Reviews

Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson

redefine's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Epitome of “words matter”; reading the book wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the way it made me think about it

maxmagee's review against another edition

2.0

I guess this was just over my head completely because I didn’t connect with it whatsoever.

couuboy's review against another edition

4.0

A great many historical factoids in this lonely book, most of which are not entirely accurate, some of which are misattributed, later corrected, later uncorrected (but that, so Markson slyly proffers, is how language goes)

savaging's review against another edition

5.0

In the beginning, sometimes I left off reading this book because it was so annoying.

Single-sentence paragraphs, in a redundant, hammering frequency, about artists and writers and philosophers.

And then I started laughing.

And then I felt very lonely.

calif0rnia's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

andrewfinkel1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

papelgren's review against another edition

4.0

This experimental novel is just short enough that its conceit doesn't overstay its welcome. The main narrator has a lot to say and ponder about and it made me start questioning my own reality. The DFW afterword was a little treat after such an intellectual workout.

casparb's review against another edition

This a wild number, more or less unspoken of in the UK, or, I'm just not listening hard enough. But it should be louder, what an installation. There's a real trend toward the fragmentary / aphoristic / vanishing prose - I'm thinking of something like Jenny Offill's Weather - which is probably a distant relation of Wittgenstein's Mistress, but often they seem to aim toward the transcendental, the divine. This is no Lispector-work, not an atom's voice. Character is very real in a monomaniacal way, obsessing as one does over (roughly) Europe: returns upon returns to Classics, dallying with yr Renaissance & after. Vermeer ; Rubens ; Rembrandt. I contrast with Lispector because I think there's an immense vapidity behind it which is possibly intentional - a big EDUCATION flag which as if by design won't convince. & speech's defensive certainties like in Pereira Maintains. a real nice piece anyway & I want to find more of Markson

augustus's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

ti_leo's review against another edition

4.0

Sehr strange. Sehr cool. Quasi postapokalyptisch, aber anders als alles, was ich im Genre bisher so las. Eine Frau ist allein auf der Welt. Sehr wahrscheinlich. Wir können es nicht überprüfen, da wir einzig ihr Wort haben. Laut David Foster Wallace quasi angewandte Wittgensteinsche Philosophie, aber damit kenne ich mich nicht aus. Eine Selbstversicherung. Ein wenig wie Bernhard, ein wenig wie Beckett, repetetiv, eliptisch, aber nicht trocken, auf den ersten Blick belanglos wirkend, aber nicht oberflächlich. Die Nachworte von Jelinek und Wallace werten die deutsche Version auf, sind sehr lesenswert.

Ein sehr witziges Buch.