[Kristoferson]

There's a lot of buzz around Robert Walser's The Assistant appearing around blogs at the moment. Probably due to it appearing in English for the first time and its selection as June's book in the Reading The World endeavour. So I thought it merited a thread.

I bought it recently, seeing as it was published in the Penguin Modern Classics range (a recommendation in itself) and hope to get round to it in the near future.

[Sillaycheg]

Robert Walser looks like an author I could get interested in. The fact he is Swiss is grist to my little mill that every author writing in German gets subsumed under "German Literature" (or GermLit for short).

You will notice that he lived on the cusp of the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, making him almost bilingual. (Can you imagine British authors such as Andrew Motion, Philip Larkin or Martin Amis speaking a Continental language fluently?)

The New Yorker article is informative:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critic...printable=true

I cannot deny that I keep mixing him up with the German author Martin Walser (born 1927), which is probably why I've read books by neither. (Robert Walser lived from 1878-1956.)

[JANALA]

There's no reason to ever start Reading MARTIN Walser. Bad writer.
But feel encouraged to read as much of ROBERT's work as possible.

[Kristoferson]

Can you imagine British authors such as Andrew Motion, Philip Larkin or Martin Amis speaking a Continental language fluently?

I don't know about Motion and Larkin, but Amis is married to a Uruguayan, and lived there for a few years, so he may be able to.

But this thread isn't about him (or Motion or Larkin), so let's keep them out of it, please.

[Sillaycheg]

I'm only too willing to keep these English eccentrics out of a thread on a Swiss writer. I'm just about to read that NYT article on Robert W.

I see that Mirabell doesn't like Martin's work; but I too intuit that I might like what Robert writes.

[sauppyshurb]

I read The Assistant several months ago and was very impressed with the work itself and with the Susan Bernofsky translation.

[JANALA]

I'm only too willing to keep these English eccentrics out of a thread on a Swiss writer. I'm just about to read that NYT article on Robert W.

I see that Mirabell doesn't like Martin's work; but I too intuit that I might like what Robert writes.

Don't just intuit. Get to it. He's an incredible writer. As you speak German (and provided you have the necessary cash, I don't) I recommend Im Bleistiftgebiet very, very very much.

[johnsonjunior]

Looking forward to picking this up. Read Jacob Von Gunten years ago and loved it.

I often like to bunch books together . . . works that seem to amplify and complement each other. Read Walser's book along with Rilke's Malte Laurids Brigge, Musil's Young Torless and Hamsun's Pan. A great reading experience for me. Musil's book was really the closest to Walser's, but they all seemed to be in the same world.

[johnsonjunior]

Also, as far as Martin goes. I read his Swan Villa in the early 90s. Remember liking it a lot. But that's the only MW I've read.

Robert Walser's short stories are also magnificent. Supposedly a big influence on Kafka, who apparently came to them late but was most impressed.

[JANALA]

Yeah, I wonder about my Martin Walser hate sometimes.Yes, I am particular about style, especially in German, but his, while not good, isn't horrible. In his old age he has written somewhat antisemitic books (Tod eines Kritikers), expressed problematic opinions on Germany and the Shoah, and has written terribly self-indulging books.

It may be the heavy misogyny in his books. He doesn't discuss his penis as much as Grass, it's more of a laid-back bourgeois misogyny.

[johnsonjunior]

Haven't followed his (MW's) career at all. A shame he has those pathologies you mention.

Seems quite a few lions and lionesses of German language literature have skeletons coming out these days. Once thought of as champions of this or that good cause, etc. Grass and Wolf come to mind.

Of course, that would be the case in all countries and all literatures.

[JANALA]

indeed. and "these days" is a bit broad if it includes Ms. Wolf, too (I assume you meant Christa Wolf?), who had her troubles with the press in the early 90s if I recall that correctly and it's less a skeleton with her than an absurdly hard reaction by the press who pounce on everything Stasi as discrediting a person's writing etc. With Wolf, it was ludicrous.

Walser got away with nary a scratch. He's a moderately conservative white man with some sympathies for the left, which means that most critics are very similar to him, and tend to gloss over the bad things after a while.

Both Wolf and Grass, for different reasons, had no chance to get the Walser escape. Wolf is a communist(ish) woman, and Grass has pissed off more people than you can count.

[johnsonjunior]

Yes. I was being broad about times. Especially regarding Christa. The Quest for Christa T was my intro to her work. Liked it a lot. Again, read some time ago. Also have a collection of her essays, which I haven't yet pulled off the shelf. Must get to it.

Again, to be oh so broad . . . I think escape hatches are provided to a greater degree for "conservatives" in most of the West. With exceptions, of course. There are always exceptions. The world will never be "fair" . . . but it would be nice to see more even-handed application of critique and accountability. Perhaps in the next life.

[JANALA]

conservatives, yes, and men. I looked up some of the attacks on Wolf just now and some of them are so nakedly misogynistic one is tempted to scream. they read like the attacks on M?ller, with extra bile.

MHm, Christa T. is great. I mentioned Wolf here http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/....html#post3681
but she should really get a thread of her own.

[lh88gFzI]

Regarding Robert Walser, my appreciation is deficient (or should that be, my depreciation is efficient?). I've tried a short story collection as well as The Assistant, and I'm just not intuit. My mileage doesn't ordinarily vary so much ...

[johnsonjunior]

Regarding Robert Walser, my appreciation is deficient (or should that be, my depreciation is efficient?). I've tried a short story collection as well as The Assistant, and I'm just not intuit. My mileage doesn't ordinarily vary so much ...

Perhaps it's the translation? I'm back home and able to sort through my books. I have his Jakob Von Gunten, translation and introduction by Christopher Middleton. Not sure if this has been superseded by a better translation. And, I have his Selected Stories, forward by Susan Sontag, translated by Middleton again. Sontag sees Walser as the missing link between Kleist and Kafka.

Of course, to each his or her own. Elective affinities and all of that. Which is the great thing about the reading life. Differance. Aside from the demerits, no harm, no foul.

[JANALA]

Regarding Robert Walser, my appreciation is deficient (or should that be, my depreciation is efficient?). I've tried a short story collection as well as The Assistant, and I'm just not intuit. My mileage doesn't ordinarily vary so much ...

Try Jakob von Gunten.