Mein Leben

by Marcel Reich-Ranicki

Book Overview

Marcel Reich-Ranicki is remarkable for both his unlikely life story and his brilliant career as the "pope of German letters." His sublimely written autobiography is at once a fascinating adventure... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3421051496
• ISBN13: 9783421051493
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt
• Length: 565 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Discover the book--it's worth it!

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.

Warsaw ghetto

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.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Selfmade Man Extraordinaire

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).

binding

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.

My Life

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.