[Between the lines] The swiss' name Robert Walser is not well known by here yet But he was admired by some of the bigger writers and intelectuals of the twentieth century once. and he just released his most important book in Brazil. As speaks our collaborator: Carlos Eduardo Ortolan The swiss writer and german speaker Robert Waiser belongs to the niche of authors whose just got recognized post death Alcoholic, after a life of mediocre literary success and unexpressive jobs. the depressed neurotic Waiser would end up his days in a Menthal instalation in which he said: "I'm not here to write, but to be crazy" The crew of lovers of his small work gathers Franz Kafka, who had him as master and role model and most recently, Walter Benjamin, Elias Canetti, Susan Sontag and Coetzee. Waiser's masterpiece, the novel "Jakob von Gunten: A Journal" just received brazilian edition. The fictional memories of Jakob von Gunten talks, in summary, about his season at Institute Benjamenta a boy's school, in which the weird character enrolls as an intern student. But everything sounds different at school. The boys, who are there to learn to be servants of noble families, actually, learns nothing but lessons about humility and behaving. There's only 1 book, the Institute's manual and just 1 teacher, Ms Benjamenta the sister of the institution's owner who stays closed in his office all days, counting money and reading the newspaper. From an aristocratic family, von Gunten says all the time that he's there exactly to learn obedience and humility. But through his paradoxal point of view constantly ridicularizes all values of humanity and civilization, everything considered high level, in a kind of stubborn activism, remembering our BrĂ¡s Cubas with his impudence and cynicism. "Thou wouldst give me the fisrt place among mortals, "beyond science and richness, "cause wast the genuine inspiration of the skies. "Thou wouldst be the relief of our melancolic humanity The words of Coetzee, "Essay devoted to Waiser", Gunten would be the kind of boy who, because of his deep contempt for everything human and moral, could be a part of, in a near future, Hitler's Sturmabteilung Strange analogy. the book of the apolitical Rober Waiser shows the ruines of civilization and the aproximation of darker and darker times. Everything very kafkian ... meaning, the most faithful expression of a tragic reality.