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It's like jumping into ice water. Not bedtime reading.
If literature can be compared to art in style content and imagery, then "The Assignment" is closest to surrealist art. Well at least in imagery and style, the content is at times all to earthly. Style: Single sentence chapters; all the chapters; from a half page to six pages. This can be a bit exhausting to read, but the effect is that of well defined, concentrated urgency. There are no unneeded thoughts or phrases, there can't be since the sentence must flow. Imagery: Surreal, vivid, stark. From the first chapter where an occupied coffin is flown back from M. (assume Morocco) to Switzerland by plane. Not in the plane but trailing behind it tethered by ropes over vast stretches of the sunlit North African desert and the Mediterranean. A weird but beautiful image. A few chapters later leaders of a Moslem sect protest the excavation of a large black cube like ruin by sitting in the sand, in a line, at one corner of the ruin while the rest is cleared. They are dressed in black robes which cover their bodies and heads. They sit there day after day in the cloudless dessert, in the blazing sun, in the wind, in the cold clear nights. A female reporter and her film crew approach them in the bright noonday sun, she nudges one to wake him but he simply falls over, there being nothing left but the skeletal remains still wrapped in the black robe, and the next also falls when pushed, and the next, and the next. Content: Philosophical, stark, at times violent. Topics include the need to be observed (hence the title), freedom (the meaning of life is to be free, but freedom can only be achieved when one realizes that life is meaningless), and a nice odd view of the arms race.There is also a interesting point on the emotional frustration of modern war where a man's bloodlust really can't be satisfied. And also on the depravity of rape where a man's bloodlust can be satisfied.

The book is mostly philosophy. In response to an earlier review, the book isn't kind to women, but it isn't kind to men either. The female reporter is a strong not a weak character. The ending, however, is a let down. You get the impression that Durrenmatt got tired of writing single sentences and wrapped it all up in half a paragraph. Read this book, it's very good, then read some of his other books and plays they are also very good but much more normal .... kind of.

Excellent book for the unusual
With a certain sense of Sadism and adventure, Durrenmatt tells of a tale of a murder, rape, war and international intrigue. The main character, a film maker, is given an assignment to investigate the murder of his wife insome foreign, desert country. The woman is turned around and lea throughadventures and lies, both by those that she trusts and those she cannot. The story itself was fascinating, despite the ever-so-slight feeling thatit over-indulges in Sadistic tortures of the female characters.The endingwas a disappointment. It had that deus-ex-machina feeling, not that thecharacters had resolved anything or that there was finality, but that theauthor had created an impossible situation for his heroine which only aridiculously convenient ending could resolve. All in all this is a finework, but not meant for those who cannot handle misogyny and weak femalecharacters.

A master spider weaves his web.
I'm a big fan of Durrenmatt's and have read everything of his that I can find that's been translated into English.He's written a pair of amazing plays (the Visit and the Physicists) and a handful of thought-provoking,and playful novels.The Assignment strings together incredibly longsentences that entangle the reader in Durrenmatt's astute observationsabout voyeurism, paranoia, and pre-destination among other things.Orperhaps it's simply a brilliant riff on let A=A.Check it out. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (14)

"Someone believes in the innocence of a guilty man and sets out to find a murderer who does not exist."
When you give your "word", what is it worth?

What if you gave your "word" --- and had to make good on it?

What if your "word" actually cost you something?

These aren't the questions you usually ask yourself when you're reading a detective novel, but The Pledge is not a by-the-numbers policier and Friedrich Dürrenmatt is not like our current crop of crime novelists --- Patricia Cornwell, I'm talking about you --- who create a successful main character and put her through more or less the same paces in book after book.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) was a Swiss writer usually remembered for his plays. (You may have seen The Visit.) He had strong, original views --- "Shakespeare's plots are sometimes weak, just clothesline to hang beautiful verse on; I prefer tightly structured pieces" --- and when he turned his hand to fiction, "tightly structured pieces" were what he wrote. Which may be why "The Pledge" has been the inspiration for six movies since its publication in 1958.

