By Friedrich Duerrenmatt, Pushkin Vertigo, April 2, 2019, 1782273875

I think The Execution of Justice is my first Friedrich Duerrenmatt book. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I don’t read much noir fiction. I can’t decide if it was the ridiculousness or the seriousness I liked most.

[k315] A murder brings its ambience with it, its nearer and farther environs, the yearly average temperature, the mean frequency of earthquakes, and the human climate.

[k328] “Forests now are dappled, stubblefields turned gold, and autumn has begun.”

[k372] Our community has for the most part become a police state that interferes in everything, in our morals and in our traffic (both in a chaotic state). The police are a symbol not so much of protection as of bullying.

[k1822] It would take all we could muster to reconcile our knowledge of Kohler’s guilt with our belief in Kohler’s guilt. Our knowledge stumbled along behind our belief, a clever defense lawyer could manufacture an acquittal on that discrepancy alone.