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As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work and public persona. A life's work dripping with perpetual delusions of moral high ground contrasted by the very late revelation of having been one of those he so colorfully looked down upon. Apologetic rambling on behalf of the general populace who didn't know anything about what was going on and couldn't have done anything, either.

Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation and that's not even mentioning his repulsive, monotonous style of writing.

If you're planning to read a modern German novel, avoid this guy at all cost. Read Handke or Jelinek, Glavinic or Kracht, Gernhard or Böll. Or any of a million others. Don't let anyone sell you the Tin Drum, please.

Jelinek may write an Austrian novel, but not a German. Handke is Austrian, Glavinic is Austrian, Kracht is Swiss. I would also not list somebody like Jelinek under German literature, but under German language literature. Jelinek writes mostly about Austria and not Germany.

If you want to read modern German literature there are a lot of other authors: Goetz, Tellkamp, Kehlmann, Müller, ...

Actually 'Die Blechtrommel' is great German literature. Highly recommended.

> Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation

Definitely not. Grass had his problems, but he a lot of good sides, too. It's not black or white.

> As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work and public persona.

Really? How sad.

I won't pretend to offer literary or historical criticism - all I can tell you is that when The Tin Drum movie arrived stateside, it traumatized a lot of people, myself included.

Movies generally do little justice to the books upon which they are based, and probably in the case of The Tin Drum, that might have been a plus.

Nevertheless, when I have a chance to watch a German language movie - and to be fair, it's stuff you find on Netflix - The Tin Drum sets the standard.