A review by lucasmiller
A Schoolboy's Diary and Other Stories by Robert Walser

3.0

This is probably much better than I'm giving it credit for. I liked the description "Sweet Samuel Beckett" the best. Elliptical, timeless, and non-narrative. These prose pieces reminded me of Fernando Pessoa on Abilify. This constructed cheeriness and innocence that bespeaks a deep darkness that remains unrevealed as each piece ends after a page or two. "Hans," the longer piece that ends the collection gets a little closer to the Kafka references that Ben Lerner talks about in the intro. Too deep into quarantine, to stressed and hollowed out. I'll give this one another go a year or two, and will probably be captivated instead of dragging myself through big chunks of it in a few days.