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Autobiografical Trilogy #1
丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 倬賵爻鬲 倬蹖丕夭
In this extraordinary memoir, Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass remembers his early life, from his boyhood in a cramped two-room apartment in Danzig through the late 1950s, when The Tin Drum was published.
During the Second World War, Grass volunteered for the submarine corps at the age of fifteen but was rejected; two years later, in 1944, he was instead drafted into the Waffen-SS. Taken prisoner by American forces as he was recovering from shrapnel wounds, he spent the final weeks of the war in an American POW camp. After the war, Grass resolved to become an artist and moved with his first wife to Paris, where he began to write the novel that would make him famous.
Full of the bravado of youth, the rubble of postwar Germany, the thrill of wild love affairs, and the exhilaration of Paris in the early fifties, Peeling the Onion -- which caused great controversy when it was published in Germany -- reveals Grass at his most intimate.
During the Second World War, Grass volunteered for the submarine corps at the age of fifteen but was rejected; two years later, in 1944, he was instead drafted into the Waffen-SS. Taken prisoner by American forces as he was recovering from shrapnel wounds, he spent the final weeks of the war in an American POW camp. After the war, Grass resolved to become an artist and moved with his first wife to Paris, where he began to write the novel that would make him famous.
Full of the bravado of youth, the rubble of postwar Germany, the thrill of wild love affairs, and the exhilaration of Paris in the early fifties, Peeling the Onion -- which caused great controversy when it was published in Germany -- reveals Grass at his most intimate.
504 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
155 people are currently reading
3,170 people want to read
About the author
G眉nter Grass
356听books1,760听followersNovels, notably
The Tin Drum
(1959) and
Dog Years
(1963), of German writer G眉nter 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 鈥渂roadened reality.鈥� 鈥淐at and Mouse鈥� (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his 鈥淒anzig trilogy.鈥�
Helene Grass (n茅e Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore G眉nter 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 Gda艅sk-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 D眉sseldorf and then at the Universit盲t der K眉nste 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 K眉nste (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 L眉beck 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 L眉beck 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 鈥渂roadened reality.鈥� 鈥淐at and Mouse鈥� (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his 鈥淒anzig trilogy.鈥�
Helene Grass (n茅e Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore G眉nter 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 Gda艅sk-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 D眉sseldorf and then at the Universit盲t der K眉nste 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 K眉nste (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 L眉beck 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 L眉beck hospital. He was 87.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
January 15, 2019
It must be the onion!
Why else would I feel my eyes fill with tears?
Finishing the tale of G眉nter Grass' layers of life, leading to that first sentence, that ominous first sentence that started the Tin Drum, that made Oskar Matzerath the master of the Grassian mind, I feel deeply, deeply touched.
G眉nter Grass grew up in Danzig, but before he published his first masterpiece, the city had ceased to exist in the way he knew it. He was taught to become a faithful member of Hitler's youth organisation, and before finishing school, aged 16, he volunteered to become a soldier, preferably a u-boat hero fed on Schiller's misinterpreted poem that haunted B枚ll too, to the point of cutting it in half on an imaginary blackboard in front of dying soldiers: "Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa..."
Instead of heroic death in the ocean, he was assigned Waffen-SS, and eternal shame once he understood, and took in, what that meant and stood for. Dulce et decorum non est, pro patria vivere!
Peeling the onion, he tries to accurately remember his own, individual problems as a teenager in chaos and war, and what comes to light is no grand pathos or big idea, but a threefold HUNGER! First, second and third hunger. The first one not stilled when he attended an abstract cooking class as a prisoner of war, the hunger for food, the basis in Maslow's pyramid. The second, never stilled for long: sexuality awakening to torture and delight and embarrass the young man. The third hunger: for art, for drawing, for sculpture, and later, once the first sentence was found, for literature. A neverending love story.
Grass is brutally honest about his inability to remember the boundaries between life and fiction, and consistently fails to see whether a situation is true in the factual sense of the word, or just in the sense that it served as a story to feed and satisfy his most urgent hunger, the third one. His life seems mainly to take place in order to decorate the stories he tells, and not vice versa. Oskar Matzerath is a greater authority in Grass' memory than the boy he once was, and a louder voice and drummer.
Reading his autobiography therefore is like reading the biography of his fictional characters, the somewhat awkward real life that was not enough to satisfy the artist's hunger is a sideshow, set at a dramatic time in German history.
The reader's hunger only grew while peeling the onion, and the drum sets the pace!
Why else would I feel my eyes fill with tears?
Finishing the tale of G眉nter Grass' layers of life, leading to that first sentence, that ominous first sentence that started the Tin Drum, that made Oskar Matzerath the master of the Grassian mind, I feel deeply, deeply touched.
G眉nter Grass grew up in Danzig, but before he published his first masterpiece, the city had ceased to exist in the way he knew it. He was taught to become a faithful member of Hitler's youth organisation, and before finishing school, aged 16, he volunteered to become a soldier, preferably a u-boat hero fed on Schiller's misinterpreted poem that haunted B枚ll too, to the point of cutting it in half on an imaginary blackboard in front of dying soldiers: "Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa..."
Instead of heroic death in the ocean, he was assigned Waffen-SS, and eternal shame once he understood, and took in, what that meant and stood for. Dulce et decorum non est, pro patria vivere!
Peeling the onion, he tries to accurately remember his own, individual problems as a teenager in chaos and war, and what comes to light is no grand pathos or big idea, but a threefold HUNGER! First, second and third hunger. The first one not stilled when he attended an abstract cooking class as a prisoner of war, the hunger for food, the basis in Maslow's pyramid. The second, never stilled for long: sexuality awakening to torture and delight and embarrass the young man. The third hunger: for art, for drawing, for sculpture, and later, once the first sentence was found, for literature. A neverending love story.
Grass is brutally honest about his inability to remember the boundaries between life and fiction, and consistently fails to see whether a situation is true in the factual sense of the word, or just in the sense that it served as a story to feed and satisfy his most urgent hunger, the third one. His life seems mainly to take place in order to decorate the stories he tells, and not vice versa. Oskar Matzerath is a greater authority in Grass' memory than the boy he once was, and a louder voice and drummer.
Reading his autobiography therefore is like reading the biography of his fictional characters, the somewhat awkward real life that was not enough to satisfy the artist's hunger is a sideshow, set at a dramatic time in German history.
The reader's hunger only grew while peeling the onion, and the drum sets the pace!
December 10, 2015
Gunter Grass died last night, and I am in mourning. Discovering his writing was like discovering a new uncle, one who spent WW2 on the wrong side of the war.
I read this book aboard an El Al flight to Israel, where those of us who knew and loved my mother were gathering at the cemetery in Beit Shemesh to dedicate the headstone in her memory.
Mom lived through many of the same events that Mr. Grass describes--though from the other side of the border. While he was idolizing Nazi submarine commanders and singing songs with the Hitler Youth, while he was enthusiastically volunteering to join the German Navy, Mom was running for her life, escaping from SS roundups of Polish Jews.
Peeling the Onion reveals, on page after page, that The Tin Drum is largely an autobiography, as seen through the distancing lens of a poet. This makes it even more miraculous; how many among us could take the events of our own lives and shape them into a metaphor for a whole country?
He confesses to everything. Yes, he was in the SS as a seventeen-year-old private. Yes, he, along with most of Germany, happily supported Hitler. Though he knew the Jews were being deported from Danzig, he never wondered where they were going. This, in fact, is his greatest regret as he looks back at that complacent young man growing up in Nazi Germany; he never asked any questions about anything.
This beautiful book, as poetic as anything fictional he has ever written, details the chain of events that turned Gunter Grass from an obedient SS soldier into one of the great voices for healing in the last century. He accomplishes this by pulling back the covers and exposing what is hidden in the dark, in a voice that is by turns funny, grieving, sly, sexy, sacrilegious, haunted, and finally, unforgettable.
I read this book aboard an El Al flight to Israel, where those of us who knew and loved my mother were gathering at the cemetery in Beit Shemesh to dedicate the headstone in her memory.
Mom lived through many of the same events that Mr. Grass describes--though from the other side of the border. While he was idolizing Nazi submarine commanders and singing songs with the Hitler Youth, while he was enthusiastically volunteering to join the German Navy, Mom was running for her life, escaping from SS roundups of Polish Jews.
Peeling the Onion reveals, on page after page, that The Tin Drum is largely an autobiography, as seen through the distancing lens of a poet. This makes it even more miraculous; how many among us could take the events of our own lives and shape them into a metaphor for a whole country?
He confesses to everything. Yes, he was in the SS as a seventeen-year-old private. Yes, he, along with most of Germany, happily supported Hitler. Though he knew the Jews were being deported from Danzig, he never wondered where they were going. This, in fact, is his greatest regret as he looks back at that complacent young man growing up in Nazi Germany; he never asked any questions about anything.
