Friedrich Glauser (1896–1938)

Glauser's Sergeant Studer books are unusual in their strange imagery and bursts of dreamlike confusion and I became lost in Fever, the last book in the series. There's a confusion of identities, with many of the characters having similar names and pseudonyms. Even Studer uses a false identity. There's a mysterious corporal who can predict the future, an elderly barefoot priest, a missing stockbroker, a geologist who may or may not be dead, and might have been a murderer, and a young woman show more whose cryptic communications and sudden unexpected appearances create even more confusion. The corporal, who is probably someone else altogether, is in the French Foreign Legion, so Studer's unofficial investigation takes him to Morocco.

The book was first published in 1935, and the undercurrents of political corruption, mistrust, and the fear of the coming war add to the nightmarish atmosphere. As a crime novel Fever is deeply flawed, but as a record of the times it's worth reading. show less

Friedrich Glauser is a German writer who spent much of his life in psychiatric hospitals before dying at the age of 42. Glauser is also a classic crime novelist and Germany's crime fiction award is called the Glauser Prize.

In Matto's Realm is part of a series involving Detective Studer, this installment taking place in a Swiss psychiatric hospital. The director and a patient have gone missing and Studer, who has been demoted and disgraced, has been sent there to discretely make inquiries. show more The acting director has requested him personally. What Studer walks into is a complicated web of close, but not always friendly, relationships, with each person hiding something, none more than the enigmatic acting director, a psychiatrist who alternates between seemingly sincere friendship and a smiling mask.

First published in 1936, In Matto's Realm shows the living and working conditions in a supposedly modern institution. Glauser also says quite a lot about the difficulty the ordinary working man had in just making ends meet, and how that was often an insurmountable task. He has great sympathy for ordinary men broken by circumstance. In this, the book is interesting and an important memory of the past. On the other hand, the mystery itself was convoluted and required a lengthy explanation at the end of the book, which is where most of the action occurs.

This is a worthwhile book if you're interested in Europe during the interwar years or in the history of the German mystery novel. Nonetheless, as a crime novel it falls short, although there are a few intriguing characters and Glauser writes with real empathy for the people at the bottom of society. show less

In Matto's Realm takes place in a psychiatric hospital. The deputy director has called in Studer because both the director and a convicted child killer are missing. Matto's realm is the realm of madness, which affects the staff as well as the patients, and everyone connected with them. A foreign voice on the radio says, "Two hundred thousand men and women are gathered here to cheer me. Two hundred thousand men and women have come as representatives of the whole nation, which is behind me. show more Foreign states dare to accuse me of breaking a treaty. When I seized power this land lay desolate, ravaged, sick...I have made it great, I have made others respect it.."

The deputy director tells Studer, "The man who was talking just now was lucky. Had he had a psychiatric examination at the beginning of his career, perhaps the world might look a little different today. As I said before, contact with the mentally ill is contagious. And there are people who are particularly susceptible - whole nations can be susceptible. I once said something in a lecture to which people objected. Certain so-called revolutions, I said are basically nothing more than the vengeance of psychopaths."

Glauser is writing in 1936 so the psychopath is Hitler, but the tone is familiar. It was the background - the politics, the corruption, Studer's sympathy for the poverty-stricken working people, the world of the mental asylum with its warders and its experiments on the patients - that held my interest, more so than the plot. In fact, the plot was confusing, as befits a crime in an asylum.

Well worth reading. show less

Maybe this deserves more. I've been spoiled, I imagine by people like Frisch and Durrenmatt. The oddest thing about this book is how so not odd it is.

The author, to quote from the book 'died aged fourty-two, a few days before he was due to be married. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, addicted to morphine and opium, he spent much of his life in psychiatric wards, insane asylums and, when he was arrested for forging prescriptions, in prison. He also spent two years with the Foreign Legion in North show more Africa...' As Manny said, it screams biopic...and they wouldn't even have to make up a thing.

Yet the book is understated, straightforward in that Swiss/German way I keep noticing. It has interesting political and social points to make about society just prior to World War Two. It looks at rural German Switzerland and makes that anything but dull.

He is, I gather a 'cult' figure in Europe and Germany's highest crime fiction award is named after him. I can see why. show less