Oh..."The Pledge". The Jack Nicholson movie, with Benicio Del Toro and Robin Wright? Yes, that one. Directed by Sean Penn. One of Nicholson's best, least-mannered performances, so you stayed with it. And though the film was moody, with an unsettling plot and a conclusion that didn't nearly qualify as a happy ending, it haunted you for days, didn't it?

The book is even better. 172 pages --- you can read it on a plane trip, or in a single evening. And if you start it, you will finish it that very day, because it has no flights of style, no digressions. It's that rare novel: a pure story.

Indeed, it's told as a story. An unnamed detective novelist gives a lecture on his craft in a small Swiss city. Later that evening, in a bar, he meets Dr. H. --- "the former police chief in the canton of Zurich" --- who offers him a ride to Zurich the next morning. In the car, they stop at a gas station. As they drive, Dr. H. mocks detective novels:

"You set up your stories logically, like a chess game: here's the criminal, there's the victim, here's an accomplice, there's a beneficiary; and all the detective needs to know is the rules, he replays the moves of the game, and checkmate, the criminal is caught and justice has triumphed. This fantasy drives me crazy. You can't come to grips with reality by logic alone."

And then Dr H. proceeds to tell a story about the owner of that gas station. "That pathetic drunken wreck" --- his name is Matthai --- was once his best detective, "a genius". He never married. He seemed to have no passion. He just worked.

At the pinnacle of his career, Mathaii got a plum: an assignment to help the government of Jordan reorganize its police force. But on his last afternoon on the job in Switzerland, Matthai was called in on a case. In a neighboring village, a young girl had been murdered. A suspect was in custody. He had a criminal record: sexual molestation of a fourteen-year-old girl.

The victim's father is devastated. The girl's mother asks, "Who was the murderer?" Matthai says he intends to find out. "Is that a promise?" she asks. He says it is.

"On your eternal salvation?"

What can Matthai say?

"On my eternal salvation," he tells the mother.

And he means it. Which is to say: He's trapped.

The suspect is a peddler. This is the third infanticide in the area in three years, and in the town and the police station, the peddler's guilt is assumed. No matter that he swears he's innocent, no matter that the "witnesses" are completely unreliable. The police interrogate the peddler for twenty hours. He confesses. And then...but I won't spoil it for you.

After that, Matthai cancels his trip to Jordan. He believes that a killer's still free, and children are in danger.

As a student, Dürrenmatt studied philosophy. (He quit before writing his dissertation on "The Tragic in Kierkegaard".) Much like Camus, he came to believe that the world is "something monstrous, a riddle of misfortunes which must be accepted but before which one must not capitulate".

The last hundred pages of "The Pledge" vividly dramatize that belief. Matthai is ostracized. In ultra-rational Switzerland, his suspicion that this crime is the work of a madman wins him no sympathizers: "Someone believes in the innocence of a guilty man and sets out to find a murderer who does not exist." So when he....but I won't spoil the resolution.

I can say this: It is a pleasure to read a thriller in which a character recommends that we "include the absurd in our calculations". And it's outright joy to start a book, know you're in the hands of a master, and read straight through to the end.

A captivating story...
I read this book in one day and found it impossible to put down. This is not your average murder mystery or detective story. In fact, the murder in the book is "solved" early on. The story focuses on one retired detective's dissatisfaction with the police force's determination of who the killer was, and his resolve to keep his promise to the murdered girl's mother that he would find the killer of her daughter. This to me is the strength of the story, how trying to keep a promise can lead someone to obsessive behavior and eventually to a mental breakdown. This is one case where I think the movie was just as good as the book, although there were some differences between the two. (For one, the locale was changed from Switzerland to Nevada in the movie.) While Durrenmatt's writing style may seem sparse to some, I didn't find that it affected my interest in the story or the flow in any way, and as a reader you have to remember that the story is being told in a narrative format by one of the characters to another. Overall, a quick read and a fascinating story.

