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FROM THE DIARY OF A SNAIL
The German novelist's experiences campaigning for Willy Brandt provide a portrait of Grass the family man, writer, and concerned citizen, and a meditation on his nation's history and civilization's progress. Translated by Ralph Manheim. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
310 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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373 people want to read
About the author
Günter Grass
313 books1,852 followersNovels, notably
The Tin Drum
(1959) and
Dog Years
(1963), of German writer Günter Wilhelm Grass, who won the Nobel Prize of 1999 for literature, concern the political and social climate of Germany during and after World War II.
This novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor since 1945 lived in West Germany but in his fiction frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. He always identified as a Kashubian.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. He named this style “broadened reality.” “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his “Danzig trilogy.”
Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore Günter Grass to Willy Grass (1899 - 1979), a Protestant ethnic German. Parents reared Grass as a Catholic. The family lived in an apartment, attached to its grocery store in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.
In 1946 and 1947, he worked in a mine and received an education of a stonemason. For many years, he studied sculpture and graphics, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and traveled frequently. He married in 1954 and from 1960 lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts).
During the German unification process in 1989 he argued for separation of the two states, because he thought a unified Germany would resume its past aggression. He moved to the northern German city of Lübeck in 1995. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. In 2006, Grass caused controversy with his disclosure of his Waffen-Schutzstaffel service during the final months of World War II, which he had kept a secret until publishing his memoir that year. He died of complications of lung infection on 13th of April, 2015 at a Lübeck hospital. He was 87.
This novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor since 1945 lived in West Germany but in his fiction frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. He always identified as a Kashubian.
He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. He named this style “broadened reality.” “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his “Danzig trilogy.”
Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore Günter Grass to Willy Grass (1899 - 1979), a Protestant ethnic German. Parents reared Grass as a Catholic. The family lived in an apartment, attached to its grocery store in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, born in 1930.
Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.
In 1946 and 1947, he worked in a mine and received an education of a stonemason. For many years, he studied sculpture and graphics, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and traveled frequently. He married in 1954 and from 1960 lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts).
During the German unification process in 1989 he argued for separation of the two states, because he thought a unified Germany would resume its past aggression. He moved to the northern German city of Lübeck in 1995. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. In 2006, Grass caused controversy with his disclosure of his Waffen-Schutzstaffel service during the final months of World War II, which he had kept a secret until publishing his memoir that year. He died of complications of lung infection on 13th of April, 2015 at a Lübeck hospital. He was 87.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 24, 2023
Fun Fact 1: I bought a copy of this at Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1998. That felt cool.
Fun Fact 2: the Serbian words for husband and snail rhyme, thus the pair are linked with the expectation that the groom has a ready house for his beloved.
There isn't a clear reason why I haven't read this before now. The late in life revelation about Grass being in the SS as a teen at war's end may have tempered my enthusiasm, perhaps I was wary of pratfalls should I encounter a blatant lie. There weren't any, blatant ones anyway. Instead this hybrid text bridges the work Grass did campaigning for Wily Brandt and the Social Democrats with an account of the dark fate which greeted the Jews of Danzig/Gdańsk. It is expressed in the form of messages to his children, a theme which will be repeated later in the volumes of autobiography he completed. The arcing truth is that a snail's pace, one larded with doubt and curiosity is the sane way forward.
Fun Fact 2: the Serbian words for husband and snail rhyme, thus the pair are linked with the expectation that the groom has a ready house for his beloved.
There isn't a clear reason why I haven't read this before now. The late in life revelation about Grass being in the SS as a teen at war's end may have tempered my enthusiasm, perhaps I was wary of pratfalls should I encounter a blatant lie. There weren't any, blatant ones anyway. Instead this hybrid text bridges the work Grass did campaigning for Wily Brandt and the Social Democrats with an account of the dark fate which greeted the Jews of Danzig/Gdańsk. It is expressed in the form of messages to his children, a theme which will be repeated later in the volumes of autobiography he completed. The arcing truth is that a snail's pace, one larded with doubt and curiosity is the sane way forward.
