Overview

Gunter Grass (1927-2015) was Germany's foremost writer for more than half a century, and his books were and remain bestsellers across the world. The Tin Drum was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1979 and the memoir Peeling the Onion in 2006 astounded readers by revealing that Grass had been drafted into the most criminal component of the Nazi war machine, the Waffen SS, in the closing months of the Second World War. He wrote memorably about the student movement, feminism, and German reunification, and was a key influence on magic realist authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, as well as the popular novelist John Irving.  Gunter Grass is the first biographical study in English of this Nobel Prize-winning writer. Julian Preece introduces Grass's key works and chronicles his interaction with major figures from literary and public life, and places his fiction and public campaigning in the context of Cold War European politics and post-unification Germany.

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9781780239019

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Reviews

""This highly readable little book is a must for any student or lay reader who wishes to gain an overview of Günter Grass's life and work, but it also contains gems for those more familiar with his texts and times. . . . Particularly impressive across all eight chapters is Preece's ability to keep the whole, complex oeuvre in view, as he moves lightly from one text to another without losing the overall thread of his argument in each chapter. . . . This book will be on my prescribed reading list for years to come. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking to gain a clear sense of why they should read Günter Grass.""-- ""Journal of European Studies"" ""An ambitious, brief study which charts the life together with reference to the work. We learn of Grass's early training as a stonemason and sculptor, and how his adored mother Helene, a Catholic Cassubian, encouraged his reading. His father was Lutheran, and that mixed heritage, Preece contends, influenced the range of Grass's fictional characters. Preece makes several references to his subject's defining love of food and sex. But it is the wealth of political material, much of it involving Grass's relationship with the former German chancellor Willy Brandt, Grass's political ambitions and hunger for publicity, which dominate the narrative. Politics soon emerges as the major theme; that and Grass's divided personality as a polemical artist with political aspirations. . . . The general reader will find this quasi-conversational analysis a useful introduction to one of world literature's most exciting writers.""-- ""Times Literary Supplement"" ""Preece is able to survey Grass's career in its entirety, introducing a meld of biography and compelling literary analysis to an English-language audience. . . . Preece's highly readable study allows lay readers and scholars alike to learn more about Grass's position in a German and international context. . . . Günter Grass is an engaging biography about the internationally best-known German author, which offers new archival findings and uncovers central links between the Nobel laureate and the literary world.""-- ""Gegenwartsliteratur ein germanistisches Jahrbuch"" ""Reaktion's Critical Lives series makes available for English readers high-quality biography and critical analysis of major figures from Antonin Artaud to Frank Lloyd Wright. The Günter Grass contribution is intelligent, readable, and comprehensive--the resource nonspecialists will go to. One can escape without knowing any German--witness that in the text, the titles of Grass's works are given only in English. (The excellent bibliography, however, does have many German sources for the benefit of readers who wish to go deeper.) What is particularly useful in the Reaktion format is the quality of historical background and context. Preece places Grass in the post-World War II environment of what the Germans call Vergangenheitsbewältigung: i.e., dealing with the Nazi past. Grass was both a literary and a political figure in Cold War Germany. His friendships with German Chancellors Willy Brandt and Gerhard Schroeder were an important part of his world. The discussion of The Tin Drum in both novel and cinematic forms is particularly helpful. Preece places The Tin Drum alongside Goethe's Werther and Mann's Buddenbrooks as the greatest first novels in the German language. Recommended.""-- ""Choice""

An ambitious, brief study which charts the life together with reference to the work. We learn of Grass's early training as a stonemason and sculptor, and how his adored mother Helene, a Catholic Cassubian, encouraged his reading. His father was Lutheran, and that mixed heritage, Preece contends, influenced the range of Grass's fictional characters. Preece makes several references to his subject's defining love of food and sex. But it is the wealth of political material, much of it involving Grass's relationship with the former German chancellor Willy Brandt, Grass's political ambitions and hunger for publicity, which dominate the narrative. Politics soon emerges as the major theme; that and Grass's divided personality as a polemical artist with political aspirations. . . . The general reader will find this quasi-conversational analysis a useful introduction to one of world literature's most exciting writers. --Times Literary Supplement

