The cassowary
By: Matthias Mander ; translated and with an afterword by Michael Mitchell.
Series: Studies in Austrian literature, culture, and thought.
Publisher: Ariadne Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Riverside, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
Description: The book - one of the few "big" novels being produced today - is a mosaic of observations and reflections, discussions and arguments, incidents and episodes, brief sketches and portraits which coalesce into a picture of a large industrial combine. The Austrian firm of Minerals, Metals & Chemicals is involved in international trade and exhibits the features common to the gigantic industrial and commercial firms that dominate the Western world today.

Whether it be the struggle for national contracts, board-room infighting, the closing-down of factories and the commercial, political and human considerations involved, the economics of renting a large new mainframe computer, or the costs involved in maintaining the information network necessary for business deals in the United States, the episodes around which the main character's reflections crystallize are the everyday stuff of the world of industry.