Upon first reading this book it was almost unbearable to finish. The level of condescending and droning made it hard for me to finish the book. One of the hardest parts of the book was reading about Schmidt’s many attempts to sabotage and trash-talk the main characters’ work. In a way, each time that Schmidt tried to discourage the main character from achieving more, I as a reader got more hooked on the story. I believe that is because of the impending tension of the main character finding out that Schmidt was never his friend.
Within the first opening chapters, the main character mentions that he believes that Schmidt had a hand in both of his divorces. This is further solidified when we learn how he treated both wives. With the main character’s first wife, after learning about her disinterest in paintings, Schmidt turned his nose up at her. Schmidt then stood up and excused himself, citing a forgotten appointment, making it very clear that there was no appointment. With the main character’s second wife, Schmidt claimed that she had dedicated her life to trash because she was a professor and critic of modern art. Schmidt believed that all “good art” died in 1906 when the famous painter Cezanne died. Schmidt went so far as to ask the wife: “How does it feel to know you dedicated your life to trash?”. To me, it seemed like Schmidt was trying to say the most hurtful things to disrupt the main character’s marriage.
In addition to that Schmidt took his time to brag about how his second choice in painting is better than the main character’s and the main character lets Schmidt believe that. Schmidt accredited his superior judgment of paintings to being from Austria and taking the time to call the main character uncultured because he is from America. On top of insulting the main character, he explained that America raises only imbeciles because it is devoid of rich historical nutrients. Schmidt believed that all American art critics are nutrient-starved and dense.
All of this was confirmed to me by the final chapters of the novel. Schmidt took the time to continue insulting the main character and holding the fact that he knew the ‘final meaning’ of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss over the main character’s head. He also took the time to put down both of their writing, but he put the main characters’ writing lower than his again. The entire final chapter gives off the impression of a bitter dying man who continues to lash out at the one man who stuck with him through all of his rambling and condescending comments. Schmidt’s character, although incredibly important to the story, made the entire story very hard to continue reading.