Girlfriends, Ghosts, and Other Stories is a 2016 English-language short story collection of 88 works by the Swiss author Robert Walser, including feuilletons, short stories, and prose pieces. The works are translated by Tom Whalen with Nicole Kongeter and Annette Wiesner. The book is published by New York Review Books.

Background The included works range from the years 1907 to 1933. In 1929, Walser entered a Bern psychiatric clinic, Waldau, after episodes of anxiety and depression. In 1933, when he was transferred against his will to a different location in Herisau, he apparently abandoned writing.

All but three of the included works come from Sämtliche Werke in Einzelausg, the 21-volume 1985 German collection of Walser's work.. "The Belletristic Book" comes from volume five of the pencil zone archives. "The Tip" and "The Carousel" are taken from Feuer (2003), a collection of prose pieces and poems that had never appeared in book form.

Style and themes Tom Whalen notes in the afterword that Walser "wrote like someone upon whom nothing is lost" and matched his sentence-construction to thought. Tristan Burke describes the categories of most of the pieces as: "depictions of nature, landscape or place, usually prompted by the narrator’s experience on a walk, portraits of people, games with language [...], and responses to other books." Burke wrote that the "modernist sophistication" in the works often takes the form of the "cryptic, aphoristic sentences that demand time and thought to be comprehended."

A.M. Kaempf at The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote that the style is playful and irreverent, and that Walser is "present in his prose as most authors are not, living between the lines, strolling alongside his sentences as if he might add a few more words at any moment."

Format and genre Most of the included works are in Walser's usual form of the feuilleton. Tristan Burke labelled the works as récits or as unclassifiable. Other reviewers have similarly said that the writings evade comparison and categorization. (Also see: Main article section Robert Walser: Format and genre.) Tom Whalen states in the afterword:

Reception Benjamin Woodard at Electric Lit wrote in a review that the "very strong [...] mishmash of stories, essays, reviews, and remarks delightfully captures Walser’s playful use of language." Woodard noted several darker stories where Walser's narrator "takes the role of commoner absorbing the actions of a drastically changing world, where friendly faces can hide danger and power is fleeting", including a 1917 piece that indirectly comments on World War I. Woodard adds that the nature stories contain a sense of "wonder and sanctuary for the writer."

Tristan Burke at Minor Literature wrote that everything in the collection "feels like spring" and that Walser shows the "beauty of the quotidian" even in the later pieces where he becomes darker and anxious. Burke quotes W.G. Sebald, who said about Walser, "he illumined every page with the most genial light." Similarly A.M. Kaempf at the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote, "there is something enchanted about the way he sees the world — a deliberate innocence that leads him to be satirical but not cynical, melancholy but not miserable, lonely but not forlorn. [...] Pieces in this [...] volume span 26 years, but from beginning to end Walser retains a youthful exuberance."

Jeffrey Gleaves at The Paris Review wrote in a review that the sketches are labelled short fiction but "read like flash essays, or brief, beautifully composed diary entries." He noted that Walser "gleefully injects novella-sized plots into two-page character sketches."

The Kirkus Review wrote that the "miscellany" suggested by the title "delivers." The reviewer noted that contemporaries thought Kafka was inspired by Walser as a kindred spirit, but stated Walser's work is "lighter, [...] more playful, and very attuned to detail." The reviewer also said that the pieces are about "looking closely and paying attention" on many varied subjects and situations.

Pieces included

"A Morning" "She Writes" "An ABC in Pictures by Max Liebermann" (1909) "Sketch (I)" "Poetry (I)" "The Forest" "Lunch Break" (1914) "The Kitten (I)" "A Little Ramble" "The Hand Harp" "The Goddess" "The Look" "The Morning" "Autumn Afternoon" "The Man" "The Grave of the Mother" "Remember This" "On the Terrace" "The Little Sheep" "Spring" "A Little Expedition" "Ash, Needle, Pencil, and Match" "The Young Traveling Salesman" "Toothache" "The Nimble and the Lazy" "No One" "The Murderess" "Lake Piece" "Schwendimann" "The Forsaken One" "Dear Little Swallow" "The Children’s Game" (1919) "The Philosopher" "Page from a Diary (I)" "Tram Ride" "The Kitten (II)" "Latest News" (1921) "News Number Two" (1921) "News Three" (1921) "Fourth News" (1921) "Congratulations on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Journal Die Schweiz" "How Are You?" "Afternoon Tea" "The Girls" (1924) "Overcoats" "Shadow" "The Lover and the Unknown Girl" "The Tip" "The Keller Novella" "Walser on Walser" "Sacher-Masoch" "Shop Windows (I)" "Gretchen" "Porcelain" "Ludwig" (1925) "It’s All Right, Miss" "Essay on Bismarck" "Anecdote" "The Nobel Prize" (1926) "The Carousel" "'Underappreciated Poets Among Us?'—Answer to a Survey" "Discussion" "Girlfriends" "The Young Woman in the Country House" "The Bob" "The Red Leather Pouch" (1927) "Detective Novel" (1927) "Poet Story" "The Belletristic Book" "Garden Arbor Essay" "Ghosts" (1928-1929) "Female Portrait" "A Man of the World" "Something About Writing" "Tolstoy and Hutten" "The Woman Novelist" "The Equestrienne" "She Bettered Herself" "A Woman’s Book" (1931) "The Coffeehouse" (1931) "Literary Switzerland" "Embonpoint" "The Bourgeois" "The Pipsqueak" "Portrait of a Lady" "The Precious One" (1932-1933) "Something About Eating" (1932-1933) "Mother Nature" (1933)

Footnotes

References