Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Glauser, Friedrich: In Matto's Realm

Another Sergeant Studer story which finds him investigating in a mental hospital (Matto's Realm quoting the Italian for mad).
As with the other books of Glauser that I have read, there is not a lot of action for much of the time but a gradual unfolding of the psychological states of mind amongst the various characters. Something I had not noticed in other books, possibly as it
was not present, was the not infrequent comment on the various accents - "Jutzeler spoke with the lilting accent of the Bernese Oberland", 'thick Swiss dialect" and so on - as well as occasional deliberate misspellings to indicate, presumably, the
way of speaking. As with the earlier books, it is easy to understand why Glauser was hed in high esteem and Bitter Lemon Press are to be congratulated for reintroducing him to the English reader.

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