This beautiful book, as poetic as anything fictional he has ever written, details the chain of events that turned Gunter Grass from an obedient SS soldier into one of the great voices for healing in the last century. He accomplishes this by pulling back the covers and exposing what is hidden in the dark, in a voice that is by turns funny, grieving, sly, sexy, sacrilegious, haunted, and finally, unforgettable.
April 13, 2015
They had tried doing it by themselves in her room with a cheap onion, but it wasn't the same. You needed an audience. It was so much easier to cry in company. It gave you a real sense of brotherhood in sorrow when to the right and left of you and in the gallery overhead your fellow students were all crying their hearts out. The Tin Drum
The 欧宝娱乐/Amazon imbroglio only shocked me by being so predictable. Not to sound like a hungover Schopenhauer, but decay and disagreeable ends are to be expected, aren't they? When Herr Grass acknowledged that he'd been in the SS, my knees did feel weak. I did call most everything into question, then I kept on. Grass was in NYC shortly thereafter, he gave a reading from Peeling The Onion and my best friend Joel attended, bought me copy and had the author sign such. I was moved by his memoir. I suffer from being human myself. Dark times place everything in crisis. Normal metrics distort and blur.
The 欧宝娱乐/Amazon imbroglio only shocked me by being so predictable. Not to sound like a hungover Schopenhauer, but decay and disagreeable ends are to be expected, aren't they? When Herr Grass acknowledged that he'd been in the SS, my knees did feel weak. I did call most everything into question, then I kept on. Grass was in NYC shortly thereafter, he gave a reading from Peeling The Onion and my best friend Joel attended, bought me copy and had the author sign such. I was moved by his memoir. I suffer from being human myself. Dark times place everything in crisis. Normal metrics distort and blur.
April 20, 2025
蹖讴鈥� 丕鬲賵亘蹖賵诏乇丕賮蹖 賳賴 趩賳丿丕賳 噩匕丕亘...
May 1, 2015
The other day I listened to an interview with the american writer Charles Baxter where he said of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita ''it's one of those books that has Everything in it''. That phrase came to my mind when I finished this one by Gunter Grass. It's as if is a big container where Everything is thrown in. Un libro TOTAL.
July 27, 2019
In 1975, in my college days, I saw Gunter Grass for the first time in my family鈥檚 living room in Calcutta. He came to see my father, a filmmaker. At that time we just knew him as a German writer who wrote The Tin Drum.
Later I heard from some people who expressed their disapproval of him as a Nazi, who fought for the Germans in World War II. That鈥檚 what prompted me to read this book, as I wanted to know what he had to say about his past.
I am no longer a college kid, and I try not to draw simple conclusions from choices people make under circumstances that I will never fully understand. This book once again confirmed my conviction that we are far more complex creatures than what a simple ideology would allow. I could see why a 15 year old German can become a fan of Hitler, how he can join the war efforts, how he can believe everything he hears from the official propaganda, and how he can remain oblivious of what is happening in the name of progress.
Gunter Grass doesn鈥檛 try to justify anything. He doesn鈥檛 claim he is innocent. He does not expect us to forgive him. He just wants us to see at the world through his eyes, and he does it very successfully. A wonderful read.
Later I heard from some people who expressed their disapproval of him as a Nazi, who fought for the Germans in World War II. That鈥檚 what prompted me to read this book, as I wanted to know what he had to say about his past.
I am no longer a college kid, and I try not to draw simple conclusions from choices people make under circumstances that I will never fully understand. This book once again confirmed my conviction that we are far more complex creatures than what a simple ideology would allow. I could see why a 15 year old German can become a fan of Hitler, how he can join the war efforts, how he can believe everything he hears from the official propaganda, and how he can remain oblivious of what is happening in the name of progress.
Gunter Grass doesn鈥檛 try to justify anything. He doesn鈥檛 claim he is innocent. He does not expect us to forgive him. He just wants us to see at the world through his eyes, and he does it very successfully. A wonderful read.
November 5, 2010
Reading this intriguing memoir, I wondered why Grass wrote it. To expiate himself from the crimes of the Waffen SS to whom he had been attached at the tender age of 17? To pin down events before a fading memory lost them forever? Or to take the high road and cling to the claim that he never fired a shot during the war, but was shot and bombed to hell and back as a member of a defeated German army in the dying months of WWII, and therefore deserving to hang on to his Nobel Prize for Literature that everyone wants to take away from him because of his infamous past associations?
Motives apart this memoir is truly a portrait of the consummate artist as a young man, and a primer on the conditions that gave rise to his art. From a two-bedroom flat where as a child he had a makeshift room under a window ledge from where he painted and sketched, to his brainwashing in the Hitler Youth organization on the glories of pre-war Germany, replete with Olympic victories, the Hindenburg Zeppelin and the magnificence of Mercedes Benz (an experience similar to those of insular kids in other past empires who were raised to believe that the sun rose and set on their nation and that everyone else lived in darkness), to his war time misadventures, to his long rehabilitation as a POW, and then as a struggling artist in an impoverished post-war Germany, this book offers a fresh perspective on the war鈥攁 German one鈥攚here not every German is a bad guy, and where German women (Grass鈥檚 mother being one) were raped by the victorious Allied armies, just like all conquering behemoths have done throughout history irrespective of their stripes.
Grass uses the onion metaphor for memory, peeling back the layers that sweat and bring out tears. He also uses the opposite symbol of amber that freezes objects within as it encases translucently, like memory frozen around certain events.
Towards the end of the war, the illusion of the glorious Nazi Germany unravels for young Grass, again like the proverbial onion, and he defies the administration by pissing into the coffee he delivers to his senior SS staff leaders. If the world is making a case that Canadian Omar Khadr was brainwashed as a child to be a killer, then we have to cut young Gunther some slack. After all, in his words, he didn鈥檛 even fire a shot! He even played cards with a fellow inmate, one Joseph Ratzinger, while in prison 鈥� perhaps that should buy him some additional indulgences!
I was intrigued by the life described by Grass in post-war Germany, from its bombed-out, black market-ridden blight in 1945 to the flourishing of art, material wealth and order that quickly followed despite the occupation by Allied forces and the partitioning of the country into East and West. In this shift, Grass quickly graduates from brain numbing mine work to gourmet cook to jazz drummer to art student to sculptor to poet to novelist, in Dusseldorf and later in Berlin - a great re-integration from a wounded POW suffering from hunger for months on end.
The final part of the book reveals the images that led to his creation of the character Oskar Matzerath, in The Tin Drum, the novel that launched his career as a Nobel Prize winning writer. Oskar epitomizes the damaged child of Germany who emerged between its two wars and is a collage of different people and situations that Grass encountered during those early postwar years: his own drumming in the three-piece jazz band, the child of a friend who rudely interrupted a party by banging on a tin drum, and his hunchbacked art teacher 鈥� all ingredients that go into the making of the memorable Oskar.
In the end, Grass leans on his faulty memory for escape from thornier issues and mixes up sequences while still recounting key events with exacting detail, slumping into third person whenever the memory is too painful. But throughout, his writing remains bold, rhythmic and honest鈥攅ven to the point of once describing his private parts as resembling those of Caravaggio鈥檚 Cupid!
A great book chronicling the making of a writer, if you can forgive the man of the crucible that forged him.
Motives apart this memoir is truly a portrait of the consummate artist as a young man, and a primer on the conditions that gave rise to his art. From a two-bedroom flat where as a child he had a makeshift room under a window ledge from where he painted and sketched, to his brainwashing in the Hitler Youth organization on the glories of pre-war Germany, replete with Olympic victories, the Hindenburg Zeppelin and the magnificence of Mercedes Benz (an experience similar to those of insular kids in other past empires who were raised to believe that the sun rose and set on their nation and that everyone else lived in darkness), to his war time misadventures, to his long rehabilitation as a POW, and then as a struggling artist in an impoverished post-war Germany, this book offers a fresh perspective on the war鈥攁 German one鈥攚here not every German is a bad guy, and where German women (Grass鈥檚 mother being one) were raped by the victorious Allied armies, just like all conquering behemoths have done throughout history irrespective of their stripes.
Grass uses the onion metaphor for memory, peeling back the layers that sweat and bring out tears. He also uses the opposite symbol of amber that freezes objects within as it encases translucently, like memory frozen around certain events.
Towards the end of the war, the illusion of the glorious Nazi Germany unravels for young Grass, again like the proverbial onion, and he defies the administration by pissing into the coffee he delivers to his senior SS staff leaders. If the world is making a case that Canadian Omar Khadr was brainwashed as a child to be a killer, then we have to cut young Gunther some slack. After all, in his words, he didn鈥檛 even fire a shot! He even played cards with a fellow inmate, one Joseph Ratzinger, while in prison 鈥� perhaps that should buy him some additional indulgences!