An ambitious, brief study which charts the life together with reference to the work. We learn of Grass's early training as a stonemason and sculptor, and how his adored mother Helene, a Catholic Cassubian, encouraged his reading. His father was Lutheran, and that mixed heritage, Preece contends, influenced the range of Grass's fictional characters. Preece makes several references to his subject's defining love of food and sex. But it is the wealth of political material, much of it involving Grass's relationship with the former German chancellor Willy Brandt, Grass's political ambitions and hunger for publicity, which dominate the narrative. Politics soon emerges as the major theme; that and Grass's divided personality as a polemical artist with political aspirations. . . . The general reader will find this quasi-conversational analysis a useful introduction to one of world literature's most exciting writers. --Times Literary Supplement This highly readable little book is a must for any student or lay reader who wishes to gain an overview of G nter Grass's life and work, but it also contains gems for those more familiar with his texts and times. . . . Particularly impressive across all eight chapters is Preece's ability to keep the whole, complex oeuvre in view, as he moves lightly from one text to another without losing the overall thread of his argument in each chapter. . . . This book will be on my prescribed reading list for years to come. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking to gain a clear sense of why they should read G nter Grass. --Journal of European Studies Reaktion's Critical Lives series makes available for English readers high-quality biography and critical analysis of major figures from Antonin Artaud to Frank Lloyd Wright. The G nter Grass contribution is intelligent, readable, and comprehensive--the resource nonspecialists will go to. One can escape without knowing any German--witness that in the text, the titles of Grass's works are given only in English. (The excellent bibliography, however, does have many German sources for the benefit of readers who wish to go deeper.) What is particularly useful in the Reaktion format is the quality of historical background and context. Preece places Grass in the post-World War II environment of what the Germans call Vergangenheitsbew ltigung: i.e., dealing with the Nazi past. Grass was both a literary and a political figure in Cold War Germany. His friendships with German Chancellors Willy Brandt and Gerhard Schroeder were an important part of his world. The discussion of The Tin Drum in both novel and cinematic forms is particularly helpful. Preece places The Tin Drum alongside Goethe's Werther and Mann's Buddenbrooks as the greatest first novels in the German language. Recommended. --Choice

An ambitious, brief study which charts the life together with reference to the work. We learn of Grass's early training as a stonemason and sculptor, and how his adored mother Helene, a Catholic Cassubian, encouraged his reading. His father was Lutheran, and that mixed heritage, Preece contends, influenced the range of Grass's fictional characters. Preece makes several references to his subject's defining love of food and sex. But it is the wealth of political material, much of it involving Grass's relationship with the former German chancellor Willy Brandt, Grass's political ambitions and hunger for publicity, which dominate the narrative. Politics soon emerges as the major theme; that and Grass's divided personality as a polemical artist with political aspirations. . . . The general reader will find this quasi-conversational analysis a useful introduction to one of world literature's most exciting writers. -- Times Literary Supplement This highly readable little book is a must for any student or lay reader who wishes to gain an overview of Gunter Grass's life and work, but it also contains gems for those more familiar with his texts and times. . . . Particularly impressive across all eight chapters is Preece's ability to keep the whole, complex oeuvre in view, as he moves lightly from one text to another without losing the overall thread of his argument in each chapter. . . . This book will be on my prescribed reading list for years to come. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking to gain a clear sense of why they should read Gunter Grass. -- Journal of European Studies Reaktion's Critical Lives series makes available for English readers high-quality biography and critical analysis of major figures from Antonin Artaud to Frank Lloyd Wright. The Gunter Grass contribution is intelligent, readable, and comprehensive--the resource nonspecialists will go to. One can escape without knowing any German--witness that in the text, the titles of Grass's works are given only in English. (The excellent bibliography, however, does have many German sources for the benefit of readers who wish to go deeper.) What is particularly useful in the Reaktion format is the quality of historical background and context. Preece places Grass in the post-World War II environment of what the Germans call Vergangenheitsbewaltigung: i.e., dealing with the Nazi past. Grass was both a literary and a political figure in Cold War Germany. His friendships with German Chancellors Willy Brandt and Gerhard Schroeder were an important part of his world. The discussion of The Tin Drum in both novel and cinematic forms is particularly helpful. Preece places The Tin Drum alongside Goethe's Werther and Mann's Buddenbrooks as the greatest first novels in the German language. Recommended. -- Choice

Author Information

Julian Preece is Professor of German Studies at Swansea University. His other books include The Life and Work of Günter Grass: Literature, History, Politics (2nd edn 2004) and Baader-Meinhof and the Novel: Narratives of the Nation, Fantasies of the Revolution (2012).

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