Publication
Amsterdam De Arbeiderspers cop. 1987
ISBN
902955617X / 9789029556170
Language
Collection
Description
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?
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User reviews
LibraryThing member JimmyChanga
"Incidentally, I still owe you money, don't I, and I'm almost glad of this. Exterior ties can preserve the life of inner bonds."This book made me smile almost throughout. The humor in it is so soft and enjoyable, it doesn't take you hostage. It's like a light breeze. The inner and outer dialogues
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of Joseph Marti, the main character, reflects the little noodle in the human cavity that vacillates constantly between being content/dutiful/grateful/polite and being indignant/rebellious/proud/angry. The book essentially has no plot except for these tiny changes in mood, like the changes in weather, but oh is it well written, with such joy and lightness and humor. I love Robert Walser more with every passing book."Mercantile coups are, as a rule, most successful when they are initiated telephonically." Show Less
LibraryThing member fieldnotes
If you have read everything else of Walser's that has been translated into English, this book will not add much to your understanding of the author. At its best, for a few paragraphs at a time, it sustains the light touch and playfulness of his short stories. But the rest of the time, it reworks
You definitely do not read Walser for plot and while this is longer than anything else he wrote, it is no exception. Fans enjoy being situated beneath and alongside the characters who would ordinarily be the protagonists; but the less patient will tire of the disengaged, dawdling uselessness of the lead.
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the idea of an impotent servant framed by the decay of the institution that sustains him--something familiar to "Jakob von Gunten" fans. "The Assistant", however, lacks the engaging interactions between underlings that set "Jakob von Gunten" apart. The characters in this novel, once set in motion, seem to plod towards their obvious fate all too mechanically.You definitely do not read Walser for plot and while this is longer than anything else he wrote, it is no exception. Fans enjoy being situated beneath and alongside the characters who would ordinarily be the protagonists; but the less patient will tire of the disengaged, dawdling uselessness of the lead.
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LibraryThing member JimElkins
This is a stupendous and unusual character portrait, marred by a cliché plot of financial downfall.
I agree with Brian Verigan's review, especially the idea that "Walser's hero is... a nobody with drastically limited prospects. He not only knows that and has accepted it, he embraces it." But it
However, I think this book is also flawed. The tremendous psychological portrait of a person who has some kinds of intelligence, and not others -- a portrait that puts so many other such attempts to shame -- is partly ruined by an entirely dstracting plot about the plunging finances of the apprentice's boss. We are compelled to worry about the household finances, and the increasingly angry creditors. The plot resembles an old Hollywood movie or fin-de-siecle pulp fiction, with its stock figures of drunkards, bank managers, and suspicious townspeople. Through all of that, Walser continues to develop the remarkable character of the assistant, as if the machinery of financial ruin were somehow necessary to bring out the assistant's character. But it isn't. The entire novel would have been purer, more convincing, more a masterpiece, if Walser had the confidence to concentrate just on the nature of the assistant. After all, he has a quiet, unchanging nature, so why have an off-the-shelf narrative of ruination blaring away in the background?
I agree with Brian Verigan's review, especially the idea that "Walser's hero is... a nobody with drastically limited prospects. He not only knows that and has accepted it, he embraces it." But it
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bears saying that the reason the apprentice's prospects are limited is that he is a little simple-minded, and he realizes that, partially and intermittently, throughout the novel. It's a difficult trick for a novelist: a slightly limited, partly unintelligent narrator can often result in a schematic novel, in which we are more amused and detached than immersed and engaged. That happens, for examples, in "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," which at times becomes a literary trick or puzzle. But in this book, the narrator also has an enormous capacity to understand people, an inherent kindness, and a joy in his natural surroundings. It's true that each of those capacities is limited: he loves his employer somewhat helplessly, even though he sees some of his employer's flaws; he is kind, but his kindnesses are often ineffectual; and he loves nature, but in a completely unreflective way. And he is aware, sometimes, of each of these traits in himself. He loves to eat and sleep, and take walks in the countryside: those are his certainties. He is also deeply concerned with injustices and social infelicities: those are his ongoing interests. The rest is all a cloud: he knows he has no ambition, but he never succeeds in thinking very much about that; and he knows that he probably has very little cleverness, but he doesn't have the energy to keep his mind on that problem long enough to do anything about it. It's a lovely psychological portrait of a partly simple person who is also deeply reflective. However, I think this book is also flawed. The tremendous psychological portrait of a person who has some kinds of intelligence, and not others -- a portrait that puts so many other such attempts to shame -- is partly ruined by an entirely dstracting plot about the plunging finances of the apprentice's boss. We are compelled to worry about the household finances, and the increasingly angry creditors. The plot resembles an old Hollywood movie or fin-de-siecle pulp fiction, with its stock figures of drunkards, bank managers, and suspicious townspeople. Through all of that, Walser continues to develop the remarkable character of the assistant, as if the machinery of financial ruin were somehow necessary to bring out the assistant's character. But it isn't. The entire novel would have been purer, more convincing, more a masterpiece, if Walser had the confidence to concentrate just on the nature of the assistant. After all, he has a quiet, unchanging nature, so why have an off-the-shelf narrative of ruination blaring away in the background?
