SOURCE: Brombert, Victor. “Max Frisch: The Courage of Failure.” Raritan 13, no. 2 (fall 1993): 9-32.

In the following essay, Brombert surveys the central themes of Frisch's work, focusing on the author's concern with weakness and failure.

Max Frisch's second diary or sketchbook, Tagebuch, 1966-1971, concludes with the image of a stubby column standing incongruously all by itself in the loggia of his Swiss country house, where he sips his coffee in the evening. Its origin is unknown, its presence inexplicable. It is an unpretentious column, made not of marble but harsh granite, with nothing festive or noble about it. It is so short that one can touch its capital, and quite ugly—potbellied and slightly misshapen. This comical column, Frisch reports, is both touching and familiar; one does not hesitate to empty one's pipe against it. Yet its plebeian presence is not only reassuring but vaguely meaningful, even poetic. It...