Roth excelled at the feuilleton — a short-form, first-person report riffing on whatever struck the writer’s fancy. Roth’s subject could be as small as an umbrella, and as wide as the world. Characterizing the work of Alfred Polgar, another virtuoso of the short form, Roth said: “Polgar writes little stories without plots and observations without summaries. He needs no real ‘contents,’ since each of his superbly crafted words is full of content.
Source: ‘The Hotel Years,’ by Joseph Roth – The New York Times