I was intrigued by the life described by Grass in post-war Germany, from its bombed-out, black market-ridden blight in 1945 to the flourishing of art, material wealth and order that quickly followed despite the occupation by Allied forces and the partitioning of the country into East and West. In this shift, Grass quickly graduates from brain numbing mine work to gourmet cook to jazz drummer to art student to sculptor to poet to novelist, in Dusseldorf and later in Berlin - a great re-integration from a wounded POW suffering from hunger for months on end.
The final part of the book reveals the images that led to his creation of the character Oskar Matzerath, in The Tin Drum, the novel that launched his career as a Nobel Prize winning writer. Oskar epitomizes the damaged child of Germany who emerged between its two wars and is a collage of different people and situations that Grass encountered during those early postwar years: his own drumming in the three-piece jazz band, the child of a friend who rudely interrupted a party by banging on a tin drum, and his hunchbacked art teacher 鈥� all ingredients that go into the making of the memorable Oskar.
In the end, Grass leans on his faulty memory for escape from thornier issues and mixes up sequences while still recounting key events with exacting detail, slumping into third person whenever the memory is too painful. But throughout, his writing remains bold, rhythmic and honest鈥攅ven to the point of once describing his private parts as resembling those of Caravaggio鈥檚 Cupid!
A great book chronicling the making of a writer, if you can forgive the man of the crucible that forged him.
July 24, 2021
En esta memoria Grass nos relata su infancia en la ciudad de Danzig (una ciudad con un r茅gimen pol铆tico especial, pero cuyos habitantes se identificaban como alemanes), su adolescencia, sus experiencias en la guerra y la posguerra. Esta publicaci贸n fue muy pol茅mica puesto que solo en 2006 Grass revel贸 que hab铆a peleado como parte de las Waffen SS, la rama militar de las SS, el escuadr贸n de la muerte nazi. Grass ocult贸 esto durante 60 a帽os, mientras criticaba duramente a los alemanes por no reconocer el horror del Holocausto.
March 15, 2019
Grass'谋n ba艧谋na i艧ler a莽an otobiyografik kitab谋 So臒an谋 Soyarken tam bir g眉nah 莽谋karma, s谋k谋nt谋lar谋 d枚kme giri艧imi niteli臒inde. Kitab谋n ismi muhte艧em bir metafor; so臒an hayat谋 , so臒an谋n her bir b枚l眉m眉 de hayat谋ndan par莽alar. B枚yle bir hayat谋 anlat谋rken de tabi ki cesaret isteyen so臒an谋 soyma eylemi g枚zleri ya艧art谋yor. Daha 莽ocuk say谋lacak ya艧ta gen莽 nazilere kat谋l谋艧谋n谋 anlat谋yor , hem de laf谋 doland谋rmadan, nas谋l g枚n眉ll眉 ve isteyerek kat谋ld谋臒谋n谋 眉st眉ne basa basa belirtiyor bizlere ve sonras谋nda gelen o korkun莽 pi艧manl谋臒谋 da. Kendisini tan谋yanlar az 莽ok hayat谋n谋 biliyor zaten. Esir d眉艧t眉臒眉 d枚nemlerden sanata olan ilgisinin geli艧imi hakk谋nda b眉t眉n detaylar kitab谋n i莽erisinde bulunmakta. Ayr谋ca di臒er eserlerindeki karakterlerin ve hikayelerin de hayat谋ndaki ya艧anm谋艧l谋klardan beslenip ortaya 莽谋kt谋臒谋n谋 da bir 莽ok b枚l眉mde belirtti臒i referanslarla aktar谋yor. Utanc谋n , pi艧manl谋臒谋n , 莽ocuklu臒un ve ergenli臒i getirdi臒i yanl谋艧lar谋n samimi bir 艧ekilde anlat谋ld谋臒谋 muhte艧em bir otobiyografi 枚rne臒i.
March 6, 2019
G. Grass memuarus skai膷iau gana 寞domiai. Autorius atvirai kalba apie ry拧kiausius savo gyvenimo momentus: menininko keli膮, kareivio dali膮, meil臈s kelius ir klystkelius. Giliai apm膮stomi 啪mogaus jausmai: kalt臈, baim臈, ateities tiksl懦 k奴rimas, svajon臈s.
Prisiminimuose i拧sakyti jausmai ne tik apie kolektyvin臋 kalt臋 ir g臈d膮 d臈l genocido, bet ir asmeninio gyvenimo skauduliai: 拧eimyniniai santykiai, meil臈s ry拧i懦 mezgimasis ir griuvimas. Apskritai, gana ai拧kiai perteiktas br臋stan膷io vyro pasaulis: nuo abicij懦, g臈d懦, nor懦, dvasini懦 ir fizini懦 geiduli懦, bandym懦 save realizuoti ir 寞vairi懦 traumini懦 patir膷i懦.
Memuarai 寞dom奴s ir d臈l kult奴rinio konteksto: vaizdingi pasakojimai apie to meto vokie膷i懦 menininkus (j懦 k奴ryb膮, gyvenimo b奴d膮 bei kelius, kaip prasimu拧ti 寞 meninink懦 gretas). Gerbiu autori懦 u啪 atvirum膮.
Prisiminimuose i拧sakyti jausmai ne tik apie kolektyvin臋 kalt臋 ir g臈d膮 d臈l genocido, bet ir asmeninio gyvenimo skauduliai: 拧eimyniniai santykiai, meil臈s ry拧i懦 mezgimasis ir griuvimas. Apskritai, gana ai拧kiai perteiktas br臋stan膷io vyro pasaulis: nuo abicij懦, g臈d懦, nor懦, dvasini懦 ir fizini懦 geiduli懦, bandym懦 save realizuoti ir 寞vairi懦 traumini懦 patir膷i懦.
Memuarai 寞dom奴s ir d臈l kult奴rinio konteksto: vaizdingi pasakojimai apie to meto vokie膷i懦 menininkus (j懦 k奴ryb膮, gyvenimo b奴d膮 bei kelius, kaip prasimu拧ti 寞 meninink懦 gretas). Gerbiu autori懦 u啪 atvirum膮.
December 12, 2015
丕賵賱蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘蹖 亘賵丿 讴賴 丕夭 诏賵賳鬲乇 诏乇丕爻 丿爻鬲 诏乇賮鬲賲 賵 賳賲蹖 鬲賵賳賲 亘诏賲 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 賲賳 乇賵 丕夭 蹖賴 亘乇賳丿賴 蹖 賳賵亘賱 亘乇 丌賵乇丿賴 讴乇丿. 卮丕蹖丿 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿賱丕蹖賱 丕卮 丕鬲賵 亘蹖賵诏乇丕賮蹖 亘賵丿賳 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 亘賵丿. 賳丕 禺賵丿 丌诏丕賴 鬲賵賵 禺賵賳丿賳 丕鬲賵 亘蹖賵诏乇丕賮蹖 賯囟丕賵鬲 賲蹖丕丿 鬲賵賵 匕賴賳賲 賵 乇丕噩毓 亘賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丕卮 賯囟丕賵鬲 賲蹖 讴賳賲. 卮丕蹖丿 亘賴 丕蹖賳 丿賱蹖賱 讴賴 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 丕夭 賴賲趩蹖賳 丌丿賲蹖 鬲賵 匕賴賳賲 丿丕乇賲.賴乇 趩賳丿 丕夭 氐賲蹖賲 賯賱亘 卮噩丕毓鬲 丕卮 乇賵 賯丕亘賱 鬲丨爻蹖賳 賲蹖 丿賵賳賲.
"丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 倬賵爻鬲 倬蹖丕夭" 賳賴 讴鬲丕亘 倬乇 讴卮卮蹖 亘賵丿 賵 賳賴 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵亘蹖. 讴鬲丕亘 賲鬲賵爻胤 賵 賯丕亘賱 鬲丨賲賱蹖 亘賵丿 讴賴 丕乇夭卮 蹖賴 亘丕乇 禺賵賳丿賳 乇賵 丿丕卮鬲. 丕蹖賳 讴賴 丕夭 丕賵賱 丕夭 噩賳诏 賵 賮賯乇 賵 亘蹖趩丕乇诏蹖 賵 丕爻鬲蹖氐丕賱 诏賮鬲 賵 鬲賵賵 倬丕蹖丕賳卮 丕夭 毓卮賯 賵 丕夭 禺賵卮亘禺鬲蹖貙 诏賮鬲賲 讴賴 賲賵賮賯 亘賵丿賴 趩賴 乇賵夭丕蹖蹖 诏匕卮鬲賴 賵 亘賴 趩賴 噩丕賴丕蹖蹖 禺鬲賲 卮丿賴.趩賴 禺賵亘賴 讴賴 丌丿賲 賴賲蹖賳 丌丿賲蹖 亘丕卮賴 讴賴 匕乇賴 匕乇賴 禺賵丿卮 乇賵 爻丕禺鬲賴 賵 鬲乇丕卮蹖丿賴. 丕蹖賳 賯丿乇 丕賱丕賳 丕夭 禺賵丿卮 賲胤賲卅賳 賵 乇丕囟蹖賴 讴賴 賲蹖 鬲賵賳賴 亘賴 亘夭乇诏 鬲乇蹖賳 丕卮鬲亘丕賴丕鬲卮 賴賲 丕毓鬲乇丕賮 讴賳賴.趩賴 讴鬲丕亘 鬲賱禺 賵 趩賴 讴鬲丕亘 倬乇 丕夭 丕賲蹖丿蹖.
