SOURCE: Eder, Richard. Review of The Inner Man, by Martin Walser. Los Angeles Times Book Review (27 January 1985): 1, 7.

In the following review, Eder summarizes the plot and themes of The Inner Man, noting the parallels between the protagonist and contemporary Germany.

Chauffeur Xaver Zurn, driving his wealthy employer across southern Germany in a pale-green Mercedes, needs to relieve himself [in The Inner Man]. But it is more than that. There are global aspects, universal dimensions to his abdominal agony.

History furnishes a lesson for his retentive struggle. (“Xaver had read descriptions of battles during the Peasants’ War. Whenever, the horde of peasants yielded a mere fraction, [it] would be swept away in headlong flight.”) Religion is there. (“Think of Jesus Christ,” he reflects, speeding towards Stuttgart and its sanitary facilities. “This afternoon you will be granted deliverance.”)

And, of course, it is a state matter. (“It always infuriated Xaver...