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The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki.

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Considering how little is translated and published here in the U.S. from the German, it is heartening that Marcel Reich-Ranicki's autobiography is among the chosen. It is a moving testimony of a life dislocated and reconstructed several times over, of a youth in Berlin, survival in the Warsaw Ghetto,life in post-War Poland, and a return to West Germany, where he rose to be the the most esteemed and, I suppose, also feared literary critic. His portrayal of the German literary scene from the sixties through the nineties by means of vignettes of its chief representatives is poignant and revealing. His assessment including that of his own role within it is likely to have provoked controversy.

Throughout the book emerges the self-portrait of a courageous,persevering, and also pained and sensitive man, who as a much-published author, radio and television personality seems to have been simultaneously at the center and at the margins of German cultural life for four decades.

I happened to be in the midst of reading the German version of the book when the events of September 11 threw our world out of kilter. Day after day I went back to Reich-Ranicki's "Mein Leben" with bated breath to escape from the present, not into an idyllic past, but to gain perspective on human suffering from a wise old man who describes his own lifelong anguish without sentimentality or moralizing. There may be other takes on his life story, but no one can deny his undying passion for the literature of the German language and his pursuit of it against all odds. To have an English translation to share with my friends is indeed something to write home about.

It is ironic, to say the least, that Reich-Ranicki, who was born in Poland, raised in Berlin, deported to Poland because of being a Jew, should be called "the Pope of German Letters." But then was he, whom the popes represent on Earth, not also a Jew? (with apologies to G.E.Lessing).

Marcel Reich-Ranicki deserves only praise for his autobiography. Generally known as a critic, many claim a quite harsh one, he turns the coin and proves that against all odds and unfortunate for the poor victims of his harsh criticism, who desperately tried to cling and hold to the idea that this man might criticise like a God, but he cannot write like One, when it comes to a piece of literature. But in fact, this is a man of words, of literature and keeping a reader interested, not only in his life, but also in a decade of misery and destruction that should not have been. The reoccurring questions that came to my mind while reading: What would I have done, Where would I have been, arise again and again, but can never be answered... And if you had the chance to enjoy looking at Marcel Reich-Ranicki while reading his own words at Frankfurt (an evening held by the "Deutsche Bank"), you might have been sitting next to me. And I suppose, none of us would want to miss this once in a "second" opportunity.

I have read the German edition which is simply called "My Life". When one knows Reich-Ranicki, then one knows that he chose this title not by chance. (It's 'My Life' versus Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'.) It's a marvelous book. You don't have to be German to love it too.

It is interesting how often we see a person through his profession and work. You see an older man on television discussing books, you know that he is a literary critic writing reviews and books. Sure, they say that he is the one, that he is 'the Pope' of German letters, but if you are not interested in literature why would you care about a bookish man. What could be interesting about his life? If you are that person, reconsider. True, parts of the book are about literature and won't appeal to some (though try not to skip them either), but there is so much more. If not for the fact that author's early life happened in so tragic years of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust, one could call the book a thriller, an adventure of an extraordinary height. The tragedy of these years makes the story real and sobering, but exciting nevertheless. Born in Poland of Polish Jewish parents, moved to Germany, deported by the Nazis back to Poland, survived Warsaw Ghetto and the war, served as Polish diplomat in England, wrote for Polish papers, returned to West Germany, became the leading literary critic in Germany. Read, read, and read one more time.

The most moving part of this book is its description of life in the Warsaw ghetto -- of how the Jews created a symphony orchestra and the Nazis' response to it, of the way that the Nazis chose which Jews were to be "resettled" and which would temporarily be allowed to live, and of Reich-Ranicki's and his wife's means of survival. I wish that Reich-Ranicki had been more introspective in the book, but one can't have everything -- it's a great book nonetheless.

A complicated and heart-breaking story of great hardhips overcome is told in simple and elegant prose in this translation - and I understand that the original also is clear and beautifully written. I was entranced and moved by this book.

This book was recommended to me by someone who knew of my interest in central European history and, particularly, the social history of Europe in the WW2 era. I'm glad he did; it was absorbing. MR-R was born in Poland of a Jewish family and moved to Berlin as a young boy. He was an excellent student and passionately fond of German literature.

As a young man, he and his family were made to move to the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis. He escaped all of the regular transports from the ghetto to Treblinka, where the arrivals were gassed, because he had an exempt job translating official documents between Polish and German. But he witnessed the transports of his parents and countless friends. When the day came that the Nazis decided to clear out the ghetto entirely, he and his wife were fortunate to escape and go into hiding until the end of the war.