A Requiem for the Detective Novel
The original 1958 edition of this novella was subtitled "A Requiem for the Detective Novel" -- a nugget of context unfortunately missing from this attractive new edition. This absent subtitle is rather important, because it very clearly identifies the taut little tale as one that challenges the traditional arc (crime, investigation, solution) of detective fiction. While the story does follow this arc, the "solution" subverts the qualities of reason, logic, heroism, and determination that are so often extolled in crime fiction -- and by doing so it acts as a critique of the modern era.

The plot is very simple, a little girl is found murdered in some woods on the outskirts of a small Swiss town. A master police detective on his last week of work before leaving on a plumb foreign contract takes the case, and, per the title, promises the mother of the slain girl that her daughter's killer will be brought to justice. A suspect is brought in and confesses, but the detective isn't satisfied, and pursues his pledge to the edge of madness.

The framework for the story is a little clunky, as it's related by the detective's former boss to an anonymous mystery writer. Some of the details also aren't crystal clear, for example, the murder is referred to as a "sex" crime, but it's also clearly established that there was no sexual element. However, these are minor points that should not obscure the power of the novella's grip, which, as others have pointed out, has echoes of Camus.

Note: The book has been adapted for film and television no less than six times! In reverse order, The Pledge (2001, USA), Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1997, Germany), The Cold Light of Day (1996, UK/Netherlands), Posledneye delo komissara Berlakha (1988, USSR) , La Promessa (1979, Italy), Es Geschah am Hellichten Tag (1958, Germany).

nothing wrong w/ this
Friedrich Durrenmatt has been my favorite author now for about ten years.I loved this book when I first read it, although the ending to the inferior movie wasbetter, in my opinion.If you even remotely liked this one, you should check out "Traps" by the same author.Over my twenty eight years of experience with books it still remains my second favorite of all time."Quarry" and "the physicits (sp)" by the same author are excellent as well.If you enjoyed those, "Judge and his hangman" and the "Visit" are worth checking out.

Great story translated well into contemporary film.
The fact is I was interested in this book because of the film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and masterfully directed by Sean Penn. I?d never heard of the author before, and am not a novel reader. Were it not for the film, I?d have never read it. But I regret neither the film nor the novel, which would perhaps be better labeled as a novella.

For those with my intent of comparing media, the book takes place in the 1940s or 50s, the film is contemporary. And the story in the book took place in Switzerland and in the film in the Western U.S. But they translate well into each other. The murder of a young woman takes place. Someone, in the book?s case a traveling salesman, is accused of the murder. After a grueling interrogation, he seems to have confessed and, shortly after, kills himself. To his inquisitors, that is conviction of his guilt. But to one particular officer, in the book about to undertake an overseas assignment, there was something wrong with the whole affair. He pursues it relentlessly?-looking more in the eyes of the bureaucrats and his former colleagues like an obsessive crackpot.

To make a long story short, in both the film and the book, he WAS right. But no one really knows it. The cop who was to have settled into his overseas assignment and retired from it is now stuck in his former community, a burned out lunatic. Only the narrator knows he was right. But now it?s too late.

The only difference I felt between the book and the film was that, in the movie, the cop endeared the woman whose daughter was to be bait for the man the cop felt was the real killer. In the book, he just lived with her because her daughter could be bait, a far more insidious motive.

Aside from that, as I?ve said about the film, it?s a real life situation. How many of us know of a situation that we know is wrong, despite the popular view of it? Someone, for example, is seen by one?s peers as a hero, while the ?one? knows the ?hero? is a self-indulgent phony, or countless other examples.

And the author?s eye for details is commendable. One can nearly smell the environment he describes. It certainly makes the reading worthwhile and easy!

I recommend the book and the film. I think I?ll read more of Durrenmatt. May his other stories become films too! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Great novel, Poor Translation
I find the Joel Agee translation to be, like all his translations, exceedingly tin eared and tedious.Durrenmatt is a great writer and these are superb novels, the earlier translations (for Harper and Godine) are much, much better.

