Joseph Roth: Das falsche Gewicht (Weights and Measures)

The latest addition to my website is Joseph Roth‘s Das falsche Gewicht (Weights and Measures). Anselm Eibenschütz had been a soldier but now marries but has to leave the army and gets a job as an Inspector of Weights and Measures. Most of the merchants are crooked using, as the German title tells using false weights. However things start to go wrong, not least because his wife has an affair. However when the local major crook/tavern owner goes beserk and is sent to prison, Anselm is appointed to run the tavern and inherits not only the tavern but the crook’s gypsy girlfriend. But while that works for a while, inevitably, things do not work out and when the crook/tavern owner manages to escape jail, things are going to get much worse. As always, this is an excellent story from Roth about a man who loses structure in his life and can no longer cope.

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