false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173843242m/335333.jpg 335333 8 <B>This classic by Robert Walser&#151;who was admired greatly by Kafka, Musil, Walter Benjamin, and W. G. Sebald&#151;is now presented in English for the very first time.</B><BR><BR>Robert Walser is an overwhelmingly original author with many ardent fans: J. M. Coetzee ("dazzling"), Guy Davenport ("a very special kind of whimsical-serious-deep writer"), and Hermann Hesse ("If he had a hundred thousand readers, the world would be a better place"). Charged with compassion, and an utterly unique radiance of vision, Walser is as Susan Sontag exclaimed "a truly wonderful, heart-breaking writer."<BR><BR><I>The Assistant</I> is his breathtaking 1908 novel, translated by award-winning translator Susan Bernofsky. Joseph, hired to become an inventor's new assistant, arrives one rainy Monday morning at Technical Engineer Karl Tobler's splendid hilltop villa: he is at once pleased and terribly worried, a state soon followed by even stickier psychological complexities. He enjoys the beautiful view over Lake Zurich, in the company of the proud wife, Frau Tobler, and the delicious savory meals. But does he deserve any of these pleasures? <I>The Assistant</I> chronicles Joseph's inner life of cascading emotions as he attempts, both frantically and light-heartedly, to help the Tobler household, even as it slides toward financial ruin. Tobler demands of Joseph, "Do you have your wits about you?!" And Joseph's wits are in fact all around him, trembling like leaves in the breeze&#151;he is full of exuberance and despair, all the raptures and panics of a person "drowning in obedience." 3120198 1985 The Assistant (New Directions Paperbook) total:127|5:39|4:58|3:25|2:4|1:1| 127 511 262 26 5 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Jun 27 13:00:57 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 13:08:24 -0700 2007
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The Assistant was oddly conventional. Sure there are the Walserian reveries that are so wonderfully disorienting, and terminate ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Oct 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 18 15:16:32 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 18 15:25:51 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 18:23:18 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 18:27:33 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 08 01:21:21 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 01:24:45 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Wed Sep 16 03:20:15 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 03:21:55 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Dec 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Oct 01 08:18:36 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 31 13:57:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Oct 09 09:02:11 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 09:05:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 25 21:03:38 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 12:52:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 19:09:01 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 19:22:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 14:00:29 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 01 14:27:08 -0700 2008 ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Apr 14 20:09:05 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 10:40:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 28 11:21:04 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 11:24:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 28 21:50:35 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 21:58:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 19 13:32:49 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 08:07:34 -0800 2008 Jakob Von Gunten or Masquerade and Other Stories. The narrator is typical Walser, wanting to serve and be a useful member of society, yet irrepressibly rebellious and lazy.]]> 5 0 false false Tue Oct 16 21:08:55 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 25 20:13:25 -0700 2008 The Assistant is not likely to capture your imagination, Robert Walser's beautiful prose, with its subtly ironic tone and scintillating, unexpected similes, more than makes up for it.]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=335333