Chilling
These stories are perhaps not as good as The Pledge - which is one of the most chilling stories of obsession I've ever read, and I am amazed noone's turned intofilm, because it seems obvious film material. However, The Judge and his Hangman is similarly obsessive and creepy, but Suspicion doesn't quite work for me. Although the premise of the story - Barlach discovers the identity of a war criminal working in a Swiss hospital and has himself checked into the hospital to confront him - is fine, there are too many deus ex machina moments, and the conclusion seems unlikely. I realise that Durrenmatt is not interested in the police procedural per se, but uses it as a way of expressing ideas about Swiss society and its lack of willingness to face up to uncomfortable truths, but still, if you use that format, then you need to take it to a sensible conclusion for the genre and for me, Suspicion doesn't do that. The Judge and His Hangman is highly recommended and if you haven't read The Pledge, you really should

Unusual detedtive stories

i have read these stories in the original german, and as usual Dürrenmatt is unlike any othercrime writer I know. The central character here is the Swiss detective Inspector Barlach, who suffers from a serious illness, which in no way impairs his detecting ability.
The first story is about the murder of a policeman.Barlach solves this, and at the same time disposes of a local major criminal. In the second, Barlach is in hospital recovering from a life threatening operation. The focus of the Suspicion of the title is the similarity Barlach notices,between his doctor, anda Nazi war criminal whose photograph he sees in the americam magazine Life.
Both stories take place in Switzerland.

Duerrenmatt's work is timeless...
I remember reading "Der Richter und sein Henker" ("The Judge and His Henchman") 20 years ago in German and being very impressed with Friedrich Duerrenmatt's sparse, spare prose and his ability to create suspense and a sense of place with very few strokes.I also remember that Inspector Baerlach (Barlach in this English translation) was no cuddly investigator. Now, as I read this excellent English translation, I realize that the Inspector Barlach character has been used to discuss the larger philosophical and moral quagmire post-war Switzerland found itself in.The themes are universal, but in using a "Krimi" format with a cookie-cutter plot and almost stereotypical characters, Duerrenmatt was able to bring these compelling arguments to the public at large.I continue to find his work alternately entertaining and disturbing. It remains quite a good, brisk read...

these are classics
These are two classics.I hesitate to call them "mysteries", because they are not just whodunits, but despite their short length they also explore moral and philosophical issues.I don't want to say anything about the plots, because there are some nice surprises which I do not want to spoil.I wouldn't even say as much as the "Product Description".Suffice it to say that when a 70-something year old detective who is dying of cancer chases after really bad criminals, this can lead to some tense situations.By the way, Durrenmatt also wrote the book on which the movie "The Pledge" was based, so that should give you some idea of what kinds of stories he wrote --- although the two novels in this volume are somewhat different.These were orginally written in German in the 1950's, and the translation here seems pretty good. ... Read more

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Absurdist morality play
A woman named Claire Zachanassian returns to Guellen, the smallish Central European town she lived in as a youth. Since she's left the town has fallen on hard times and she has become extremely rich. She comes with a proposition - she wants the townspeople to kill a man named Ill, one of their fellow citizens, who wronged her grievously when she lived there. The play is about how they deal with this proposition. (That's what I meant by morality play.)

Stylistically this is kind of a post-modern, absurdist play. There are four town members who act as both a chorus and as background elements (ex trees). Claire has two incongruously cheerful blind guys Koby and Loby she brings with her. They hold each others hands and repeat everything. She has two gum chewing bodyguards/servants named Toby and Roby. They don't say much. The main people in town are the Mayor, the Schoolteacher, and the Priest. You don't learn their names; they are deliberately generic. According to the stage direction it's supposed to be a minimalist set, like Our Town, or Lars Von Trier's more recent films.

All this stuff gives the play a fantastical quality. Brecht and Becket sometimes do this as well. I liked it. It's a play based on a compelling moral quandry and instead of preaching at you it counterpoints the gravitas with disturbing frivolity.

