The Folly of Totalitarian Regimes

By virtue of being about Utz, this story is also about the totalitarian regimes under which he lives his adult life. Utz does not take the political realities of his world lightly, and yet almost each time a regime is mentioned - it hardly matters which regime - it is scorned and mocked. The folly of totalitarianism is a theme of this story, as are the inescapable ironies of survival. This tone is struck at the very beginning of the story, which opens on Utz's funeral. The state has decreed that Christian rituals be completed before 8:30 a.m. The cleaning woman, scrubbing the center aisle on her hands and knees, refuses to move for the procession carrying the coffin, which must then detour around her by cutting over one row and then back over another. The pallbearers are moonlighting from a night job at...