丕賵賳 賯丿乇賴丕 氐丕丿賯丕賳賴 賳亘賵丿 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘. 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賴丕 禺賵丿卮 乇賵 鬲賵 噩蹖賴 讴乇丿 賵 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賴丕 禺賵丿 禺賵丕賴 賵 亘蹖 丕丨爻丕爻 亘賵丿. 噩賳诏 丕氐賱丕 鬲賵賵 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕賵賳 噩賳诏 讴鬲丕亘 賴丕蹖 爻賱蹖賳 賵 蹖丕 噩賳诏 讴丕乇丕蹖 亘賱 賳亘賵丿. 噩賳诏 亘賵丿 . 賴賲蹖賳. 禺蹖賱蹖 賴賲 倬匕蹖乇賮鬲賴 卮丿賴 賵 乇賵夭 賲乇賴 賵 讴卮丿丕乇. 诏卮賳诏蹖 鬲賵賵卮 賲賴賲 亘賵丿 賵 夭賳丿賴 賲賵賳丿賳 賵 賮乇丕乇. 禺蹖賱蹖 禺賵丿 賲丨賵乇 亘賵丿 賵 禺蹖賱蹖 ... 卮丕蹖丿 亘丕蹖丿 亘诏賲 爻乇丿. 丕賲丕 賲丕丿乇.賲丕丿乇卮 賳賵乇 丕賲蹖丿 亘賵丿.卮丕蹖丿 鬲賲丕賲 丕賵賳 丕丨爻丕爻蹖 亘賵丿 讴賴 诏賵賳鬲乇 诏乇丕爻 乇賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 讴乇丿.
丕诏賴 讴鬲丕亘 丿蹖诏賴 丕蹖 鬲賵 丕賵賱賵蹖鬲 賳丿丕乇蹖丿貙 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 亘丿蹖 賳蹖爻鬲.
丌賵丕
丌匕乇 賳賵丿 賵 趩賴丕乇
亘蹖賳 趩賱賴 蹖 夭賵丿 賵亘蹖 丨爻蹖 賲丿丕賲
"丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 倬賵爻鬲 倬蹖丕夭" 賳賴 讴鬲丕亘 倬乇 讴卮卮蹖 亘賵丿 賵 賳賴 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵亘蹖. 讴鬲丕亘 賲鬲賵爻胤 賵 賯丕亘賱 鬲丨賲賱蹖 亘賵丿 讴賴 丕乇夭卮 蹖賴 亘丕乇 禺賵賳丿賳 乇賵 丿丕卮鬲. 丕蹖賳 讴賴 丕夭 丕賵賱 丕夭 噩賳诏 賵 賮賯乇 賵 亘蹖趩丕乇诏蹖 賵 丕爻鬲蹖氐丕賱 诏賮鬲 賵 鬲賵賵 倬丕蹖丕賳卮 丕夭 毓卮賯 賵 丕夭 禺賵卮亘禺鬲蹖貙 诏賮鬲賲 讴賴 賲賵賮賯 亘賵丿賴 趩賴 乇賵夭丕蹖蹖 诏匕卮鬲賴 賵 亘賴 趩賴 噩丕賴丕蹖蹖 禺鬲賲 卮丿賴.趩賴 禺賵亘賴 讴賴 丌丿賲 賴賲蹖賳 丌丿賲蹖 亘丕卮賴 讴賴 匕乇賴 匕乇賴 禺賵丿卮 乇賵 爻丕禺鬲賴 賵 鬲乇丕卮蹖丿賴. 丕蹖賳 賯丿乇 丕賱丕賳 丕夭 禺賵丿卮 賲胤賲卅賳 賵 乇丕囟蹖賴 讴賴 賲蹖 鬲賵賳賴 亘賴 亘夭乇诏 鬲乇蹖賳 丕卮鬲亘丕賴丕鬲卮 賴賲 丕毓鬲乇丕賮 讴賳賴.趩賴 讴鬲丕亘 鬲賱禺 賵 趩賴 讴鬲丕亘 倬乇 丕夭 丕賲蹖丿蹖.
丕賵賳 賯丿乇賴丕 氐丕丿賯丕賳賴 賳亘賵丿 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘. 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賴丕 禺賵丿卮 乇賵 鬲賵 噩蹖賴 讴乇丿 賵 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賴丕 禺賵丿 禺賵丕賴 賵 亘蹖 丕丨爻丕爻 亘賵丿. 噩賳诏 丕氐賱丕 鬲賵賵 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕賵賳 噩賳诏 讴鬲丕亘 賴丕蹖 爻賱蹖賳 賵 蹖丕 噩賳诏 讴丕乇丕蹖 亘賱 賳亘賵丿. 噩賳诏 亘賵丿 . 賴賲蹖賳. 禺蹖賱蹖 賴賲 倬匕蹖乇賮鬲賴 卮丿賴 賵 乇賵夭 賲乇賴 賵 讴卮丿丕乇. 诏卮賳诏蹖 鬲賵賵卮 賲賴賲 亘賵丿 賵 夭賳丿賴 賲賵賳丿賳 賵 賮乇丕乇. 禺蹖賱蹖 禺賵丿 賲丨賵乇 亘賵丿 賵 禺蹖賱蹖 ... 卮丕蹖丿 亘丕蹖丿 亘诏賲 爻乇丿. 丕賲丕 賲丕丿乇.賲丕丿乇卮 賳賵乇 丕賲蹖丿 亘賵丿.卮丕蹖丿 鬲賲丕賲 丕賵賳 丕丨爻丕爻蹖 亘賵丿 讴賴 诏賵賳鬲乇 诏乇丕爻 乇賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 讴乇丿.
丕诏賴 讴鬲丕亘 丿蹖诏賴 丕蹖 鬲賵 丕賵賱賵蹖鬲 賳丿丕乇蹖丿貙 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 亘丿蹖 賳蹖爻鬲.
丌賵丕
丌匕乇 賳賵丿 賵 趩賴丕乇
亘蹖賳 趩賱賴 蹖 夭賵丿 賵亘蹖 丨爻蹖 賲丿丕賲
April 29, 2008
G眉nter Grass is one of the best novelists to come out of Germany. In PEELING THE ONION, Grass鈥� memoir of his life up until the 1959 publishing of his first major novel, THE TIN DRUM, he reflects on the objects, people, and situations that ultimately wove their way into his stories. As in the peeling of an onion, one layer leads to the next, but all are part and parcel of the whole, which is his life.
It helps if one is familiar with Grass鈥� writings before reading this memoir. I myself have read THE TIN DRUM, and I found this memoir fascinating in the revelations of what was behind some of the details in that wonderful story. The style is almost free-flowing reminiscing, but in the end Grass masterfully wraps it all together as if carefully closing up the onion layers he had slowly peeled away.
I love Grass鈥� writing. It feels like he is speaking directly to me. It鈥檚 as if we were talking over a cup of coffee. He isn鈥檛 a perfect man and he expects us to understand that without having to make excuses. I鈥檓 so glad he wrote this book!
It helps if one is familiar with Grass鈥� writings before reading this memoir. I myself have read THE TIN DRUM, and I found this memoir fascinating in the revelations of what was behind some of the details in that wonderful story. The style is almost free-flowing reminiscing, but in the end Grass masterfully wraps it all together as if carefully closing up the onion layers he had slowly peeled away.
I love Grass鈥� writing. It feels like he is speaking directly to me. It鈥檚 as if we were talking over a cup of coffee. He isn鈥檛 a perfect man and he expects us to understand that without having to make excuses. I鈥檓 so glad he wrote this book!
December 21, 2014
賴賲夭賲丕賳 亘丕蹖丿 亘賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴乇 倬賳噩 賳賲乇賴 乇丕 丿丕丿: 賴賲 囟毓蹖賮 丕爻鬲貙 賴賲 亘丿 賳蹖爻鬲貙 賴賲 禺賵亘 丕爻鬲貙 賴賲 賵丕賯毓丕 禺賵亘 丕爻鬲 賵 賴賲 卮丕賴讴丕乇.
讴鬲丕亘蹖 丕爻鬲 爻禺鬲 禺賵丕賳. 亘賴 卮丿鬲 爻禺鬲 禺賵丕賳. 丿乇 夭蹖乇 亘丕乇卮 讴賲乇鬲丕賳 賴賲 賲蹖 卮賵丿. 爻乇鬲丕賳 丿乇丿 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿 賵 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 亘賴 爻賵夭卮 賲蹖 丕賮鬲丿.
