In a way and to a degree unequalled by any of his contemporaries, Handke, Kroetz, the entire Graz or "Viennese Group" (Artmann, Beyer, Achleitner) together, the work of Thomas Bernhard is unsettling. Long excluded from their ranks (Bernhard, a native Austrian, was denied publication in the "organs" of both groups), he still remains, despite the belated recognition of his genius, the loner he always was.

Long before literary critics began speculating about the influence of Wittgenstein on Handke's ambivalence towards language, Bernhard had incorporated the Wittgenstein skepsis into his prose. "Words," says the protagonist of his novel, Limeworks, "are made to degrade thought, yes, he would even go so far as to say words were there to do away with thought."

The hero of Korrektur (Revisions), Bernhard's most recent novel …, shares certain biographical facts with the master. Both are Austrian scientists who feel stifled by their native homeland...