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To: Neocon who wrote (23766)	9/30/1999 9:39:00 AM
From: MNI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24894

I haven't much to say. My degree of information about his works is not higher, maybe lower than yours. Destructive: a dogmatic leftist, and a very pretentious person (the second crime is worse, actually, if not for red army fraction terrorist contacts). I did not find the 'frolicsome' label characteristic on the whole, rather 'dogged, and voluminous prose'. However, he clearly has his moments, in which he produces prose that should be read aloud to appreciate rythm and sound of the language. OTOH this seems to come only in short passages buried in epic novels with an unclear structure. I remember an impression of the river Weichsel that really moved me when read in the radio (never been there, and could have been any other river, but it sensually created the impression of things floating down the stream, and this was well-written associated with snapshots of destructive historic happenings at the place). Also from some film passages I can see where the 'frolicsome' attribute may come from: he is good in reproducing specific local characters of German idioms, including idiomatic phrases. This is useful in creating the 'history from the other side (downside)' perspective and building credible characters that are to suffer history. In later works, it seems to be more about Nostalgia than anything else. BTW Kohl didn't like Grass (and said it), and vice versa, of course. Before the Kohl era, Grass had a stronger political impact, was often interviewed by 'Spiegel' magazine and TV. Since the Kohl era started, Grass was impotent, had lost credibility. Since reunification (yesterday, ten years ago, the Prague embassy refugees were allowed out into Western Germany) he (strangely :-) ) gained credibility - as a national artist symbol. However, I doubt if more than a handful people in Germany have actually read his 'final' epos 'Ein weites Feld'. PS DISCLAIMER: It should be understood that by no way I am a literary expert of any kind ...