RIP Gunther Grass

[Martinus]

RIP.

[The Brain]

RIP GraSS.

[Valmy]

RIP GraSS.

I have a hard enough time knowing literary figures who wrote in English

But RIP.

[grumbler]

RIP GraSS.

I have a hard enough time knowing literary figures who wrote in English

But RIP.

I didn't care much for his fiction, but Peeling the Onion is probably the best autobiography I've ever read.

[jimmy olsen]

RIP GraSS.

Truly a master war criminal

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-germany-grass-idUSKBN0N40S920150414

Not even 12 when war broke out, Grass was forced like other youngsters to join paramilitary organizations, and entered the Hitler Youth at 14.

Drafted into a Waffen-SS tank division in 1944, he experienced the full horrors of war when more than half his company of mostly 17-year-olds were ripped to pieces in three minutes of shelling.

But the fact that he did not reveal this part of his history until 2006 brought accusations that he had been hypocritical when attacking others for failing properly to face up to Germany's Nazi past.

When Germany surrendered in 1945, Grass was briefly an American prisoner.

[Brezel]

You are all just jealous of him getting to ride a jagdpanther.

[Martinus]

RIP GraSS.

I have a hard enough time knowing literary figures who wrote in English

But RIP.

Well, until two days ago he was regarded as the greatest living German writer. It's like not knowing who Marquez is.

[Valmy]

It's like not knowing who Marquez is.

It is...indeed...very much like that.

[Syt]

It took me several attempts to get into Tin Drum, but once it "clicked" and I got into the baroque language and surreal images it was a simply amazing book. It and Lenz' (much more straightforward) German Lesson are probably the two most important novels about the Third Reich and its aftermath from the perspective of (more or less) average German citizens.

[Admiral Yi]

It is...indeed...very much like that.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, wrote 100 Years of Solitude.  If you haven't read it, you should.