Kontinent Doderer

The novels of Heimito von Doderer are exciting, action-packed, rich in characters, and very humorous. Fifty years after the author's death, they form an almost forgotten literary continent that is now ready to be rediscovered. Viennese literary critic Klaus Nüchtern strictly follows his own curiosity as he traverses the "continent of Doderer." He measures all of Siberia, where the author becomes a writer in a prisoner-of-war camp, and ascends not only the famous Strudlhofstiege but also descends into the poorly lit hallways of basements, where the janitors, whom Doderer fervently despised, reside. Meticulously, yet never academically, critically, but never bitterly, Nüchtern traces Doderer's convoluted path from being a member of the NSDAP to becoming the celebrated Über-Austrian of the post-war era. Nüchtern notes Doderer's restorative tendencies.