Book Reviews,  Europe,  FICTION,  Nazis,  Prize Winner

Crabwalk by Gunter Grass

A slow, intelligent, patient novel I listened to on tape about how three generations of Germans relate to Nazis. The central theme is the sinking of an ocean liner in which nearly 10,000 people lost their lives making it one of the greatest ocean catastrophes of all times. There’s a Stalinist grandmother who lived in East Germany, her liberal, apologist, knee-jerk anti-Nazi son, and his neo-Nazi son. I skipped one of the five tapes by accident and that may have helped prevent the story from becoming too tedious.