賲丿丕賲 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕賴 亘蹖丕蹖蹖丿. 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿貙 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿 賵 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿.
鬲噩乇亘賴 毓噩蹖亘蹖 亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳貙 禺賵丕賳丿賳 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘. 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 倬賵爻鬲 倬蹖丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 賵 卮賲丕蹖 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 賴賲 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 乇丕 倬賵爻鬲 亘讴賳蹖丿. 賱丕蹖賴 賱丕蹖賴 讴賳蹖丿貙 賵 賲賴賲 賳蹖爻鬲 趩賳丿 亘丕乇 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 乇丕 讴賳丕乇 賲蹖 诏匕丕乇蹖丿 鬲丕 亘乇賵蹖丿 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 乇丕 亘卮賵蹖蹖丿貙 賴乇 亘丕乇貙 賴賳賵夭 丿爻鬲 賳诏乇賮鬲賴貙 丕夭 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 丕卮讴 亘賴 乇丕賴 賲蹖 丕賮鬲丿.
丕夭 丌賳 胤乇賮貙 丿乇 丨丕賱 禺賵丕賳丿賳 讴鬲丕亘貙 丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 賱丕蹖賴 賴丕蹖 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘丕 賲丕噩乇丕蹖 毓噩蹖亘 夭賳丿诏蹖 诏賵賳鬲乇 诏乇丕爻 丌卮賳丕 賲蹖 卮賵蹖丿... 賲丕噩乇丕蹖蹖 讴賴 賮讴乇 賳賲蹖 讴賳賲 丨丕賱丕 丨丕賱丕賴丕 丕夭 禺丕胤乇賴 鬲丕賳 亘乇賵丿...
丿乇 禺賵丕賳丿賳 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賲丨鬲丕胤 亘丕卮蹖丿貙 賲賲讴賳 丕爻鬲 鬲丕 賲丿鬲 賴丕 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 亘爻賵夭丿.
讴鬲丕亘蹖 丕爻鬲 爻禺鬲 禺賵丕賳. 亘賴 卮丿鬲 爻禺鬲 禺賵丕賳. 丿乇 夭蹖乇 亘丕乇卮 讴賲乇鬲丕賳 賴賲 賲蹖 卮賵丿. 爻乇鬲丕賳 丿乇丿 賲蹖 诏蹖乇丿 賵 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 亘賴 爻賵夭卮 賲蹖 丕賮鬲丿.
賲丿丕賲 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕賴 亘蹖丕蹖蹖丿. 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿貙 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿 賵 鬲丨賲賱卮 讴賳蹖丿.
鬲噩乇亘賴 毓噩蹖亘蹖 亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳貙 禺賵丕賳丿賳 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘. 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 倬賵爻鬲 倬蹖丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 賵 卮賲丕蹖 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 賴賲 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 乇丕 倬賵爻鬲 亘讴賳蹖丿. 賱丕蹖賴 賱丕蹖賴 讴賳蹖丿貙 賵 賲賴賲 賳蹖爻鬲 趩賳丿 亘丕乇 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 乇丕 讴賳丕乇 賲蹖 诏匕丕乇蹖丿 鬲丕 亘乇賵蹖丿 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 乇丕 亘卮賵蹖蹖丿貙 賴乇 亘丕乇貙 賴賳賵夭 丿爻鬲 賳诏乇賮鬲賴貙 丕夭 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 丕卮讴 亘賴 乇丕賴 賲蹖 丕賮鬲丿.
丕夭 丌賳 胤乇賮貙 丿乇 丨丕賱 禺賵丕賳丿賳 讴鬲丕亘貙 丿乇 丨丕賱 讴賳丿賳 賱丕蹖賴 賴丕蹖 丕蹖賳 倬蹖丕夭 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘丕 賲丕噩乇丕蹖 毓噩蹖亘 夭賳丿诏蹖 诏賵賳鬲乇 诏乇丕爻 丌卮賳丕 賲蹖 卮賵蹖丿... 賲丕噩乇丕蹖蹖 讴賴 賮讴乇 賳賲蹖 讴賳賲 丨丕賱丕 丨丕賱丕賴丕 丕夭 禺丕胤乇賴 鬲丕賳 亘乇賵丿...
丿乇 禺賵丕賳丿賳 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賲丨鬲丕胤 亘丕卮蹖丿貙 賲賲讴賳 丕爻鬲 鬲丕 賲丿鬲 賴丕 趩卮賲丕賳鬲丕賳 亘爻賵夭丿.
October 18, 2023
What do you get when you cross Sturm und Drang with Bildungsroman - this book! Peeling the Onion is the story of how a young G眉nter Grass found himself adrift in Germany after WW II. This is the most detailed book I have ever read that covers what happened after Stunde Null (Zero Hour - the end of the Nazi regime in 1945 and the formation of a new Germany) when Germany had to rebuild in the shadow of occupation. The 'onion' of being has to be peeled; to get to the core of the transition of a young man to the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is in a country adrift; no officials able to guide the people through the rubble of 'total war' that was called for. Heartbreaking and humorous - contrast this book with Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand C茅line - to get a view of traumatic ideation and how leaves a mark on everyone.
December 12, 2015
鬲賲賳賷鬲 賱賵 賯乇兀鬲 乇賵丕賷丕鬲賴 賯亘賱 丕賱亘丿亍 亘賴丕貙 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 孬賯賷賱丞 賳賵毓丕 賲丕貙 毓賱丕賯鬲賴 亘兀賲賴 賰丕賳鬲 兀乇賵毓 賲丕 賮賷 丨賷丕鬲賴..亘丕锘关敦з佖� 兀賳賴 毓丕卮 賮賷 賰賮賵賮 丕賱賮賳 賲鬲賳賯賱 賲賳 賲賰丕賳 锘地� 賵 賲賳 毓賱丕賯丞 锘地辟�.
July 11, 2018
Knyga apie pastabaus 啪mogaus, patirian膷io nacizmo "smegen懦 plovim膮", karo 啪iaurumus, patirtis ir l臈t膮, bet daug ra拧ymo patir膷i懦 reikalaujant寞 prover啪寞 寞 Vokietijos ra拧ytoj懦 gretas. 漠domu skaityti Nobelio premijos laureato mintis apie para拧yt懦 knyg懦 epizodus, autiobiografines 寞啪valgas.
July 8, 2019
This is the perfect book for understanding Germany's most influential writer of the 20th Century. All I really knew about the Nobel Prize winner was that his most famous book, "The Tin Drum" was considered a difficult read. I also remembered the stir his autobiography created when it came out because Grass admitted for the first time that he had served in the Nazi Waffen-SS, albeit as an (eager) 17-year-old who was injured before he could harm anyone.
Grass is a great storyteller, with experiences that provoke both laughter and sadness. His efforts to plumb the depths of his memories ("peeling the onion") is fascinating and something that we can all relate to. In many ways his book reminded me of reading Vladimir Nabokov's "Speak, Memory" when I took a Nabokov class at U.C. Berkeley. But unlike Nabokov, Grass explicitly draws the links between his life and his books, which make them more accessible. Grass discusses the books that influenced him the most, including Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter," which I happened to be reading at the same time!
The most amazing thing I learned about Grass was that before he became a writer, he was an accomplished poet, musician (who even got to play with Louis Armstrong), dancer and sculptor. Even though the book only covers up to the writing of "Tin Drum," he relates what happens to key family members, so there is a sense of closure. This is also a great book for better understanding how Nazi Germany could have so many "willing executioners" as well as its rapid rise from the ashes.
Grass is a great storyteller, with experiences that provoke both laughter and sadness. His efforts to plumb the depths of his memories ("peeling the onion") is fascinating and something that we can all relate to. In many ways his book reminded me of reading Vladimir Nabokov's "Speak, Memory" when I took a Nabokov class at U.C. Berkeley. But unlike Nabokov, Grass explicitly draws the links between his life and his books, which make them more accessible. Grass discusses the books that influenced him the most, including Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter," which I happened to be reading at the same time!
The most amazing thing I learned about Grass was that before he became a writer, he was an accomplished poet, musician (who even got to play with Louis Armstrong), dancer and sculptor. Even though the book only covers up to the writing of "Tin Drum," he relates what happens to key family members, so there is a sense of closure. This is also a great book for better understanding how Nazi Germany could have so many "willing executioners" as well as its rapid rise from the ashes.
April 2, 2022
Libro autobiogr谩fico del autor que abarca desde su infancia en Gdansk hasta la publicaci贸n de su c茅lebre libro "El tambor de hojalata" en el a帽o de 1959. Un incre铆ble y crudo retrato de la Alemania de la posguerra desde una perspectiva que no siempre es visible que es la de los vencidos y de las personas que fueron v铆ctimas al ser parte del r茅gimen que propicio uno de los eventos m谩s devastadores del siglo pasado.
