Reviews: Weights and Measures (3)

Roth’s later novels have the precision and purity of a well-cut jewel. In this one, first published in 1934, we return to the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at the very limits of its dominion: the borderlands of Zlotograd, in modern-day Ukraine. Anselm Eibenschütz has accepted a post there as inspector of weights and measures. Together with his gendarme, Sergeant Slama, whom we have met before in ‘The Radetzky March’, he tours the district ensuring local merchants are not selling false quantities. Incorruptible, disinterested, stern, Eibenschütz embodies the Imperial ideal. If gold ruste, what shal iren do?

Alas, by a kind of reverse alchemy, Inspector Eibenschütz is transformed into a very base metal indeed. Frau Eibenschütz’s infidelity prompts him to begin an affair with a dark-eyed gypsy woman, Euphemia. He adores her. But Euphemia belongs to another, Jadlowker, into whose shady dealings at the local tavern Eibenschütz is gradually yet ineluctably drawn. If only there were some way to remove Jadlowker from the picture, Euphemia would be his, and his alone.

Although there are many different readings of ‘Weights and Measures’ - you could, I suppose, view the whole thing as a parable of sexual liberation, like the Darling Buds of May, with Euphemia in the Catherine Zeta Jones role - it seems to me that Roth is concerned most of all with the entropic decline of Habsburg rule in its last remaining years. Significantly, when the ice melts in the river, it heralds not regeneration but cholera: only a sudden return of winter re-bottles the genie of decay.

The town where all this happens, Szwaby, based on Roth’s childhood home of Brody, is a microcosm of the order and symmetry he looked back on with such longing, the Eden from which he and central Europe were so cruelly expelled. We need not look far for biblical echoes. Eibenschütz’s downfall is precipitated by two Eves: his unfaithful wife, who had also made him leave the army where he had been happiest; and Euphemia, whose untameable sexuality is, to him, both torment and joy.

Eibenschütz becomes a sort of synecdoche for the Dual Monarchy itself. Just as its statesmen attempted to balance the unruly nationalisms of the Emperor-King’s realms - a concession here, a clampdown there – so our inspector must balance his public duties, and private desires. That tree is healthiest whose branches are in equal proportions to its roots. In Austria-Hungary’s case, the branches grew at the roots’ expense, and so the tree fell down.

Always a pleasure to return to the world of Joseph Roth, the bard of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This novella is set in the years before World War One, on the Polish/Russian border, a world far removed from Vienna. The title refers to a government inspector, Eibenschutz, newly appointed after a lifetime of military service, whose upright stance terrorises the shady shopkeepers and publicans who short-change their customers.

Roth charts the inspector’s downfall in a near-straight line. First there’s a woman, then the drink, and finally there’s the confrontation with the antagonist. Roth very clearly sees the ex-military man as an embodiment of all that was inflexible, repressive and ultimately flawed about the Empire, unable to adapt and to find any kind of balance between rules, temptation and indulgence. There’s a great supporting cast including scheming conmen, an alluring woman and loyal sargeants. The Jewish culture of central Europe is always present in Roth, and here there’s a fantastic and comically poor but pious shopkeeper.

It’s a great introduction to Joseph Roth’s world, and a couple of hours will see this off like the glasses of schnapps that prove so instrumental in Eibenschutz’s downfall.

Weights and Measures is a deceptively simple tale about a man, Austro-Hungarian artillery officer Anselm Eibenschütz, happy with his life in the military nagged by his wife to leave the army and take up a civilian job. The reluctant Eibenschütz takes up a job as a Weights and Measures Inspector on the Russian border. The conscientious Inspector finds himself in a world of corruption and dishonesty,the latter extending to his marriage,as he moves amongst the cheats,crooks, deserters and black marketeers of the edgy border region.

In a satirical piece of commentary about the waning power of the Austro-Hungarian empire Eibenschütz adopts an "if you can't beat them ,join them" mentality as his life spirals downwards and a shrug of the shoulders replaces his initial zealous "zero tolerance" attitude to his work.

This is a very enjoyable little book in a writing style that is almost whimsical at times,with vivid descriptions of winters so cold that birds drop dead from rooftops and Eibenschütz's faithful horse appearing to be the only character that he can fully trust.

Another great book from Pushkin Press who are bringing classic books from all around the world to a new readership,this is another of their gems.