December 1, 2025
It’s a longterm project of mine to read all of Günter Grass’ novels, and I am deliberately choosing to take it slowly, as ”completion” leaves such a black hole inside. My Dickenses remind me of that all the time.
Each Grass novel contains the world in one way or the other: it’s politics and history and erudition and eloquence, it’s family dynamics and food and strange relationships and odd moments and details. It’s serious and funny.
Reading about German politics in the 1960s should be history, but it’s also where we are, and where we are headed. Do human beings ever get better? Grass seems to answer no while he puts all the effort in to snail his way forwards, despite all odds - and all knowledge.
Each Grass novel contains the world in one way or the other: it’s politics and history and erudition and eloquence, it’s family dynamics and food and strange relationships and odd moments and details. It’s serious and funny.
Reading about German politics in the 1960s should be history, but it’s also where we are, and where we are headed. Do human beings ever get better? Grass seems to answer no while he puts all the effort in to snail his way forwards, despite all odds - and all knowledge.
November 5, 2018
Grass' "Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke" ist so etwas wie ein Etikettenschwindel: Folgt man dem Klappentext und den meisten Beschreibungen hier, so gewinnt man den Eindruck, es ginge um Grass' Wahlkampfkampagne zu Gunsten von Willy Brandt in den Jahren 1968/69. Tatsächlich ist der Wahlkampf nur das Hintergrundrauschen, der zeitliche Kontext, vor dem die eigentliche Handlung spielt. Das Buch gliedert sich in kurze Passagen, teils auch Aphorismen und Gedichte, zwischen denen zwanglos von Thema zu Thema gesprungen wird. Grass behauptet, die Form sei Lichtenbergs Sudelbüchern nachempfunden, was so nicht stimmt.
Die erste Ebene ist der Dialog zwischen Grass und seinen Kindern, die ihn nach seinen Erlebnissen auf den Wahlkampfreisen fragen. Hier berichtet er wenig über Wahlkampf und viel über Skatspielen in der deutschen Provinz und die Liebesabenteuer seiner studentischen Mitstreiter, wenig über den eigentlichen Wahlkampf und - erstaunlicherweise nichts über Brandt.
Die zweite Ebene, die den Schwerpunkt des Buches bildet ist die Frage seiner Kinder, was er gegen Kiesinger hat. Er berichtet hier die Geschichte der Danziger Juden von Anfang der 1930er Jahre, bis 1939 am Beispiel eines nichtjüdischen Lehrers (Ott genannt "Zweifel"), der zunächst da er sich nicht mit den Nazis gemein machen wollte zur jüdischen Schule wechselte und mit Kriegsbeginn in der Kaschubei untertauchte, den Krieg über versteckt wurde und nach dem Krieg mit der ihn versteckenden Frau nach Deutschland zog. Grass behauptet, dies sei eine Adaption der Lebensgeschichte von Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Daraus konnte ich mir keinen Reim machen, da dessen Lebens doch so ganz anders verlaufen ist.
Die dritte Ebene handelt von Augst, einem desillusionierten Altnazi, der sich nach einer Wortmeldung bei einer Posiumsdiskussion auf dem Kirchentag, bei der Grass auf dem Posium saß, in aller Öffentlichkeit selbst umbrachte und dem Nachspüren der Mative bei Augsts Familie.
Die vierte Ebene betrifft die gedankliche Auseinandersetzung mit Dürers Melancholia I anlässlich einer von Grass zu haltenden Rede im Dürerjahr. Diese ist mit den vorgenannten Ebenen verwoben. So trägt Zweifel eine Postkart der Melancholia mit in seinen Keller, Grass erläutert sie seinen Kindern und fragt sich am Beispielsfall Augst, wie weit die Schwermut trägt.
Was hat das ganze mit Schnecken zu tun? Nun Ott/Zweifel ist Schneckenexperte und der Wahlkämpfende Grass verweis gegenüber APO Studentend darauf, dass der Kampf um eine gerechte Welt - mit Bebel - der langsame aber kontinuierliche Gang der Schnecke, nicht der sprunghafte der Revolution sei.
