Really the lead voice of the young post-war German generation; way back when, I read most of what he wrote, and enjoyed most of it. Terrifically talented, depressing, and funny.
An enormous talent. I have also read a great deal of his writing and enjoyed it.
But when, as a young woman, I read “The Flounder”, he became, for several years, my very favorite author.
RIP
I have to admit that while I am familiar with his work and politics in a very general way I have never sat down and read The Tin Drum or anything else of his. As I understand it the great blow to his prestige came when he “admitted” that he had been a member of the Waffen SS. However the obit in the New York Times says that he was born in October 1927 and conscripted in 1944, when he would have been 16 or 17 years old. I have trouble understanding how a 16 or 17 year old kid found himself in an SS outfit unless it was by the same process that American draft boards used at the same time (every third draftee became a Marine). If so, no culpability would attach to his assignment but I can see real problems in raging against the Nazi regime while keeping silent about his involvement in one of its principal instruments, whether involuntary or not. Am I missing something here?
I must admit I’ve never read him, but I respect him anyway because Kurt Vonnegut raved about him and I trust Kurt. (They took a WW2 tour of Europe that was specially designed to include both U.S. and German vets; the different and shared perspectives on those trips must have been pretty fascinating.)
Grass tried to volunteer for service on a submarine before he was due to be drafted. He was rejected but flagged as a volunteer in general.
You can read his own more detailed account in the New Yorker. It is also a nice short-ish example of his writing.