Victor Halfwit: A Winter’s Tale, Thomas Bernhard 2011

A very strange and beautiful book found on the New Books shelf at Lamont, originally published in an anthology in 1966 (all of seven pages!), it is reissued with beautiful collage illustrations done by Sunander Banerjee.  Reminiscent of the Monty Python Show montages, Banerjee calls on old anatomic drawings, The Wizard of Oz, classical paintings and statues, Don Quixote, advertisements from the 50’s for TV and movie cameras, Japanese paintings of bamboo, cherry blossoms, Sumo, Indian martial art, etc to create a wondrous backdrop for this strange story.  A doctor is called out late at night to walk through deep snow in the forest from Traich to Foding.  Along the way he stumbles onto Victor Halfwit who has broken his artificial leg (he had been hit by a truck) trying to do this walk in one hour as a bet.  The doctor carries Halfwit and his wooden leg to Toding enabling him to win the bet. Weird story but beautifully illustrated.