Trotz des Etickettenschwindels - ich bekam durch den Wahlkampf Lust das Buch zu lesen - ein Buch voll interessanter Gedanken, das aber - wie so oft bei Grass - an der Form krankt.
Die erste Ebene ist der Dialog zwischen Grass und seinen Kindern, die ihn nach seinen Erlebnissen auf den Wahlkampfreisen fragen. Hier berichtet er wenig über Wahlkampf und viel über Skatspielen in der deutschen Provinz und die Liebesabenteuer seiner studentischen Mitstreiter, wenig über den eigentlichen Wahlkampf und - erstaunlicherweise nichts über Brandt.
Die zweite Ebene, die den Schwerpunkt des Buches bildet ist die Frage seiner Kinder, was er gegen Kiesinger hat. Er berichtet hier die Geschichte der Danziger Juden von Anfang der 1930er Jahre, bis 1939 am Beispiel eines nichtjüdischen Lehrers (Ott genannt "Zweifel"), der zunächst da er sich nicht mit den Nazis gemein machen wollte zur jüdischen Schule wechselte und mit Kriegsbeginn in der Kaschubei untertauchte, den Krieg über versteckt wurde und nach dem Krieg mit der ihn versteckenden Frau nach Deutschland zog. Grass behauptet, dies sei eine Adaption der Lebensgeschichte von Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Daraus konnte ich mir keinen Reim machen, da dessen Lebens doch so ganz anders verlaufen ist.
Die dritte Ebene handelt von Augst, einem desillusionierten Altnazi, der sich nach einer Wortmeldung bei einer Posiumsdiskussion auf dem Kirchentag, bei der Grass auf dem Posium saß, in aller Öffentlichkeit selbst umbrachte und dem Nachspüren der Mative bei Augsts Familie.
Die vierte Ebene betrifft die gedankliche Auseinandersetzung mit Dürers Melancholia I anlässlich einer von Grass zu haltenden Rede im Dürerjahr. Diese ist mit den vorgenannten Ebenen verwoben. So trägt Zweifel eine Postkart der Melancholia mit in seinen Keller, Grass erläutert sie seinen Kindern und fragt sich am Beispielsfall Augst, wie weit die Schwermut trägt.
Was hat das ganze mit Schnecken zu tun? Nun Ott/Zweifel ist Schneckenexperte und der Wahlkämpfende Grass verweis gegenüber APO Studentend darauf, dass der Kampf um eine gerechte Welt - mit Bebel - der langsame aber kontinuierliche Gang der Schnecke, nicht der sprunghafte der Revolution sei.
Trotz des Etickettenschwindels - ich bekam durch den Wahlkampf Lust das Buch zu lesen - ein Buch voll interessanter Gedanken, das aber - wie so oft bei Grass - an der Form krankt.
December 12, 2015
This publisher Vintage UK's blurb about this book:
'Probably the most autobiographical of his novels, From The Diary Of A Snail was first published in 1972. It balances the agonising history of the persecuted Danzig Jews with an account of Grass's political campaigning with Willy Brandt. Underlying all is the snail, the central symbol that is both a model and a parody of social progress and a mysterious metaphor of social reform.'
I should add that the actual novel is 285 pages long, followed by a 25-page essay titled On Stasis in Progress, of which I read only 2 pages before deciding I really didn't want to read the other 23.
The parts of the book that deal with his campaigning with Willy Brandt are okay, but the main draw is the history of the persecuted Danzig Jews. Unfortunately, the campaigning and the history parts of the book are integrated in a sort of stream of consciousness narrative, peppered with dialogue with his four (then young) children.
It's an interestingly structured book, novel in its approach (see what I did there?), but it won't appeal to everybody. Fans of Günter Grass or German history buffs are sure to get some satisfaction, however.
