In regard to the world situation, do you hope:
a. that reason will prevail?
b. that a miracle will occur?
c. that everything will go on as before?

This wonderful and very unusual little book takes the form of a series of ten questionnaires that the great Swiss writer Max Frisch devised as a way of interrogating his own opinions and biases. Originally published in 1972 as part of his extensive journals (Tagebuch 1966-1971), it works especially well as a standalone piece, prompting wild hypotheses and speculative trains of thought from the reader, who might use any page in here as a basis for self-reflection, meditation, casual analysis or creative writing.

Some lines of questioning are open and philosophical:

VII.25.
Are you friends with yourself?

…while others are quite specific:

VI.4.
If you meet a man in swimming trunks about whom you know nothing, how is it that after a few words (not about money) you know he is a rich man?

Some address political concerns:

IX.15.
Can you name a free country in which the rich are not in the minority, and can you explain why in such countries the majority always imagines itself to possess the power?

…and many reflect Frisch's specifically male preoccupations:

III.1.
Are you sorry for women?

2.
Why? (Why not?)

3.
When a woman's hands and eyes and lips betray excitement, desire, etc., because you touch them, do you take this personally?

4.
What do you feel about other men:
a. when you are the successor?
b. when you are the predecessor?
c. when you are both in love with the same woman at the same time?

Although the format should by rights be very limiting, I found that many of the questions in here struck me as extraordinarily insightful. I was astonished to read the following, on a very specific issue that I've spent a lot of time thinking about:

V.23.
If you live in a foreign country and find your own particular brand of humour never works, can you adjust to the need of keeping all your relationships on a serious level, or does this make you seem a stranger to yourself?

My god, I could write a thousand words on that one right now! For people who like mind-mapping exercises, Proustian questionnaires or similar imaginative prompts, this book offers a rather unusual example of the genre – but it also demands to be seen as a fascinating creative work in its own right. You can, if you wish, read the whole thing through in an hour or so; but most people will, I think, find at least a couple of pages in here that can be productively dwelt on for days on end. Without question, a stimulating little oddity. ( )