites oftentimes--he makes more wrong answers that correct ones. Then on the school's Field Day, when their team lost and placed last in races, Zinkoff was blamed and was popularly dubbed as "loser". So.............we're doing novel study in our class. And I finished this with two periods (or three?) when I was *guilty smile* NOT supposed to. *nervously laughs--heh heh heh* El segundo es el primero de los perdedores” (Ayrton Senna) y aquel que puede llegar a vivir ese fracaso de la forma más cruel, añado yo. Este es el leitmotiv del libro, o uno de ellos, y recuerda mucho al conflicto Mozart-Salieri de la película Amadeus (aunque el libro es un año anterior a la película para mí es treinta años posterior). The novel ends with an interesting afterword that throws some light on Bernhard's life and his writing. His later novels, including The Loser, contain characters which carry an image of the author in themselves. In the present case, Gould is meant to be doppelganger for Bernhard. Bernhard having studied music, his writing has been informed by music as well. The afterword compares his writing to Gould's music:

Did we miss something on diversity?

The relationship that the three share begs the question - what if their paths hadn't crossed with Gould? Perhaps they would have still led a life of being nothing, Gould simply being the excuse they found. However, their lives are so heavily clouded by that of Gould, that it seems impossible to even begin to imagine Gould's absence. This relationship was rooted in their common idea and understanding of music, and it forged a lifelong bond between the three. The intellect of the two, the loser and the philosopher, was also responsible for their failure. Because it takes some acumen to even recognize a genius and be aware of one's own abilities and deficiencies. On the other hand, I cannot factor their wealth out of the equation either. These are two people who do not have to worry about earning a living and thus have the privilege to spend their lives fixated on just one idea. Had that not been the case, sooner or later, the basic necessities of life would have pulled their attention away and forced them to do something with their lives and perhaps lead a life of being good enough, but not the best. Jim Smith is the keelest kids’ book author in the whole wide world amen. He graduated from art school with first class honours (the best you can get) and went on to create the branding for a sweet little chain of coffee shops. He also designs cards and gifts under the name Waldo Pancake. One day there is a massive snowstorm that blankets his town. At the same time, a little girl named Claudia goes missing. Zinkoff goes off on his own in search of her, looking in the dark alleys behind her home. Searching for more than seven hours, Zinkoff experiences hallucinations, falling asleep on his feet. He braves falling temperatures and almost dies of exposure to the cold, but remains fixated on finding the little girl. Eventually he is rescued and brought home. After sleeping for thirteen hours, Zinkoff finds out that Claudia was found not long after she went missing; she had merely wandered into a neighbor's garage. Zinkoff wonders why he saw the police and emergency vehicle lights still illuminated. His mother tells him they were looking for him.

Hay libros que te hacen pasar un buen rato, textos entretenidos y amables para leer tranquilamente, en la playa, y al finalizar, cerrarlos con una sonrisa en los labios y permanecer un rato en silencio, con el libro aún en las manos, saboreando el recuerdo de las páginas leídas. Sin duda, éste no es uno de ellos.

Author/Illustrator

A differenza dei precedenti Bernahrd finora letti, il personaggio centrale del romanzo (se romanzo lo possiamo chiamare) non è l’io narrante, ma una persona altra (Wertheimer) osservata e descritta dall’io narrante e utilizzata per ritrarre in negativo l’uomo geniale, rappresentato dal virtuoso di pianoforte Glenn Gould. All my tendencies are deadly ones, he once said to me, everything in me has a deadly tendency to it, it's in my genes, as Wertheimer said, I thought. He always read books that were obsessed with suicide, with disease and death, I thought while standing in the inn, books that described human misery, the hopeless, meaningless, senseless world in which everything is always devastating and deadly. That's why he especially loved Dostoevsky and all his disciples, Russian literature in general, because it actually is a deadly literature, but also the depressing French philosophers.” O Glenn Gould, o nosso amigo e o mais importante virtuoso do piano do século, também só fez 51 anos, pensava eu ao entrar na estalagem.

