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"Despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened with strong doses of bittersweet irony.The idiosyncratic investigation and its laconic detective have not aged one iota" Guardian
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Studer investigates when the director vanishes and a child murderer escapes from an insane asylum in Bern, an environment Glauser knew all too well from personal experience. Set in the 1920s, the novel explores the no-man's-land between reason and madness where Matto, the spirit of insanity, reigns. Dubions psychological theories and therapies abound and the asylum darkly mirrors the world outside.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glauser's masterpiece,
By Marian B.G. (Denmark) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In Matto's Realm (Sergeant Studer Mystery) (Paperback)
Friedrich Glauser, 1896 - 1938, Swiss crime writer and adventurer, knows what he does, when he places the story of his novel "In Matto's Realm" at what at the time was called an "asylum". Apart from a stay at an institution for maladjusted children as a teen, he spent many years of his short life at both prisons and, exactly, asylums.
Seargent Studer is sent for by the vice-director of the mental institution Randlingen, Dr. Laduner, after the institution's director, Brauchli, has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The worst is feared for, since Brauchli's office shows signs of a struggle having taken place, and one of the institution's inmates has disappeared the very same evening as Brauchli himself. Vice-director Laduner wants to be "covered by the authorities" in this disastrous situation. At first glance an exciting and entertaining novel about four murders/suicides and their clear-up, which nevertheless leaves the reader with the unpleasant feeling that, parallel to the supposed central story, a true mass-murder is committed, "covered by the authorities". Glauser is a sharp observer of human defence mechanisms toward the unknown, fear-evoking. Artistically, he easily compares with internationally renowned writers like Max Frisch or Friedrich Dürrenmatt, although the last chapters of "In Matto's Realm" show signs of Glauser being under pressure to finish the novel. "In Matto's Realm" is Glauser's most fascinating novel when it comes to criticism of society and of the System, and it hasn't lost any of its relevance since 1936. As it often is the case, Glauser, too, became a victim of the society, the System, he criticized. He died in 1938, very likely as a consequence of insulin-shock "treatment".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Friedrich Glauser - In Matto's Realm,
By
This review is from: In Matto's Realm (Sergeant Studer Mystery) (Paperback)
This is an odd little novel; a crime-fiction "classic" orginally published in 1936 but only now seeing its first English language translation. Glauser, a morphine addict who died just before his wedding and spent time in a mental instituion, is an intriguing figure and, you would suppose, an excellent person to write this kind of twisted, atmospheric detective story. Correct. He is. And that's exactly what this book. It's an atmospheric, twisted detective story. Glauser writes fluidly, engagingly, and keeps on an admirably human, flawed level with his protagonist Sergeant Studer, who is by no means a brilliant detective (he gets things wrong, makes stupid mistakes, as all real people do), but is still a man trying to do the right thing in an odd, kinked situation. The book is atospheric, has a ncie sense of place, and is nicely claustrophobic (set in an asylum, it would be hard not to be all of these things, though). The characters are an intriguing lot, but they are many, and the reader is thankful that Studer has almost as much trouble remembering them all as they do. The crime itself is complex and there is more to it than at first there seems. However, towards the end things do get a little muddled as Glauser tries to explain a very complex crime in quiet a simple way, and things feels a little disjointed, that there are perhaps a couple of chapters or expositions missing. Nonetheless, In Matto's Real is a rewarding and very interesting novel that is a worthwhile read even just for the picture it gives us of inter-war psychiatry. Even though it perhaps seems a little outmoded now, some of the ideas in this books were, i suspect, hugely revolutionary in the year it was published.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Friedrich Glauser - In Matto's Realm,
By
This review is from: In Matto's Realm (Sergeant Studer Mystery) (Paperback)
This is an odd little novel; a crime-fiction "classic" orginally published in 1936 but only now seeing its first English language translation. Glauser, a morphine addict who died just before his wedding and spent time in a mental instituion, is an intriguing figure and, you would suppose, an excellent person to write this kind of twisted, atmospheric detective story. Correct. He is. And that's exactly what this book. It's an atmospheric, twisted detective story. Glauser writes fluidly, engagingly, and keeps on an admirably human, flawed level with his protagonist Sergeant Studer, who is by no means a brilliant detective (he gets things wrong, makes stupid mistakes, as all real people do), but is still a man trying to do the right thing in an odd, kinked situation. The book is atospheric, has a ncie sense of place, and is nicely claustrophobic (set in an asylum, it would be hard not to be all of these things, though). The characters are an intriguing lot, but they are many, and the reader is thankful that Studer has almost as much trouble remembering them all as they do. The crime itself is complex and there is more to it than at first there seems. However, towards the end things do get a little muddled as Glauser tries to explain a very complex crime in quiet a simple way, and things feels a little disjointed, that there are perhaps a couple of chapters or expositions missing. Nonetheless, In Matto's Real is a rewarding and very interesting novel that is a worthwhile read even just for the picture it gives us of inter-war psychiatry. Even though it perhaps seems a little outmoded now, some of the ideas in this books were, i suspect, hugely revolutionary in the year it was published
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