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LibraryThing member Chorges
Best language ever written in German, except Nietzsche.
LibraryThing member thorold
Der Gehülfe, written in Berlin in 1907, was Walser's second published novel (Geschwister Tanner was the first; in between he wrote another that was never published, apparently a fantasy set in Asia). It's his most conventional work of fiction, and was relatively popular during his own lifetime.
Apparently very closely autobiographical in its details, it's an account of a radically alienated young man, Josef Marti, who spends a few months working as a live-in secretary/bookkeeper for the inventor Karl Tobler (sadly, none of his inventions is chocolate-related!) at his villa in a small town on the shores of Lake Zürich. Josef has been unemployed and in poverty for some time, and he's sucked in by the seductive middle-class comfort of the Tobler family despite seeing very clearly how hollow it all is - Tobler is squandering his inherited capital recklessly on luxuries with an unreasonable confidence in his distinctly lacklustre inventions; he is splashing out hospitality to buy his way into local society, there are serious problems in the Toblers' marriage and their relationship with their children; the beautiful house and garden are shoddily built, etc., etc. Even the countryside into which Josef escapes for his Sunday walks is seen to be an illusion compared to the hard reality of the big city...
Interesting, especially since it turns out to be much more Swiss in its language and references than you might have guessed, and it has some very beautiful - and very funny - passages, but I tend to agree with all the people who say that it feels like a wildly original book that falls short of what it could have been through being shoehorned into a traditional format - in that sense it reminded me rather of Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out. Of course, that's because we all read the later Jakob von Gunten first...
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Apparently very closely autobiographical in its details, it's an account of a radically alienated young man, Josef Marti, who spends a few months working as a live-in secretary/bookkeeper for the inventor Karl Tobler (sadly, none of his inventions is chocolate-related!) at his villa in a small town on the shores of Lake Zürich. Josef has been unemployed and in poverty for some time, and he's sucked in by the seductive middle-class comfort of the Tobler family despite seeing very clearly how hollow it all is - Tobler is squandering his inherited capital recklessly on luxuries with an unreasonable confidence in his distinctly lacklustre inventions; he is splashing out hospitality to buy his way into local society, there are serious problems in the Toblers' marriage and their relationship with their children; the beautiful house and garden are shoddily built, etc., etc. Even the countryside into which Josef escapes for his Sunday walks is seen to be an illusion compared to the hard reality of the big city...
Interesting, especially since it turns out to be much more Swiss in its language and references than you might have guessed, and it has some very beautiful - and very funny - passages, but I tend to agree with all the people who say that it feels like a wildly original book that falls short of what it could have been through being shoehorned into a traditional format - in that sense it reminded me rather of Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out. Of course, that's because we all read the later Jakob von Gunten first...
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LibraryThing member Wassilissa
In seiner autobiografischen Erzählung beschreibt Robert Walser, wie ein junger Mann für einen erfolglosen Erfinder als Gehilfe arbeitet. Kurz vor dem Konkurs des Erfinders verlässt er die Stellung. Hier handelt es sich um eine szenische Lesung in schönem Schweizerdeutsch, untermalt mit Musik
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von Schumann. Mir hat das Hörbuch die Zeit wunderbar vertrieben und ich fand es sehr gut. Show Less
Awards
Best Translated Book Award (Shortlist — 2008)