Volume 36, Number 1 · February 2, 1989
Rules of the Game
By Gabriele Annan
Utz
by Bruce Chatwin
Viking, 154 pp., $16.95
Utz is the hero of Utz. 'In Grimm's Etymological Word Book,' Bruce Chatwin explains on page 16 of his 150-page novella, ''utz' carries any number of negative connotations: 'drunk,' 'dimwit,' 'cardsharp,' 'dealer in dud horses.' 'Heinzen, Kunzen, Utzen oder Butzen,' in the dialect of Lower Swabia, is the equivalent of 'any Tom, Dick or Harry.'' The Standard German-English Langenscheidt gives 'uzen—tease, chaff, quiz, sl. kid.' In dialect German a t more or less in the spelling is neither here nor there, and the noun Uz can also mean a trick, a leg pull, a practical joke. So the reader has been warned.
Review, 1705 words
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