Robbe-Grillet and Johnson share the same literary heritage. The "crise du réel" that is common to the novels of Joyce, Kafka, Faulkner, and Beckett is also at the center of their works. Absolute, unquestionable values and certainties no longer exist. Everything is subject to doubt. The rational, stable bourgeois world of Balzac has crumbled…. Robbe-Grillet discusses the author's position in this world of changing realities and explains at length his theories on the role of the new novel in a series of essays assembled in Pour un Nouveau Roman. Uwe Johnson states his views on literature in a short essay entitled, "Berlin, Border of the Divided World." He shows the difficulties that he encounters in conveying to the reader the truth and complexity of a simple, observable incident: a man getting off a train that has just crossed the border dividing the Eastern and Western sections of...