De su infancia nos cuesta sobre su familia y las filas con su padre, de su incorporaci贸n a las juventudes hitlerianas y su indoctrinacion al nazismo (que fue un proceso involuntario, pero con cierto convencimiento), su participaci贸n en la guerra como de milagro consigui贸 sobrevivir y ser llevado a un campo de prisioneros, de su trabajo como minero y su incursi贸n en la escultura en la Academia de Dusseldorf, su labor como tallador y sus viajes que le dieron su formaci贸n de dibujante, su participaci贸n en una banda de jazz y por 煤ltimo de su primer matrimonio y su labor como escritor, primero de poes铆a y despu茅s de ensayo y prosa. Todos estos sucesos hacen de su vida algo fascinante y est谩n adornados con descripciones de los grandes pintores italianos quienes admira desde su infancia, y por supuesto de los platillos y sabores de su vida, que a lo que he visto nunca pueden faltar en sus libros.
Despu茅s de leer su historia, me queda claro muchas cosas de las que suceden en "El tambor de hojalata", pues varios cap铆tulos b谩sicamente son transcripciones de su vida pero encarnadas en los personajes de la novela, pero tambi茅n se encuentran aqu铆 las semillas de historias como la de "El gato y el rat贸n" y "A帽os de perro" (que me falta leer), y mucho de su poes铆a y su teatro. Adem谩s el libro tiene una particularidad y es que por momentos habla de si mismo en tercera persona, como si se desprendiera de sus recuerdos, el t铆tulo de hecho proviene de una hermosa e interesante reflexi贸n, y que es los recuerdos son como la piel de las cebollas, que se van formando por capas y cuando uno quiere evocarlos es como si los fuera pelando, pero la mayor铆a de los recuerdos se mezcla con nuestras fantas铆as por lo que llega un punto en el que no podemos estar seguros de que tan ver铆dicos son nuestros propios recuerdos.
Ahora, este es un libro denso y lleno de alegr铆as, por lo que su lectura, como la mayor铆a de sus libros, requiere de tiempo. Pero no se siente pesado y a diferencia de otros de sus libros me pareci贸 ameno y digerible, pero creo que para encontrarle el gusto es necesario haber le铆do previamente varios de sus libros. El final creo que es un poco precipitado, pero como el bien dice, creo que le faltaron (y con todo derecho) ganas de contarlo. Si te interesa un libro donde se retrate parte de la Alemania de la posguerra, en donde mucho de lo que se habla es de la miseria y de la condici贸n humana, y est谩s familiarizado con la obra del autor, creo que este libro vale la pena que le eches un ojo y como mencion茅, si te llama la atenci贸n lo anterior pero no has le铆do nada de 茅l, te recomiendo que leas un poco de su obra antes de tomar reste volumen. Muy recomendable.
De su infancia nos cuesta sobre su familia y las filas con su padre, de su incorporaci贸n a las juventudes hitlerianas y su indoctrinacion al nazismo (que fue un proceso involuntario, pero con cierto convencimiento), su participaci贸n en la guerra como de milagro consigui贸 sobrevivir y ser llevado a un campo de prisioneros, de su trabajo como minero y su incursi贸n en la escultura en la Academia de Dusseldorf, su labor como tallador y sus viajes que le dieron su formaci贸n de dibujante, su participaci贸n en una banda de jazz y por 煤ltimo de su primer matrimonio y su labor como escritor, primero de poes铆a y despu茅s de ensayo y prosa. Todos estos sucesos hacen de su vida algo fascinante y est谩n adornados con descripciones de los grandes pintores italianos quienes admira desde su infancia, y por supuesto de los platillos y sabores de su vida, que a lo que he visto nunca pueden faltar en sus libros.
Despu茅s de leer su historia, me queda claro muchas cosas de las que suceden en "El tambor de hojalata", pues varios cap铆tulos b谩sicamente son transcripciones de su vida pero encarnadas en los personajes de la novela, pero tambi茅n se encuentran aqu铆 las semillas de historias como la de "El gato y el rat贸n" y "A帽os de perro" (que me falta leer), y mucho de su poes铆a y su teatro. Adem谩s el libro tiene una particularidad y es que por momentos habla de si mismo en tercera persona, como si se desprendiera de sus recuerdos, el t铆tulo de hecho proviene de una hermosa e interesante reflexi贸n, y que es los recuerdos son como la piel de las cebollas, que se van formando por capas y cuando uno quiere evocarlos es como si los fuera pelando, pero la mayor铆a de los recuerdos se mezcla con nuestras fantas铆as por lo que llega un punto en el que no podemos estar seguros de que tan ver铆dicos son nuestros propios recuerdos.
Ahora, este es un libro denso y lleno de alegr铆as, por lo que su lectura, como la mayor铆a de sus libros, requiere de tiempo. Pero no se siente pesado y a diferencia de otros de sus libros me pareci贸 ameno y digerible, pero creo que para encontrarle el gusto es necesario haber le铆do previamente varios de sus libros. El final creo que es un poco precipitado, pero como el bien dice, creo que le faltaron (y con todo derecho) ganas de contarlo. Si te interesa un libro donde se retrate parte de la Alemania de la posguerra, en donde mucho de lo que se habla es de la miseria y de la condici贸n humana, y est谩s familiarizado con la obra del autor, creo que este libro vale la pena que le eches un ojo y como mencion茅, si te llama la atenci贸n lo anterior pero no has le铆do nada de 茅l, te recomiendo que leas un poco de su obra antes de tomar reste volumen. Muy recomendable.
July 18, 2021
No soy lector de biograf铆as. Y aunque pienso mucho por qu茅 opt茅 por leer la de G眉nter Grass, no encuentro respuestas. Fue, en todo caso, una p茅sima idea. Debo admitir sin embargo, que el inicio de la obra me sedujo bastante. Su ni帽ez en Danzig (hoy Gdansk), una antigua ciudad alemana, hoy Polaca y que en el periodo de entreguerras fue una ciudad libre, bajo el mandato de la Sociedad de Naciones, mezcla todo una serie de sentimientos de alguien que vio estallar la II Guerra Mundial en sus narices, r谩pidamente incorporado en las fuerzas nazis y que hace que para m铆, al menos en sus primeros cap铆tulos, la obra sea toda una experiencia de un soldado, participante en la guerra, en el bando de los perdedores y que nos recuerda como la confrontaci贸n en la mente de los soldados, los que ponen su carne para ser fustigada, est谩 muy alejada del discurso a veces xen贸fobo, a veces beligerante, a veces racista, de sus oficiales y los l铆deres militares que le conducen. La guerra es sin duda uno de los peores da帽os a la humanidad, no solo por su capacidad de destrucci贸n f铆sica, sino por la enorme disposici贸n a poner al frente de los ca帽ones ciudadanos que no son conscientes del enorme significado simb贸lico que carga su presencia en los campos de enfrentamiento.
En todo caso, luego de acabada la guerra, Grass navegar谩 por su vida, por la descripci贸n de una Alemania posguerra y los avatares de la vida de un ex soldado, un hermano y un hijo. La vida de art铆stica de Grass se va molde谩ndose para ser, en definitiva, y gracias a aquel regalo en su segundo matrimonio, la de un excelente escritor. Aquella faceta que nosotros conocemos de 茅l.
Lamento mucho la calificaci贸n y mayor a煤n que no haya sido de mi gusto la obra. No obstante, el principal error, como en otras lecturas que han sido igual de frustrantes, ha sido m铆o. Elegir libros cuyo perfil se aleja de mis gustos literarios y no saber abandonar una obra cuando definitiva no la disfrutas, es uno de los peores errores de un lector cualquiera. Sin embargo, y como en su obra, ah铆 estuve, para pelar con Grass la cebolla de su vida, de sus miedos y de los golpes que retumban en su consciencia.
En todo caso, luego de acabada la guerra, Grass navegar谩 por su vida, por la descripci贸n de una Alemania posguerra y los avatares de la vida de un ex soldado, un hermano y un hijo. La vida de art铆stica de Grass se va molde谩ndose para ser, en definitiva, y gracias a aquel regalo en su segundo matrimonio, la de un excelente escritor. Aquella faceta que nosotros conocemos de 茅l.
Lamento mucho la calificaci贸n y mayor a煤n que no haya sido de mi gusto la obra. No obstante, el principal error, como en otras lecturas que han sido igual de frustrantes, ha sido m铆o. Elegir libros cuyo perfil se aleja de mis gustos literarios y no saber abandonar una obra cuando definitiva no la disfrutas, es uno de los peores errores de un lector cualquiera. Sin embargo, y como en su obra, ah铆 estuve, para pelar con Grass la cebolla de su vida, de sus miedos y de los golpes que retumban en su consciencia.
April 22, 2023
Ho lasciato trascorrere un po' di tempo dall'uscita di quest'opera autobiografica, la giusta distanza per provare a leggerlo con occhio imparziale. La scrittura 猫 piana e pacata, molto densa e segue la cadenza dei ricordi con un fluire apparentemente casuale. Raccontare di una generazione segnata dal nazismo non 猫 facile, la vergogna di aver fatto minimamente parte di questo orrore si percepisce nel racconto con viva forza anche quando le parole sono quasi sussurrate.
