
Günter Grass: From Enfant Terrible to Grand Old Man - lermontov
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/gunter-grass-from-enfant-terrible-to-grand-old-man/
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Gruselbauer
As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work and
public persona. A life's work dripping with perpetual delusions of moral high
ground contrasted by the very late revelation of having been one of those he
so colorfully looked down upon. Apologetic rambling on behalf of the general
populace who didn't know anything about what was going on and couldn't have
done anything, either.

Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation and that's
not even mentioning his repulsive, monotonous style of writing.

If you're planning to read a modern German novel, avoid this guy at all cost.
Read Handke or Jelinek, Glavinic or Kracht, Gernhard or Böll. Or any of a
million others. Don't let anyone sell you the Tin Drum, please.

~~~
lispm
Jelinek may write an Austrian novel, but not a German. Handke is Austrian,
Glavinic is Austrian, Kracht is Swiss. I would also not list somebody like
Jelinek under German literature, but under German language literature. Jelinek
writes mostly about Austria and not Germany.

If you want to read modern German literature there are a lot of other authors:
Goetz, Tellkamp, Kehlmann, Müller, ...

Actually 'Die Blechtrommel' is great German literature. Highly recommended.

> Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation

Definitely not. Grass had his problems, but he a lot of good sides, too. It's
not black or white.

> As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work
> and public persona.

Really? How sad.

------
squozzer
I won't pretend to offer literary or historical criticism - all I can tell you
is that when The Tin Drum movie arrived stateside, it traumatized a lot of
people, myself included.

Movies generally do little justice to the books upon which they are based, and
probably in the case of The Tin Drum, that might have been a plus.

Nevertheless, when I have a chance to watch a German language movie - and to
be fair, it's stuff you find on Netflix - The Tin Drum sets the standard.

