Dramas in Swiss fiction

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 22

Dramas in Swiss fiction

The Novels of Friedrich Durrenmatt. Plcador/Pan, 1988. 413 pp. $15.95 ’ (paperback). (Reviewed by Ralf Unger) The Swiss-born playwright is described as among the most celebrated dramatists of his generation. Among other works, he also published five novellas in the 1950 s and these are here collected together. The playwright’s eye and ear are very much to the fore with careful descriptions of environment and human feature, and a steadily paced build-up of atmosphere appropriate to each plot The range is large. There is a reasonably straightforward detective story, in which the least likely suspect turns out to have been the most logical murderer. And a complete change of pace with an hilarious account of an extremely conservative middle-aged bachelor, who advertises for a mate and finds the best-known local harlot, whose past is unknown to him, but whose previous partners gratefully shower him with worldly goods. A Doctor Mengele-type character attempts to take refuge as an insane surgeon in a clinic for wealthy Swiss, and a group of geriatric, retired legal professionals play a "game” of judgment on a passing visitor. Finally, a police inspector becomes obsessed with proving a miscarriage of justice,

and in the process, loses contact with the world and slides into mental and moral decay. Within each segment — a highly polished, smoothly functioning piece in itself — Durrenmatt shows his ability to manipulate the vagaries of the mind in loneliness and revenge for wrongs, actual or Imagined. Interestingly, all five stories would be simple to transform into dramatic productions, with dialogue already in place, with even greater entertainment value.