October 2, 2016
Almost gave up on mister Grass and his most peculiar style of writing, especially during the rather cumbersome part about his war experiences. In the end though, I feel like this is a very special book by a very interesting author. Grass has lived an artists life which I imagine might be virtually impossible to live nowadays, living through the worst of times only to come out on top through the pursuit of his many hungers, which include women, art and food.
Throughout the book, Grass is peeling his onion, which is a sort of metaphor for the exploration of memory. He's exaggerating throughout, sometimes inventing versions of stories and other times immediately admitting to his own faulty memories. He tells of his time as a young man in the Hitlerjugend, his struggle to find a job after the war and the making of his artistic career. It makes for fascinating reading, often about love, politics and social issues, but most of all about regret: about time wasted, women left unloved and little Austrian men with antisemitic sympathies left unchallenged. Grass does not mention the Holocaust often, but when he does, the book strikes a nerve.
In the end, though, 'Peeling the Onion' is just a wonderful memoir, much like that of Elias Canetti, relating an incredibly rich life and thus constituting a genre of its own. We can learn a lot from books like this, I'm sure. A very high 3,5 out of 5.
Throughout the book, Grass is peeling his onion, which is a sort of metaphor for the exploration of memory. He's exaggerating throughout, sometimes inventing versions of stories and other times immediately admitting to his own faulty memories. He tells of his time as a young man in the Hitlerjugend, his struggle to find a job after the war and the making of his artistic career. It makes for fascinating reading, often about love, politics and social issues, but most of all about regret: about time wasted, women left unloved and little Austrian men with antisemitic sympathies left unchallenged. Grass does not mention the Holocaust often, but when he does, the book strikes a nerve.
In the end, though, 'Peeling the Onion' is just a wonderful memoir, much like that of Elias Canetti, relating an incredibly rich life and thus constituting a genre of its own. We can learn a lot from books like this, I'm sure. A very high 3,5 out of 5.
July 10, 2008
Gunter Grass鈥檚 autobiography. This was a very interesting read after The Tin Drum. You slowly see how some events of the novel were influenced by his own life, and how many characters of that novel were based on the real people in his life. I couldn鈥檛 help comparing this book with Nabokov鈥檚 Speak Memory. Nabokov鈥檚 autobiography mostly disappointed me in spite of the good writing. This was far better. Grass tells the story of his eventful life in some really great writing.
Grass caused a controversy with this book by revealing that he had served in Waffen-SS for a short period towards the end of the War. Apparently, for many years he鈥檚 been quite critical of Germany鈥檚 treatment of its wartime past, so this late-by-60-years admission smelled of hypocrisy. While a wartime teenager鈥檚 volunteering for SS can be forgiven as a product of hormones and inexperience, such late admission by an intellectual heavyweight who鈥檚 been passing moral judgments cannot be so easily justified. As another reviewer said here, a literary master like Grass can easily attempt to manipulate his readers into sympathizing with him and forgiving him. I don鈥檛 think Grass tried to do that. We do stupid things. We end up with contradictions. We try to hide it. And we falter morally. Who hasn鈥檛 been there?
Grass caused a controversy with this book by revealing that he had served in Waffen-SS for a short period towards the end of the War. Apparently, for many years he鈥檚 been quite critical of Germany鈥檚 treatment of its wartime past, so this late-by-60-years admission smelled of hypocrisy. While a wartime teenager鈥檚 volunteering for SS can be forgiven as a product of hormones and inexperience, such late admission by an intellectual heavyweight who鈥檚 been passing moral judgments cannot be so easily justified. As another reviewer said here, a literary master like Grass can easily attempt to manipulate his readers into sympathizing with him and forgiving him. I don鈥檛 think Grass tried to do that. We do stupid things. We end up with contradictions. We try to hide it. And we falter morally. Who hasn鈥檛 been there?
February 24, 2021
鈥� Bir pazar g眉n眉 -鈥楶azar 莽ocu臒usun sen,鈥� derdi hep, i莽inden s眉r眉nerek, ba臒谋rarak 莽谋kt谋臒谋m annem; erken ya艧lar谋ndan beri kompleksinden vazge莽meyen 莽ocu臒un, o ana kuzusunun on d枚rt ya艧谋ndayken bile kuca臒谋na oturdu臒u annem; zenginlik ve 艧枚hreti, s谋cak 眉lkeleri, cennet vaat edercesine vaat etti臒im, bu konuda yeminler etti臒im, hayaller sundu臒um annem; borcu olanlar谋n bor莽lar谋n谋 k眉莽眉k taksitlerle tahsil etmemi 鈥撯€楥umalar谋 莽almal谋s谋n kap谋lar谋n谋, haftal谋klar谋ndan ellerinde bir 艧ey kalm谋艧 olur o zaman鈥�- bana 枚臒reten annem; benim uyutulmu艧 iyi vicdan谋m, bast谋r谋lm谋艧 k枚t眉 vicdan谋m olan annem; gitgide 莽o臒alan kemirgenler gibi i莽inde b眉y眉yen kayg谋lara ve korkulara neden oldu臒um annem; alacaklar谋m谋z谋 toplayarak kazand谋臒谋m parayla Anneler G眉n眉'nde elektrik 眉t眉s眉 -yoksa kristal k芒se miydi?- hediye etti臒im annem; ben, salak 莽ocuk, g枚n眉ll眉 olarak askere yaz谋ld谋臒谋mda u臒urlamak i莽in gara gelmeyen -鈥楽eni 枚l眉me yolluyorlar鈥�- annem; K枚ln'den Hamburg'a trenle giderken, Ruslar olanca vah艧etiyle gelince neler ya艧ad谋臒谋n谋 sordu臒um, ama tek kelime etmeyen -鈥楰枚t眉 olan her 艧ey unutulmal谋...鈥�- annem; bana skat oynamay谋 枚臒reten, 谋slatt谋臒谋 ba艧parma臒谋yla k芒臒谋t paralar谋 ve yiyecek kuponlar谋n谋 sayan annem; on parma臒谋yla piyanoda a臒谋r a臒谋r akan par莽alar 莽alan ve kendisinin okumad谋臒谋 kitaplar谋 benim i莽in yan yana dizen annem; 眉莽 erkek karde艧inden geriye sadece orta b眉y眉kl眉kte bir bavulu ancak dolduran 艧eyler kalan ve bende erkek karde艧lerini bulan -鈥楤眉t眉n bunlar sana Arthur ile Paul'den ge莽mi艧, biraz da Alfons'tan...鈥�- annem; yumurta sar谋ma 艧eker kar谋艧t谋ran annem; ben sabunu 谋s谋rd谋臒谋mda g眉len annem; Do臒u'dan gelen sigaralar i莽en ve ara s谋ra dumandan halkalar 眉flemeyi ba艧aran annem; bana, pazar g眉n眉 do臒an 莽ocu臒una g眉venen -bu y眉zden G眉zel Sanatlar Akademisi'nin y谋ll谋臒谋n谋n hep ayn谋 sayfas谋n谋 a莽an, annem; bana, o臒ulcu臒una her 艧eyi veren ve pek az 艧ey alan annem; benim sevin莽lerimin ve kederlerimin vadisi olan, eskiden yazd谋臒谋mda ve 艧imdi yazarken, 枚l眉m眉nden sonra bile, omzumun 眉st眉nden bak谋p 鈥楽il 艧unu, 莽irkin olmu艧,鈥� diyen -ama ben onu pek dinlemezdim, dinledi臒im zamansa art谋k 莽ok ge莽 olurdu- annem; beni sanc谋 莽ekerek do臒uran ve sanc谋 莽ekerek 枚l眉rken ara vermeden yazabileyim diye 枚zg眉r b谋rakm谋艧 olan annem; benimle, sadece benimle yolculuklara 莽谋kabilsin ve g眉zellikleri, sadece g眉zellikleri g枚rebilsin, sonun da, 鈥楤unu da g枚rebildim ya, ne g眉zel, ne g眉zel,鈥� diyebilsin diye beyaz k芒臒谋d谋n 眉zerinde 枚p眉p uyand谋rmak istedi臒im annem; annem, benim annem 24 Ocak 1954'te 枚ld眉. Ama ben sonra a臒lad谋m, 莽ok sonra.鈥� (s.321)
August 24, 2024
Erakordselt nauditav lugemine. Mati Sirkel eestindab ikka ja alati t盲iuslikult.
June 23, 2017
N茫o dou cinco estrelas, mas s茫o quatro estrelas e qualquer coisa. E n茫o dou* apesar de considerar que, de todos os livros lidos de G眉nter Grass at茅 脿 data (contei seis com este incluido), este 茅, sem sombra para d煤vidas, o melhor. 脡 declaradamente auto-biogr谩fico.
Neste livro Grass confessa-se. Confessa aquilo que muitos alem茫es, que viveram a Guerra, procuraram ocultar dos outros e de si pr贸prios no p贸s Segunda Guerra Mundial por vergonha: pertenceu 脿s SS. O seu papel n茫o foi relevante nas SS, mas ainda assim integrou-as e isso foi o bastante para se sentir culpado, envergonhado com isso, sentimentos que o acompanharam toda a vida. At茅 ao 煤ltimo dia.
Neste "Descascando a Cebola" ficamos tamb茅m a compreender a rela莽茫o existente entre as obras de Grass e a sua vida. Cada uma delas quase que tem, ou tem mesmo, algo de auto-biogr谩fico. 脡 uma leitura interessante, sobretudo para aqueles que pretendam conhecer um pouco da "psique" alem茫 mais recente.
* - Porque tive momentos em que achei que o autor se esgotou em alguns temas, como a imperiosa necessidade de satisfa莽茫o de desejo sexual do autor, uma vez terminada a Guerra. O tema podia ser abordado, sim -somos humanos de carne e osso - , mas creio que o foi de forma excessiva e isso tornou-se, para mim, aborrecido... E essa foi uma das cr铆ticas feitas aquando da publica莽茫o na Alemanha e 茅, no meu entender, justificada.
Neste livro Grass confessa-se. Confessa aquilo que muitos alem茫es, que viveram a Guerra, procuraram ocultar dos outros e de si pr贸prios no p贸s Segunda Guerra Mundial por vergonha: pertenceu 脿s SS. O seu papel n茫o foi relevante nas SS, mas ainda assim integrou-as e isso foi o bastante para se sentir culpado, envergonhado com isso, sentimentos que o acompanharam toda a vida. At茅 ao 煤ltimo dia.
Neste "Descascando a Cebola" ficamos tamb茅m a compreender a rela莽茫o existente entre as obras de Grass e a sua vida. Cada uma delas quase que tem, ou tem mesmo, algo de auto-biogr谩fico. 脡 uma leitura interessante, sobretudo para aqueles que pretendam conhecer um pouco da "psique" alem茫 mais recente.
* - Porque tive momentos em que achei que o autor se esgotou em alguns temas, como a imperiosa necessidade de satisfa莽茫o de desejo sexual do autor, uma vez terminada a Guerra. O tema podia ser abordado, sim -somos humanos de carne e osso - , mas creio que o foi de forma excessiva e isso tornou-se, para mim, aborrecido... E essa foi uma das cr铆ticas feitas aquando da publica莽茫o na Alemanha e 茅, no meu entender, justificada.
Read
August 27, 2014The modern American memoir has decayed into mawkish, simpering shopworn confessionalism-- the sort of thing that was embarrassing back when Sylvia Plath scrawled "Daddy, Daddy, you bastard I'm through," and now is almost beneath reproach.
Fortunately, the fine tradition of the memoir as a catalyst for deep introspection and irony and exploration of larger themes is alive and well in Herr Grass' version. Here was a guy who did it all, and has to face the fact, again and again, that for a bit, he was not only one of the bad guys, he was one of the really bad guys.
That being said, he's not that apologetic. He talks about being in the Waffen-SS in the same way I talk about my time as a stoner layabout at the same age. For a man who has spent the better part of a century wagging his finger at the German people for their inability to come to terms with their own history (and getting a Nobel for the same), he is a hypocrite of the highest order, hiding his past, and then not coming to terms with his own history in the public forum that he seems to have created specifically for coming to terms with his own history.
Fortunately, the fine tradition of the memoir as a catalyst for deep introspection and irony and exploration of larger themes is alive and well in Herr Grass' version. Here was a guy who did it all, and has to face the fact, again and again, that for a bit, he was not only one of the bad guys, he was one of the really bad guys.
That being said, he's not that apologetic. He talks about being in the Waffen-SS in the same way I talk about my time as a stoner layabout at the same age. For a man who has spent the better part of a century wagging his finger at the German people for their inability to come to terms with their own history (and getting a Nobel for the same), he is a hypocrite of the highest order, hiding his past, and then not coming to terms with his own history in the public forum that he seems to have created specifically for coming to terms with his own history.
April 15, 2013
Overcome with emotions, I have a hard time putting his memoir down. I am lost in my reading. In some parts I'm saddened because he has abandoned his belief in a personal God with finality. Curiosity also gets hold of me, especially when he talks of his adolescent urges and liaisons, his ambitions, the books and paintings that have transformed him. But I'm depressed when he talks about the war, or when he chooses to skip some very important parts, like what happened to his family while he was away. He does write about it, albeit scantily.
Sometimes the loudest narratives are the ones untold.
Not once during the few years she had left did my mother ever so much as drop a hint or utter a word that might indicate what had gone on in the empty shop, in the basement, or in the apartment, nothing that might indicate where and how often she had been raped by Russian soldiers. It was not until after she died that I learned鈥攁nd then only indirectly from my sister鈥攖hat to protect her daughter she had offered himself to them. There were no words.
Sometimes the loudest narratives are the ones untold.
June 15, 2021
Neparasta autobiogr膩fija, kas pati ir liter膩rs darbs. Grass atkl膩ti apraksta savu pieredzi hitlerj奴gendos un SS. Vi艈拧 c墨n膩s ar visur eso拧o klus膿拧anu par to, ka da啪i cilv膿ki paz奴d. M膿mums padara vi艈u traku. Vi艈拧 nesaka - es biju tikai b膿rns. Vi艈拧 apzin膩s, ka bija da募a no visas klus膿拧anas.
P膿c kara Grass apraksta sagrauto pasauli un sagrautos cilv膿kus. Vi艈拧 st膩sta par savu izsalkumu, kas s膩kum膩 ir p膿c 膿diena, tad p膿c sievietes, bet beig膩s - m膩kslas. Un ar p膿d膿jo neiet viegli. Savas gaitas vi艈拧 s膩k, ka募ot kapakme艈us. Vi艈拧 krogos iem膩c膩s sm膿姆膿t un run膩 par visa eso拧膩 mestam墨bu, jo eksistenci膩lisms taj膩 br墨d墨 ir kruts. Vi艈拧 atrod sievu un nok募奴t l墨dz rakstniec墨bai.
Vienlaikus vi艈拧 atceras gan b奴拧anu SS, gan savu p膩r膿jo dz墨vi, lobot s墨polu. Un m膿s zin膩m, k膩 iet ar s墨polu aiztik拧anu. Birst asaras. Pat zinot visus notikumus, vienm膿r galvenais ir tas, k膩 vi艈拧 raksta. Un tas ir br墨ni拧姆墨gi.
P膿c kara Grass apraksta sagrauto pasauli un sagrautos cilv膿kus. Vi艈拧 st膩sta par savu izsalkumu, kas s膩kum膩 ir p膿c 膿diena, tad p膿c sievietes, bet beig膩s - m膩kslas. Un ar p膿d膿jo neiet viegli. Savas gaitas vi艈拧 s膩k, ka募ot kapakme艈us. Vi艈拧 krogos iem膩c膩s sm膿姆膿t un run膩 par visa eso拧膩 mestam墨bu, jo eksistenci膩lisms taj膩 br墨d墨 ir kruts. Vi艈拧 atrod sievu un nok募奴t l墨dz rakstniec墨bai.
Vienlaikus vi艈拧 atceras gan b奴拧anu SS, gan savu p膩r膿jo dz墨vi, lobot s墨polu. Un m膿s zin膩m, k膩 iet ar s墨polu aiztik拧anu. Birst asaras. Pat zinot visus notikumus, vienm膿r galvenais ir tas, k膩 vi艈拧 raksta. Un tas ir br墨ni拧姆墨gi.
October 31, 2012
Non conoscevo Grass e non 猫 stato amore a prima vista. La forma barocca e pesante. Un compiacimento lessicale a volte stucchevole; altre disgustoso. Metafore troppo liriche. Periodare lungo, articolato, complesso. Insistenti domande retoriche. Una pressante autoreferenzialit脿, da scrittore affermato. Qualche immagine efficace e originale. Lo sguardo su una Germania post-bellica, e povera, resta l'unica occasione curiosa di questo testo; per conoscere. La seconda met脿 del libro, pi霉 scorrevole, non mi indurr脿 comunque ad acquistare i romanzi (forse avrei dovuto cominciare con quelli?). Il prezzo della copertina rigida 猫 eccessivo, a mio giudizio, per questa lettura.
January 22, 2018
G眉nter Grass e un om cu multe sert膬ra葯e pe care le deschide pe r芒nd. Ce scoate din ele numai el 葯tie. Se simpatizeaz膬 v膬dit, uneori at芒t de tare 卯nc芒t e de prisos s膬-l simpatizezi 葯i tu. Chiar 葯i a葯a, omul e mare c芒t o epoc膬, iar con葲inutul unor sertare mai doscnice e fascinant peste m膬sur膬.
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