life. Yet these same stories, which engage and cosmetic shelves, have the potential us when they are dramatized individually to arouse memories of similar youthful on radio, are considerably less captivating escapades in many readers' minds. published as a collection and without bene­ fit of an interpreting voice. Those who will enjoy the book most, however, are those readers who have ex­ Part of the problem here is the pub­ perienced the kind of scenes it recreates. lisher's (or writer's) temerity in calling this For most others, The Street Where I Live collection of anecdotes a novel. The reader will be of limited interest, providing a light- of a novel has a right to expect a reason­ hearted, mildly satiric look at just how able range of information about each of ridiculous we humans can sometimes be. the central characters, as well as the prospect of growth—of change of some kind—in at least some of them. But the characters Stan Atherton in The Street Where I Live are static; we know little more about them in the final vignette in which we see them than in the initial one. Like Dickens's Mrs. Micawber (David Copperfield), they say much the same thing in much the same way about much the same kind of situation each WERNER WEBER time they appear. This is a pity, for the potential is enormous for the development Forderungen: Bemerkungen und of such characters as Mrs. Kolosky and Mrs. Aufsätze zur Literatur Weinstein, the two gossiping harridans who (Demands: Comments on and dominate the other women on the street. Studies of Literature) Still, although the characters are Zürich: Artemis, n.d. Pp. 312. undoubtedly flat in E. M. Forster's terms, Fr. 19. they are nonetheless individualized, and the manner in which Ms. Haas accomplishes Werner Weber, since 1951 Feuilleton- this individuality sets the tone of the book. Editor of the reputable Swiss newspaper For each of the characters is a type-cast Neue Zürcher Zeitung, has published a great representative of a specific ethnic group—in number of articles and reviews many of the manner of the stage Irishman—and is which have been reprinted in the form of set apart from the others as much by his collections and diaries (Figuren und >eculiar way of mutilating the English Fahrten, 1956; Zeit ohne Zeit, 1959; Wis­ fanguage as by anything else. Believing all senschaft und Gestaltung, 1959; Die Reise nach the usually pejorative myths about one Sancheville, 1960; Tagebuch eines Lesers, another's national characteristics, religion 1965). His achievement in the field of and moral codes, the characters here never literary criticism has been acknowledged really come to terms with their neighbors. by several academies and institutions in But they do have to live with each odier, Switzerland and Germany and the resulting conversations, confronta­ tions, and general confusion is the stuff of Forderungen . . . begins with a short light comedy. article on Emile Zola and Flaubert. Zola's words on the death of Flaubert (which Memorable moments occur when remind Weber of Victor Hugo's "La mort Ukranian Mrs. Golombioski translates the de Balzac") are examined and analyzed. program of a local cultural evening to Zola's description of his trip—along with Regina Britannia, when Mr. Fransciosa Daudet, Charpentier, Edmond de Gon- berates his hockey-mad boy Angelo, and court, and Maupassant—to Croisset to visit when the Widow Siboolka visits a gypsy Flaubert on March 28, 1880 and then his fortune-teller. And on occasion, anecdotes return on May 8, 1880 to the same place transcend the localized setting. The antics in order to attend the funeral of "Mon­ of Orest the Undertaker, who "saves" sieur Gustave" is intelligendy discussed and clothes from corpses to rent at wedding evaluated. parties, and then worries in case someone will recognize them, could amuse readers The next four pages deal with Baude­ from various cultural backgrounds. And laire and what Claude Pichois in his the activities of the druggist's two daugh­ Baudelaire devant ses contemporains calls the ters who, when left to mind their father's "Legende du Baudelaire. La vrai et la shop one afternoon, ravish its candy counter factice, le réel et le mythique." After

Brief Mentions 95 presenting an interpretation of Baude­ rewarding part of the book. In an article laire's poem "Paysage," Weber—guided by on Alfred Andersen's novel Efraim (1967) a few comments made by André Gide in Weber examines Andersch's so-called 1918-19—examines Baudelaire's poem "zerstörte Ordnung" (disrupted order); in "L'invitation au voyage" and especially the another one on Siegfried Lenz's two lines "Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,/ Deutschstunde (1968), Weber analyzes the Luxe, calme et volupté." role of the narrator in this as well as in other contemporary novels. Equally chal­ In other articles Weber discusses André lenging and rewarding is Weber's article Gide's "Le retour de l'enfant prodigue" on Günter Grass and his novel Örtlich in the light of Gide's relationship to betäubt, 1969 (Local Anesthesia). Grass's style Georges Simenon (whom Gide regarded as (which Weber calls "Redefetzen" [Speech the greatest novelist!). Further essays deal fragments]), his irony, and his so-called with Alain (Emile Auguste Chattier), Paul "Ironisierung der Literatur" (ironizing of Claudel, Paul Léautand, Jean Paulhan, literature) are examined and commented Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas ("The upon. Hunchback in the Park"), Leonard Cohen ("Suzanne"), the Beatles (and their lyrical Among the other writers Weber deals and elegiac world), Hermann Hesse (and with one finds Gabriele Wohmann, his popularity in the USA), and the Swiss Günter Eich, Paul Celan, Wolf Biermann, author Jeremias Gotthelf. Johannes Bobrowski, Jürg Federspiel, Peter Bichsel, and Adolf Muschg. In spite of The second section of the book—entitled Weber's attempt to make this book look "Gegenwart aus Vergangenheit" (The Pres­ like one tight unit, it remains what it ence of the Past)—deals with different is, "Comments on Literature." But this does aspects of the works of Goethe, Fontane, not change the fact that in spite of its Keller, and other German-speaking writers "fragmentary" nature it provides good of the nineteenth century. reading, excellent reading, one could say.

The third section ("Ermittlungen" [Investigations]) is undoubtedly the most S. Elkhadem

96 The International Fiction Review, 4 (1977)