'Probably the most autobiographical of his novels, From The Diary Of A Snail was first published in 1972. It balances the agonising history of the persecuted Danzig Jews with an account of Grass's political campaigning with Willy Brandt. Underlying all is the snail, the central symbol that is both a model and a parody of social progress and a mysterious metaphor of social reform.'
I should add that the actual novel is 285 pages long, followed by a 25-page essay titled On Stasis in Progress, of which I read only 2 pages before deciding I really didn't want to read the other 23.
The parts of the book that deal with his campaigning with Willy Brandt are okay, but the main draw is the history of the persecuted Danzig Jews. Unfortunately, the campaigning and the history parts of the book are integrated in a sort of stream of consciousness narrative, peppered with dialogue with his four (then young) children.
It's an interestingly structured book, novel in its approach (see what I did there?), but it won't appeal to everybody. Fans of Günter Grass or German history buffs are sure to get some satisfaction, however.
September 11, 2010
This is a phenomenal book that's progressive and idealistic, within reason and at the pace of a snail. The writing is also really incredible. Totally different but as beautiful as Umberto Eco.
August 9, 2020
Something strangely lovely about this work. The virtues of doubt, hesitance, of a snail's progress as it traverses a precipice carefully avoiding the pull of utopia and melancholy are presented through interwoven tales, those of Doubt and Social Democrats, whilst holding on to and seeking consolation in Dürer's Melencolia . I first picked this volume in 99 and understood little. I made out more on a recent reading and found myself in agreement with the Snail.
November 28, 2019
Un libro muy interesante pero áspero y difícil de leer, en parte es un diario de la participación del autor en una campaña electoral en 1969, dejada como testimonio para sus hijos pequeños y de poco interés par el público general, a menos que conoscas o te interese la política alemana de la posguerra. Por otra parte es la historia ficticia de un profesor judío, de apellido Ott, y sus desventuras en la Alemania nazi, desde mediados de 1930, hasta pasada la guerra, está parte me resultó más interesante pero como el título anticipa, el paso de la historia va al ritmo de un caracol.
Fuera de lo increíblemente lenta que es está historia nos muestra una pincelada muy leve de la Alemania antes y después de la guerra, de como lentamente el nazismo secuestro a la sociedad y como lentamente fue deshaciéndose de él. Todo es sutil y pausado, pero lo que lo hace muy difícil es que todo está revuelto, el pasado (enmarcado en la parte ficticia del libro) con el presente (enmarcada con la parte del diario) y las reflexiones y monólogos del autor. Al final de la novela hay un ensayo que yo considero necesario de leer pues de alguna manera explica y funciona como pegamento de ambas partes del libro. Se parece mucho a "Engendros de la mente" del mismo autor y de alguna manera la forma indirecta y sutil en qué presenta la postura filosófica del libro me gustó hasta el momento en que entendí que estaba pasando, que fue al final, mientras tanto fue un poco tediosa la novela, pero creo que si lo valió.
Sin duda un libro extraño, y no lo recomendaría a menos que seas un lector paciente y dedicado, la reflexión de que el progreso avanza como un caracol sigue siendo válida, pero la parte de la melancolía la verdad me tomo por sorpresa y concuerdo con el autor. El progreso no solo es lento, si no melancólico, y melancólico no en el sentido clínico si no en un sentido de sopor, tedio, incertidumbre e inseguridad, como si deambulara en cosas inútiles y banales por qué evita confrontar lo importante. Creo que si no fuera tan caracolesco el libro lo hubiera disfrutado más, o tal vez si lo hubiera entendido antes de terminarlo, pero al igual que el progreso, uno no es capaz de verlo hasta que le pasó encima.
Fuera de lo increíblemente lenta que es está historia nos muestra una pincelada muy leve de la Alemania antes y después de la guerra, de como lentamente el nazismo secuestro a la sociedad y como lentamente fue deshaciéndose de él. Todo es sutil y pausado, pero lo que lo hace muy difícil es que todo está revuelto, el pasado (enmarcado en la parte ficticia del libro) con el presente (enmarcada con la parte del diario) y las reflexiones y monólogos del autor. Al final de la novela hay un ensayo que yo considero necesario de leer pues de alguna manera explica y funciona como pegamento de ambas partes del libro. Se parece mucho a "Engendros de la mente" del mismo autor y de alguna manera la forma indirecta y sutil en qué presenta la postura filosófica del libro me gustó hasta el momento en que entendí que estaba pasando, que fue al final, mientras tanto fue un poco tediosa la novela, pero creo que si lo valió.
