The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth

This collection contains all of Roth's shorter fiction; some seventeen stories, novellas and never completed fragments. Roth’s writing is inspired and frequently arresting (for which some credit should go to the translator, Michael Hoffman.) Roth was a close observer of both social relations and the individual human heart, an uncommon combination. The sense of longing and loss is especially pervasive. Roth was also prophetic; foreseeing in these works a time when a failed art student would sail the dark tide of fatuous nationalism to a destination even darker than the meat grinder of WWI.

Many of the pieces are five star triumphs: April, Strawberries, The Bust of the Emperor, The Leviathan and, probably, The Triumph of Beauty and Stationmaster Fallmerayer, as well. Others are good but not exceptional, especially among the earlier stories. One or two of the fragments are interesting, but it is apparent why he left off in the instance of all of them except Strawberries. ( )