SOURCE: "Writing Like a Man that Just Came in from a Walk," in The New York Times, August 18, 1990, p. 18.

In the review below, American editor and author Mitgang studies Walser's writing style in "Masquerade" and Other Stories, commenting that "Walser writes like a man who has just returned from a walk, quickly settling down his impressions at a writing table, still wearing his hat. "

There are certain observations in these feuilletons by Robert Walser that resemble passages in the novels of Franz Kafka, who expressed his debt to the simplicity and surrealism of the Swiss author's writings. In Kafka's journal in 1917, he compared Walser's "blurring employment of abstract metaphors" to that of Dickens.

In a foreword to "Masquerade" and Other Stories, William H. Gass writes that Walser's essays resemble the work of Donald Barthelme because they are almost collagelike in their juxtapositions. This newly translated collection draws upon...