Sin duda un libro extraño, y no lo recomendaría a menos que seas un lector paciente y dedicado, la reflexión de que el progreso avanza como un caracol sigue siendo válida, pero la parte de la melancolía la verdad me tomo por sorpresa y concuerdo con el autor. El progreso no solo es lento, si no melancólico, y melancólico no en el sentido clínico si no en un sentido de sopor, tedio, incertidumbre e inseguridad, como si deambulara en cosas inútiles y banales por qué evita confrontar lo importante. Creo que si no fuera tan caracolesco el libro lo hubiera disfrutado más, o tal vez si lo hubiera entendido antes de terminarlo, pero al igual que el progreso, uno no es capaz de verlo hasta que le pasó encima.
September 21, 2009
Published in 1972, it is written in alternating stories--that of Grass who is out campaigning during the West German elections and that of Ott, who is enduring the lot of the Danzig Jew during World War II. (Herr Ott is a snail enthusiast of no small repute.)
Not necessarily a straight forward book or reliable narrator. Reading it was almost like watching a television set through sheer curtains in an adjoining apartment--and someone slightly crazed has the remote control.
10.5 Octoberfest
Not necessarily a straight forward book or reliable narrator. Reading it was almost like watching a television set through sheer curtains in an adjoining apartment--and someone slightly crazed has the remote control.
10.5 Octoberfest
January 3, 2021
A Jew who studies snails hides in the basement of a bicycle repair man during during WW II. A man (Grass) goes on a speaking tour of small town West Germany campaigning for Willy Brandt in 1969.
On page 151 Grass mentions a shopkeeper who was forced to leave Danzig in 1940 with the last Jews of the city.
Bertold Wartski and some of his family survived the war and settled near Blue Hill Avenue in Jewish Dorchester. (See Puddingstone or Thou Worm Jacob by Mark Jay Mirsky.)
My family were life long friends with the Wartski family.
I don't know what to think.
On page 151 Grass mentions a shopkeeper who was forced to leave Danzig in 1940 with the last Jews of the city.
Bertold Wartski and some of his family survived the war and settled near Blue Hill Avenue in Jewish Dorchester. (See Puddingstone or Thou Worm Jacob by Mark Jay Mirsky.)
My family were life long friends with the Wartski family.
I don't know what to think.
September 11, 2017
Grass verstand sein Handwerk, nämlich das der Wörter und Worte. Als großer Literat konnte er somit selbst einen 300 Seiten langen Bericht, der sich um einen echten Wahlkampf, eine wahre Geschichte, eine reale Tragödie, sowie zahlreiche fiktive Details inklusive der Biographie einer frei erfundenen Person so gestalten, dass man diesen in wenigen Tagen ohne Langeweile durchlesen kann. Allerdings auch ohne wahren Spannungsbogen, ohne große Lebensweisheiten, ohne den intellektuellen oder emotionalen Input, den viele andere Bücher in sich tragen, hier einfach der Form des Buches geschuldet. Daher die 3 Sterne.
November 25, 2019
There is a sense that all of Grass's novels are vaguely autobiographical, this one more so than most. The background is the 1969 election campaign in which Grass supported Willy Brandt and the SPD by taking part and lending his name to the campaign. This is set against the fate of The Danzig Jews, World War II and the semi mythical Ott/Doubt. Interwoven in all this is the concept of melancholia. A truly absorbing read, I cannot recommend this novel too much.
January 2, 2024
I love this gorgeous little autobiographical journal. I can't, and don't try, to understand all the references to the references, it's deeply embedded in a social, historical context in post war Germany. It is still beautiful enough to enjoy the poetry of his writing, the lessons it has to share, and have an insight into a very personal part of social democracy at this time.
