Klausen

This bizarre romp from German novelist Maier, his first to be translated into English, tells an (intentionally) incomprehensible story about some ambiguously subversive goings-on in the tiny South Tyrol town of Klausen. At the heart of it all, apparently, is Josef Gasser, a tormented young man with frustrated aspirations to transcend the stifling atmosphere of his village. When political unrest stirs over noise pollution from the nearby highway, a series of incidents ensues—midnight assaults, anonymous fliers posted all over town that denigrate the town and its inhabitants, a police raid on an abandoned castle occupied by Albanian immigrants—but how these odd occurrences hang together, if indeed they do, never becomes clear: perhaps Josef has a central role. Perhaps not. Maier pieces this shaggy dog tale together from conflicting and possibly fabricated testimonials of various suspicious Klauseners, leading to a murky climax. A slightly awkward translation can make this already confusing story even harder to follow, but readers into the bizarre and playful will enjoy this amusing and somewhat sinister satire. (Aug.)