Günter Grass stands so prominently in the line of fire of Germany's still polarised and politicised cultural life, and has been sniped at so often since The Rat (1986) - A Wide Field (1995) was literally ripped up for the benefit of the press by that other Grand Old Man of German letters, the critic and TV personality Marcel Reich-Ranicki - that it comes almost as a surprise to find a barely noticed survivor: Grass the poet.

LRB 28 October 1999 | PDF Download