In his earlier novels, short stories and plays Herr Martin Walser was preoccupied with social criticism, though the vehemence of that criticism sometimes suggested that his real quarrel was not so much with the west Germany of the Wirtschaftswunder, or indeed with any specific social and economic set-up, as with the depravity and conformism of anybody, anywhere, who was prepared to play the power game. His novels Ehen in Philippsburg [Marriage in Philippsburg] (1957) and Halbzeit [Half Time] (1960) were powerful and brilliant in parts, but they were less satisfactory as works of art than some of the short stories in his first book, Ein Flugzeug über dem Haus [1955].

In many respects Herr Walser's new novel [Das Einhorn (The Unicorn)] is even more ambitious than its two predecessors. The hero and narrator, Anselm Kristlein, has been taken over from Halbzeit, just as Beumann has been taken over from Ehen in...