the maimed by hermann ungar

hermann ungar was a czech and an exact contemporary of kafka. the protagonist of this novel reminds one very much of a kafka character. what happens to him, however, is more gruesome and more literal than anything kafka would have written. there is nothing metaphysical here. the matter-of-fact style and blunt, short sentences have more in common with american realism; the sense of inexorable doom more in common with the noir novels of david goodis. the book reads like a laundry list of events of ever-increasing nightmarishness.

.

franz polzer is a petty bank clerk, an asocial, asexual man who loves nothing but order, annonymity and safety. once a week he counts all his meagre possessions to ensure that none have been stolen by the criminals he is sure are lurking everywhere. he knows that people are laughing at him and plotting against him. the mere knowledge that he must go to a shop keeps him awake for several nights fretting. the threat of promotion at work terrifies him. women repulse him. in a nightmare franz has we are told "there was a horrible smell, like fresh rolls. "

.

but polzer's landlady manipulates him, through threats and tears and violence, first into accompanying her on social outings and then into having sex with her. and franz was right! these seemingly innocent, even pleasurable, events turn out to be the first halting movements of an unstoppable slide into hell, not just for franz but for several other characters.

.

the novel is exceedingly grim, dwelling on themes of child abuse and sexual molestation, religious fanaticism, flesh-eating disease, whoring, crime, poverty, the slaughtering of animals and finally serial murder; and poor franz polzer is plunged into despair simply by the unfashionableness of his hat! i've read the book twice now and am still not sure if the author intended an edge of black comedy here. the only other thing i've found by him was a short story about cannnibalism where the humor was more overt.