Saint Sebastian's Abyss (2022) by Mark Haber

 Book Review

Saint Sebastian's Abyss (2022)

by Mark Haber

   I'm not sure how I missed Saint Sebastian's Abyss when it was published last year, but likely the explanation comes down to 2022 being a lost year for me reading because of the lingering effects of COVID AND because the New York Times book review didn't mention the obvious, glaring influence of the writing of Thomas Bernhard over every aspect of this book.  If the reviewer had done so I would have immediately ran out (or gone online)  and bought a copy.  As it happened, I didn't know about Saint Sebastian's Abyss until last month when I ran one of my periodic Google searches on Thomas Bernhard and reviewed the returns.   Haber was mentioned in a June 27th Los Angeles Times feature about the influence of Bernhard on contemporary fiction- another article I missed because I was travelling that week and because I literally don't know anyone else who reads the LA Times and knows about Thomas Bernhard.

 

  In fact, as I sit here writing this, I've still never met another human being- in person or on-line, who has even heard of Bernhard, let alone read him.  I only heard about him/read him through the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die project- where I rank Bernhard and Sebald as my top two literary discoveries from that period.  As I periodically mention here, despite being an attorney with a partner who works in the culture industries and many friends who qualify as intellectuals or culture professionals or both, my reading life is conducted in isolation. 

  I think about Bernhard frequently, in the sense that I think about writing a piece of fiction- a short story, of course.   What I think about is the need to write a short story that another person would want to read, vs just writing something "I have to write" which is a line you often hear from writers and people writing about fiction.  Baloney, is what I say.  Of course, every author is drawing upon their own experience but the idea that a given work of fiction simply emerges into the world and then attracts readers of its own accord is patently absurd.  

    At the very least a first-time writer of fiction needs to find someone who wants to publish it, and if they can't do that they need to find their own readers without the benefit of a sponsoring publisher.  Anyway- the question I ask myself is that if you were to ride a story/novella/novel that blatantly imitated an author like Thomas Bernhard- would it bother people?  The answer is no- probably because not enough people know about Bernhard to incite conversation- Los Angeles Times articles aside. 

  As the LA Times said last year, Saint Sebastian's Abyss is about as close to straight-forward homage to Thomas Bernhard as you can get- and  I loved every second.  This is very much the sort of fiction I would want to write if I wrote fiction (I don't and have no plans to) and it's nice to see that Haber found a publisher (who subsequently hired him to work as their marketing supervisor).

The Wolves of Eternity (2023) by Karl Over Knausgaard

 Book Review

The Wolves of Eternity (2023)

by Karl Ove Knausgaard

    I'm a fan of Karl Ove Knausgaard- I listened to most of his six volume series My Struggle, on Audiobook- which was a great experience and something I highly recommend given the sheer volume of the reading experience AND the fact that all six books are narrated by the same person recounting their life and experiences- an ideal format for the Audiobook.   In many ways, I think My Struggle, with its combination of the excruciating banality of everyday life and lenghty philosophical diatribes, makes a better Audiobook than book. 

  Back in 2020 I bought the hardback (not sure if it made it to paperback!) of the first volume in this projected three volume series, The Morning Star.  I read it almost two years ago this month and after reading it I wrote:

So I am very excited about The Morning Star, the first volume in what seems to be a multi-volume series modeled after, and I know this sounds strange, the works of Stephen King.  There's no reason that Knausgaard would be naive about the potential international sales appeal of his books and The Morning Star, which combines Knausgaard's characteristic grousing about the minutiae of day-to-day existence in contemporary Norway and Sweden with the possibility of the imminent arrival of some kind of supernatural demon, does indeed accomplish its goal:  Expand the international audience for Karl Ove Knausgaard.   Ironically, it seems like more of a critical success than a popular one. 

  Maybe the second volume, which seems to promise the kind of well described literary bloody mayhem you might associate with American Psycho, will generate the sparks necessary to elevate the popular profile of both books, but I, like other readers, was struck by just how little actually happened in The Morning Star.  I mean I did love every page, but still.

    Reader, I am here to tell you that The Wolves of Eternity does not deliver on the bloody mayhem I had hoped for.  I can advise you that after The Wolves of Eternity, which tracks back in time before moving forward to the "present" of the first book (1980's I think- right before Chernobyl), it appears that the plot involves the dead coming back to life as a result of the appearance of the Morning Star from the first book.   Another exciting development in The Wolves of Eternity is a female narrator- which I want to say is a first for Knausgaard.  

   At the same time I would be at an absolute loss to recommend this book to a non-Knausgaard devotee- unless you have the time to read the 800 page hardback or 23 hour Audiobook.  It took me a couple months and multiple check-outs of the Audiobook to complete it.  Lengthy portions of the book describing the Russian obsession with bringing the dead back to life seem to situate Knausgaard's authorial intent- it's hard to ignore the appearance of Tolstoy in the pages of The Wolves of Eternity.  At the same time, once again, in an 800 page book, not much happens.   The most action packed portions of the book are a train ride by one character and a plane flight by another.