What time can't heal, murder does...
In Durrenmatt's *The Visit* a hideous--and hideously wealthy--old woman returns to the town of her long-ago youth to avenge a past wrong. Unaware of her intentions, everyone in Guellen is excited at the news of her imminent arrival, but none more so than the old lady's old flame--the shabby shopkeeper Alfred Ill who volunteers to be her personal guide during the visit. Expecting that her return, and Alfred's solicitous attention, will mean a revival of the town's fortunes after years of hard times, the inhabitants of Guellen are nonetheless staggered by the generosity of Claire Zachanassian's offer. But their joy turns to dismay when they discover the one condition the old woman has placed on making them all wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. The good folk of Guellen must deliver up one of their own for sacrifice: her old lover, Alfred Ill.

Will the townsfolk murder Alfred for the money--and the "good" of Guellen--or not? Durrenmatt not only sustains the suspense of this situation throughout most of this rather lengthy three-act play, but, even more surprising, he renders it chillingly plausible. One is reminded of Shirley Jackson's classic story *The Lottery*--a similar atmosphere of claustrophobic, predestined dread prevails in *The Visit,* a sense that there is no escape from the judgment of the community of which one is a member. Indeed, it seems if one is properly socialized one internalizes that judgment and delivers oneself up accordingly for there is no life outside of the community. Such a "voluntary" death becomes a sacrifice and one lives on in the benefit bestowed upon the community. So does society sustain itself by eating its own.

What the old lady wants is justice for a wrong done to her in Guellen long ago. But that desire for justice--and the hurt that goes with it--has hardened over time into an implacable thirst for vengeance that nothing but blood will satisfy. Even within the play, as well as in Durenmatt's postscript,Claire Z. is likened to Medea and it's an apt comparison. Claire is older, wealthier, a confidante of princes and presidents, a serial bride, full of wit and dry humor, and her anger is considerably colder than that of the legendary scorned madwoman of classical literature--colder and thus more lethal.

Aside from Claire Z, who has hardened beyond humanity altogether, *The Visit* is primarily a tale about human weakness--about the temptation for the pleasures of this world and the rationalizations we devise to grab them when the opportunity presents itself. For behind the high-sounding principles and moral outrage of the good people of Guellen is the drive to self-aggrandizement that motivates all of us. Or, as *The Visit* memorably points out--all of us but the rare individual who acknowledges the guilt we all share and prefer to locate solely in our neighbors, the rare individual who, when it's time to point out the source of evil in the world, has the astounding courage to point at himself.

Hilarious, Grotesque, Cynical, and Very Influential
Like Bertholt Brecht, Friedrich Duerrenmatt (1921-1990) was a proponet of "epic theatre," a style of drama in which the audience is not so much asked to identify with the characters and story but to contemplate them in an detached manner and thereby arrive a certain intellectual and moral conclusions.Although he was the author of several notable dramas, he is not well known outside his native Switzerland and German-speaking Europe--with one exception: Der Besuch der alten Dame, known in English as THE VISIT.

First staged in 1956, it became internationally famous in the late 1950s in a production staged by Peter Brook starring Afred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, which had a successful Broadway run and which toured extensively; it was also filmed, with considerably less success, in 1964 by director Bernhard Wicki and starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn.Maurice Valency performed the translation for the Lunt-Fontanne stage version, and for many years his extremely free adaptation was the only English-language version in print.The Patrick Bowles version offered here, however, is much more accurate in translation--and therefore considerably darker in tone.

The story concerns a tiny town which has fallen on very hard times, but which has hopes in the form of a visit from the incredibly wealthy Claire Zachanassian, a woman who was born and raised in the town and who has now decided to make a return visit.Although a distinctly grotesque figure, Claire has a reputation for generosity, and upon her arrival she does indeed announce her intention to endow her hometown with riches beyond imagination.There is, however, one catch: in return, she demands the death of Anton Schill, the lover who wronged her many years ago.The community is outraged and refuses to comply... at least at first.As the play progresses, however, the citizens (including Schill's own family) begin to dream of what they could do with all that money.Is Claire's demand really so unreasonable after all?