We find he grows to care for a little girl named Claudia, who is what? Three, four? Whose parents use a leash on? Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian author, who ranges among the most distinguished German speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century. El texto es, en realidad, un prolongado monólogo jalonado de digresiones, una reflexión espontánea y desordenada acerca de la creación artística y su inutilidad, las limitaciones del ser humano, la frustración, el fracaso y, en última instancia, la locura y la muerte. Sin ninguna estructura que guíe al lector, continuamente se abren paso distintas voces (Wertheimer, Gould), que se superponen a la del narrador, intercalándose entre sus propias reflexiones. A pesar de todo ello, El malogrado es una de las obras más accesibles del autor, quizá por ser una de las últimas. Loser, Philosophizer, Genius. The hopeless catch in the throat part of the heart that swallows down all when it's not easy. The have to be a Loser, Philosopher or Genius. This was my third book by Jerry Spenelli, the first ones were Stargirl and Love Stargirl. I had immediately liked the writer in the first two books; his writing style was simple, yet astonishly magical. Jerry Spenelli writes for children and juveniles, actually--his target audience are those in middle grade--yet teenagers, young adults, and adults could totally enjoy reading his books.

El malogrado es un monólogo interior obsesivo, caótico y en ocasiones agotador. Al ser mi primer Bernhard me ha costado un poco entrar en la novela, pero pronto he quedado atrapada en ese discurso repetitivo y atormentado, que poco a poco te va envolviendo en los odios y obsesiones del narrador, que vuelve una y otra vez a las mismas ideas, incluso a las mismas frases y expresiones. Basing my observations on Stargirl and Love, Stargirl, and now, Loser, Mr. Jerry Spenelli has a craft in writing characters that are unconventional and unique persons who don't usually follow conformity. His characters have their own individuality, with the innate nature to be different from others. Zinkoff, although dubbed as "loser" by his classmates, is somewhat oblivious of his new name. He doesn't really care. He is being his real self, and that is what truly matters for him and for the people that care for him. Well, this was not my favourite book, and it was rated three stars because (it's probably just me) Zinkoff is unlikable and annoying. BUT it was also rated three stars and not one because he IS a pretty sunshine-y kid. I mean, I know this review was more bad than good but.......he is pretty brave. The end of the book (SPOILER ALERT) he was both stupid and brave to try and find Claudia, the girl on the leash, hours after she'd ALREADY been found. Loser is slightly better than Schooled in that the teasing is not as obvivous and Don is written to be that clueless. However it is hard to be in sympathy with such a clueless character. The action of the plot is also more believeable.

I thought this book was actually really good because I felt like I connected with the main character, Donald Zinkoff. You get to know his story from when he was a little kid to about 6th Grade I think. He does have difficulties in life, like he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. In theory we understand people, but in practice, we can't put up with them, I thought, deal with them for the most part reluctantly and always treat them from our point of view. We should observe and treat people not from our point of view but from all angles, I thought, associate with them in such a way that we can say we associate with them so to speak in a completely unbiased way, which however isn't possible, since we actually are always biased against everybody.” Ello podía haberme influido negativamente: un tema que ya estaba bien tratado por la película, al que poco, pensaba, se podía añadir. Y si a eso le añadimos que es un drama en torno a un triángulo de personajes misántropos y elitistas, en el peor sentido de la palabra, y que nos llega por medio del discurso mental de un ser antipático que conforman una prosa incómoda, que por momentos me llegó a parecer torpe, la verdad, es que no parecía tener mucho futuro conmigo. Sin embargo he quedado fascinado y con ganas de más Bernhard, de mucho más. Bernhard was a man of contradictions, and his works-- The Loser, for instance—are full of contradictions too. They are filled with solitary characters who spew forth spleen and invective, loathing the seediness of everyday life, and yet these solitaries are often bound together by some ideal which points beyond pettiness, some absolute which both inspires and degrades them. In Losers that ideal is music.I "discovered" this Austrian musician while in Germany last year. Um, no one ever, uh, played him any Glenn Gould recordings? Why wasn't he stopped? (No wonder Bernhard hates Austrians!) This is what Bernhard said as a part of his acceptance speech for the Austrian State Prize for Literature. So, Yeah! That’s the kind of man he was.