Martin Walser, Dies Aged 96

Hello Gentle Reader,
 
Postwar German literature is made up some of the greatest writers of the 20^th Century who grappled with moral wasteland left behind by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, made further complicated by the divide of the state into West and East Germany. These writers which included: Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and W.G. Sebald, reckoned with history, memory, moral responsibility, guilt and regret. It had become clear that German literature would be the medium in which the atrocities of the war would be confronted, remembered, discussed and reckoned with. Among these venerated giants was another, Martin Walser, who never achieved the same international recognition as his contemporaries, yet was equally dedicated to memory as moral responsibility. As a writer, Martin Walser was renowned for caricaturizing the perceived idyll of the provincial life, criticizing the conservative middle class. Throughout his novels, Walser probed the internal struggles of the German individual in the postwar period. Walser's novel: "The Gadarene Club," satirized the economic boom of the postwar in West Germany, the so-called Economic Miracle, while his most famous novel: "A Runaway Horse," is a comedy of two middle aged friends reacquainted once again; their relationship divulges into a power struggle and midlife crisis, between two men who still struggle to figure life out through very different means and perspectives. Martin Walser was not above controversy, having won the 1998 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Walser commented on the unrelenting shame and regret forced upon Germans due to the Nazi's war crimes and holocaust. Walser lamented that this continued propagation would inevitably cheapen any sense of remorse and sentiment by Germans as being nothing more then lip service, having lost its potency and sincerity. Further criticism would be leveraged against the writer, when his novel "Death of a Critic," was criticized for containing antisemitic imagery. Despite these controversies, Martin Walser continued to write and was appreciated by his readers for his discussions regarding individual failure against the backdrop of societal expectations.
 
Rest in Peace Martin Walser.
 
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
 
M. Mary