December 20, 2017
for all GG fans - essential.
Read
November 2, 2024incapable de finir de lire ce livre
June 5, 2024
3.5/5
Maemía que locura. Si quieres aprender sobre Willy Brandt este no es tu libro...
Maemía que locura. Si quieres aprender sobre Willy Brandt este no es tu libro...
June 10, 2015
Era ducho en imaginaciones. Los muchos detalles indeterminados.
He sido pasablemente educado. No soy fiel pero sí adicto.
En efecto la inmovilidad y el progreso son idénticos. "El género humano", escribió Zweifel en su Diario, "se hacía más y más híbrido porque en efecto..." Su idea favorita. La autosuficiencia. La identidad de los sexos. El fin de toda la Historia. El estado permanente. La glándula híbrida. La felicidad.
Zweifel se remite a aquel grabado de cobre y se divierte con su Melancolía.
Puesto que, para los melancólicos, el mundo se ha reducido a algo que sólo puede soportarse ordenando (en cuanto conjunto) el coleccionar es la expresión activa de la melancolía.
Cuando tenía dieciséis años amé a distancia a una chica inacabada e interpretable a discreción; desde entonces puedo desearla e imaginármela, hasta que llama a la puerta, entra, está ahí y empieza a disputar.
Cuando tenía diecisiete años conocí bajo mi casco de acero -sólo me sostenía la correa- el miedo; luego (para equilibrar la balanza) el hambre, y poco más tarde la libertad: ese intrincado recinto de fieras salvajes.
A partir de los dieciocho he intentado mensurar ese recinto, con lo que se me hizo patente cuán fragmentado está y qué raro es que la sensatez resida en el entendimiento; cuanto mayor es la inteligencia, tanto más nefastas pueden ser sus aplicaciones.
He sido pasablemente educado. No soy fiel pero sí adicto.
En efecto la inmovilidad y el progreso son idénticos. "El género humano", escribió Zweifel en su Diario, "se hacía más y más híbrido porque en efecto..." Su idea favorita. La autosuficiencia. La identidad de los sexos. El fin de toda la Historia. El estado permanente. La glándula híbrida. La felicidad.
Zweifel se remite a aquel grabado de cobre y se divierte con su Melancolía.
Puesto que, para los melancólicos, el mundo se ha reducido a algo que sólo puede soportarse ordenando (en cuanto conjunto) el coleccionar es la expresión activa de la melancolía.
Cuando tenía dieciséis años amé a distancia a una chica inacabada e interpretable a discreción; desde entonces puedo desearla e imaginármela, hasta que llama a la puerta, entra, está ahí y empieza a disputar.
Cuando tenía diecisiete años conocí bajo mi casco de acero -sólo me sostenía la correa- el miedo; luego (para equilibrar la balanza) el hambre, y poco más tarde la libertad: ese intrincado recinto de fieras salvajes.
A partir de los dieciocho he intentado mensurar ese recinto, con lo que se me hizo patente cuán fragmentado está y qué raro es que la sensatez resida en el entendimiento; cuanto mayor es la inteligencia, tanto más nefastas pueden ser sus aplicaciones.
October 16, 2022
This complex book interweaves the tragic fate of the Jews of Danzig (Gdansk) 1933-1945, the story of the fictitious character and friend of the Danzig Jews, Hermann Ott, called Doubt, and the author's participation as a campaigner in the 1969 West German elections. The elections brought the social democrats and the liberals to power together under the leadership of Willy Brandt for the first time, but the author's account of the successful campaign fails to interest 43 years later. The author is more successful in showing the discontinuities between prewar and post-war Germany that resulted in so many broken lives even among the non-Nazi survivors. The author himself being an exception, but when this book was first published in 1972, Grass had yet to tell the full truth of his own participation in the Second World War.
The review is based on the 1973 Norwegian translation.
The review is based on the 1973 Norwegian translation.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews