Günter Grass, the author, social critic and Nobel Laureate who "became one of Germany’s foremost intellectuals and gadflies," died earlier today, the Washington Post reported, adding the "themes that consumed his literature--guilt, atonement and hypocrisy--were also central to his political commentary." He was 87. Grass's many books included The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Crabwalk, The Flounder and his controversial autobiography, Peeling the Onion.In awarding him the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy praised Grass for embracing "the enormous task of reviewing contemporary history by recalling the disavowed and the forgotten: the victims, losers and lies that people wanted to forget because they had once believed in them." The Academy also called his landmark 1959 novel The Tin Drum "one of the enduring literary works of the 20th century."
The Guardian noted that Grass "was surprised by the strength of the reaction" to his 2006 autobiography, Peeling the Onion, in which he recounted being conscripted into the army in 1944 at the age of 16 and serving as a tank gunner in the Waffen SS.
Translator Anthea Bell praised Grass as "a literary figure of the most enormous stature in postwar German letters, and throughout the world."
On Twitter this morning, Salman Rushdie wrote: "This is very sad. A true giant, inspiration, and friend. Drum for him, little Oskar."
And a fulsome tribute at The Telegraph
And at The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment