Günter Grass (1927–2015)

The Tin Drum announced Grass as a writer who would not let Germany forget. The novel is grotesque, funny, inventive, and relentless in its refusal to look away from what happened. Grass became Germany's literary conscience, a role he inhabited for decades until his 2006 admission that he had served briefly in the Waffen-SS as a teenager. The revelation complicated everything. It did not make his work less important. If anything, it proved his own argument: complicity is everywhere, including in the mirror.

Concepts

agency, alienation, authenticity, conformity, freedom, loneliness, meaning, rebellion, totalitarianism

Notable Works

Resonant Voices

Albert Camus, Rollo May, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Nietzsche, Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes (6)

“Even bad books are books and therefore sacred.” — The Tin Drum (1959)
“He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.” — The Tin Drum (1959)
“Art is uncompromising and life is full of compromises.” — Cat and Mouse (1961)
“The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.” — Dog Years (1963)
“Believing and devouring — a peculiarly German process.” — The Tin Drum (1959)
“Writing — I can say this after years of practice — is a lonely business.” — Peeling the Onion (2006)