Martin Walser's … novels mirror German society of the fifties and early sixties. Marriage in Philippsburg (1957) is a conventionally narrated novel depicting the social climb of a young man into the "high society" of a small German city. Half Time (1960) and The Unicorn (1966) are more cutting in their critique of the conditions in prosperous postwar Germany. In style essentially more complicated, they show Walser's obvious effort to pattern his hero, at least to some extent, after himself. Both novels have the same protagonist, Anselm Kristlein, who in Half Time, thanks to his gift of articulation, reaches the position of public relations manager for a large concern and obtains entry into the upper echelon of society. Here Walser especially attacks verbal clichés, as well as the hollowness of the roles most people play. In Unicorn Kristlein has become a writer commissioned by a woman publisher to write a work...