 In fact, Sophie Wilkins, in her "Afterword", compares it to Kafka's short story "Description of a Struggle".Written as one sentence, it is a monologue delivered by a court reporter who meets a variety of characters, among whom are a secondary school teacher – the only intellectual – an innkeeper, and various ladies who afford him favours or bully and humiliate him.His only true attachment is to his filthy dog.