The virtues of the essay form have been extolled just a little too often of late. Repeatedly it has been underlined that when we talk about the essay we are not talking about those awful exercises we had to do at school. Yet when it comes to the work of Fritz Kocher, the tragic “author” of many of the pieces collected here, the school essay is precisely what we are talking about. Working in 1904, the elusive Swiss writer Robert Walser has his fictional schoolboy speculate on subjects as plain as politeness, careers and school in a faux-naif style betraying ominous attitudes to class, power and discipline. (“The teacher treats the poor boys more roughly than us, and he is right to. Teachers know what they’re doing.”) These are ostensibly simple stories beneath which we sense unresolved contradictions heralding war, modernity and the end of simple stories. Kocher’s thoughts are often cut short by the school bell. “Unfortunately time’s up,” is the abrupt conclusion to one essay. It would serve just as well as the collection’s title.
