Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Wittgenstein’s Nephew is a work wherein a narrator is describing a friend and his past relationship with this friend.

Here, the narrator is named. The author, Thomas, is sharing his notes about Paul Wittgenstein, the nephew of famed philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Thomas and Paul develop a kinship based on a shared love of music, especially opera, art, and commenting on the human condition. They also both suffer from chronic conditions.

For Thomas, he has constant lung troubles that places him in and out of hospitals. He is constantly on the move due to his health.

For Paul, his fight is with a reoccurring but undiagnosed mental condition. He goes in and out of psych facilities.

All this is told in a fictionalized version of their lives, but this fictionalized version plays out without chapters, paragraphs, or even line breaks.

I suspect, but do not know, that the structure of this short novel is intended to reflect the seriousness of these two men’s conditions. I found reading pages after page of unbroken running text to be a trying and unique experience.

Fluent readers have to work to slow down with this one. The language (translated from the German) is not difficult and the scenes and ideas are not particularly complex. It’s easy to skim along. Without those visual literary cues to tell me where the transitions are, I kept finding myself immersed in a portion of the narrative with no idea how I got there.

It’s mentally taxing.

And the novel plays along—implying time periods and geographic locations—with little to no clues about where this event fits into the timeline of the friendship.

It made me feel as if I was constantly missing something—out of place—out of time—slightly mad.

And the never-ending string of words—without a pause—without a place to put a bookmark—made me feel slightly out of breath.

For such a short novel, the reading experience certainly has teeth.

Beyond the structure, the novel’s content also has plenty to offer. It will discuss the place of art and art lovers in a modern society. How money and fame affect the treatment of the sick. What’s really given—and taken—between friends. and How is it to live constantly on the edge of death.

1% Well-Read Challenge status: seven completed, three to go.
What’s In A Name Challenge status: four completed, two to go.

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