His life in Poland after the war became precarious during the late Stalinist era, as Jews became semi-official targets of government action. It was easy to understand why he felt it was a good idea to escape to Germany with his wife and son. There, he has had an extremely successful career as a critic.

The book tells MR-R's personal story, but is as much about his experiences with German literature and arts. He reminisces about artists from the 1930s to nearly the present day. It's not all a love letter, though. He is a highly opinionated man and doesn't hesitate to be critical. He is very funny on the subject of the egotism of writers.

MR-R unflinchingly reveals the anti-Semitism that still affected his life after the war, with some of the most hurtful blows coming from people he thought were friends. A good friend invites him to a party, without telling him that the guest of honor is Albert Speer, one of Hitler's closest confidantes and the head of the Nazi slave labor program. This so-called friend even hauls him and his wife over to be introduced to Speer.

Another friend and colleague, the historian Joachim Fest, worked with MR-R as editors at the important newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung. Fest had been opposed to Nazism growing up and wrote several important books about Nazism, including the first postwar biography of Hitler by a German. In the so-called "historians' dispute" of the 1980s, Fest came down on the side of arguing that Nazi genocide was not "singular." Worse, Fest allowed the newspaper to publish a paper by Ernst Nolte that argued the nonsingularity issue and that the Nazi persecution of the Jews was a reaction of the Bolshevik reign of terror and somehow understandable as a measure to protect the German nation. Weeks went by before Fest would print any kind of detailed response to the Nolte article. As MR-R puts it, he never knew Fest to condone the Nazis' acts, but he frequently wanted to "relativize" them. MR-R asked Fest to disassociate himself from Nolte's views and Fest said he would, but he never did. This ended their longtime friendship.

Despite all that happened to him, MR-R retains his love of German literature and his amazement of all he and his wife lived through. He ends the book with a scene of him and his wife sitting companionably in their living room and his quoting to her these lines from Hugo von Hoffsmanthal:

'Tis a dream, cannot really be true
That we are here together, we two.

This book put me in mind of a much slimmer memoir, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, by Heda Margolius Kovaly. She is another example of a Holocaust survivor who, after the war, was persecuted by Stalinist forces. She, her husband and her parents were sent to the Lodz ghetto from Prague in 1941. In 1944, they were sent to Auschwitz, where her parents were gassed immediately. She survived by escaping a death march to Bergen-Belsen at the end of the war. Her husband survived Auschwitz and the Dachau camp.

After the war, Kovaly and her husband lived in Prague and her husband became an important official in the Communist Party----though she was skeptical of communism herself. He was one of the many Jews arrested during the notorious Slansky affair (another Stalinist crackdown), tortured and killed. Kovaly and her son were ostracized after that and she lived a hand-to-mouth existence. During the chaos of the Soviet invasion following the Prague Spring uprising, she, her second husband and her son were able to escape the country and wound up in the US, where she became a librarian and literary translator.

In 1996, she and her second husband returned to live in Prague. He died there 10 years later, and she died there last year.

I highly recommend Kovaly's memoir (as well as Reich-Ranicki's). It is written with a wry humor, sharp eye, and vivid detail. Her grievances are many, but she is never self-pitying. Though it is an unsentimental book, it is still filled with love and tenderness for her family.

These books are very different, but both show the very human consequences of having the bad fortune to be born Jewish and live under Hitler's, and then Stalin's, domination. An excellent nonfiction book on the subject is Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder, which describes the horrendous depredations visited by Hitler and Stalin on the lands and people between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki is like the Roger Ebert of German literature. He is also a Jew who barely managed to survive the Warsaw ghetto. An interesting combination, which makes for a fascinating autobiography.

I think that the first half of the book is the strongest. It describes how he went to school in Germany in the 1930's under deteriorating conditions, followed by deportation to the Warsaw ghetto. The book's depiction of life in the Warsaw ghetto is amazing, and the story of his escape and survival is like a thriller.

The second half of the book describes how he rose to become a leading German literary critic, and paints portraits of various eccentric literary personalities that he interacted with. This part of the book might be less exciting to those who do not have a particular interest in German literature, but the crazy characters are amusing regardless of whether one knows anything about their works.

The concept of this work is both unique and intriguing while the execution was boring and trite. I'm certain that persons more familiar with German literature and authors will take great offense at my brief analysis but I learned more about everyone else in Germany than I did about Marcel Reich-Raniki. The first half of the book did keep me interested but always wanting for more, more about him & his wife and a lot less about Max Frisch et al. I was also put-off by his constant references to himself and how important he was. He was lucky to survive the holocost, lucky to have such a position in Germany after the war, but should have left the writing to those whom he reviewed.