Duerrenmatt insisted that his play was a comedy, and it is indeed quite funny, albeit in a distinctly grotesque sort of way.At the same time, however, it is quite obviously a parable on the natures of revenge and greed.Indeed, Claire's revenge is not so much on Schill as it is upon the town itself, as she forces them to faulter through greed by presenting them with a choice between morality and immorality.Although extremely witty, THE VISIT may also be described as deeply cynical, and more than one critic has flatly described it as evil, despicable, and profoundly unsavory.Whatever the case, it is a truly remarkable play, quite unlike the usual fare you'll find haunting either Broadway or the local community theatre.It has also been extremely influential over the years, with perhaps the most obvious example being Arthur Kopit's OH DAD, POOR DAD, MAMA'S HUNG YOU IN THE CLOSET AND I'M FEELING SO SAD.Strongly recommended for fans of far-out theatre.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Depiction of Swiss
This is as close as you will come to a true depiction of the Swiss. It may be a generalisation but isn't that how generalisations are generally derived? Anyway, the author is Swiss who is supposedly not very popular among the Swiss possibly because it is too close to home/truth.

A Bizarre, But Intriguing Tale
This book, although somewhat disturbing, is a good read for anyone who desires a look at how humans continually put material objects before their own fellow human beings.Layered in "sick" comedy, The Visit brings the ultimate desire for retribution to life, as well as depicting how even normal people can become vicious with revenge, even when they are not the victim.Furthermore, this book depicts how one person can change the lives of other's lives drastically, because of power and money.When read in the context of seeking the reality of life, the desire for riches, the greed of the desperate, and the need to be "someone" and be defined by worldy possessions, this book truly gives insight, with a bizarre but intriguing tale. ... Read more

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The Visit -- a tragic-comedy by Friedrich Durrenmatt [translated by Patrick Bowles] ... Read more

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A terrible translation of a beautiful play
Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play Der Besuch der alten Dame is a milestone in German language drama, one of the most significant pieces in the twentieth century. The Maurice Valency "adaptation" is barely a suggestion of the original. Obviously some things must be lost in the translation, but Valency makes unjustifiable decisions: entire scenes are excised, a great deal of dialogue has been trimmed from scenes that didn't need it, Valency has written his own scenes in, he's moved things around, and then on top of all of that he changed the main character's name for reasons that elude me. If at all possible, find another translation of this play, whether you intend to perform it or just to read it; the Valency version is a sin. ... Read more

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like no other
Like Durrenmatt's other detective novel (The Pledge), The Judge and his Hangman and The Quarry stand alone among the detective fiction that I've read.The police do not catch the bad guy, the cliches are avoided or twisted to suit the novelist's bizarre sense of humor, and the bureaucracy can be as thick as mud.Durrenmatt's characters are well-drawn with subtlety and charm.When it comes to themes, Durrenmatt cuts to the chase, showing just how vicious, pathetic, and, on the other hand, how decent people can be.Importantly, Durrenmatt leaves his characters their humanity, and he reminds us readers how important our humanity and our compassion are.

Hans Barlach is the main character in these two novels.In The Judge and his Hangman, a policeman from another town is murdered within Barlach's jurisdiction.His investigation leads him to a bizarre wealthy man named Gastmann who throws elaborate parties which include some very influential guests.In The Quarry, Barlach checks himself into a hospital so he can investigate a doctor.

Durrenmatt's crime novels are all excellent.

OK mysteries
These are pretty run of the mill, but then, virtually all mysteries are structured in similar ways.What sets Durrenmatt apart are his characters, who are quite nuanced and full of surprises.The language is also good, and as I read it in German, not too difficult if undistinguished.

Recommended if you like the mystery genre, which appeals to me only in film. ... Read more

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A concise introduction to the distinguished Swiss dramatists, author of the widely performed The Visit and other plays, whose writings reflects his ironic yet compassionate view of life. ... Read more