Best novel of the quarter century

[David Casseres]

On 5/28/06, Riot Riot <lyricsborn at gmx.de> wrote:

> I wonder what english native speakers think of german-writing authors they read in their language? Like Günter Grass, Patrick Süskind or Franz Kafka whom nearly every student around here loathes? Really would like to know :)

I read Grass in English in my student days in the mid-1960's and liked
him a lot (The Tin Drum and Dog Years).  He was a fresh voice then, at
least to a young reader.

All I have read of Süskind is his first novel, Perfume, and I thought
it was a fine, entertaining tour de force.

Kafka is very popular with Americans, including many who haven't read
him; most of us who have read him, like me, have only read some of the
short fiction, especially The Penal Colony and (of course) The
Metamorphosis.  His tropes of anxiety and guilt seem to have a
powerful resonance for us.  I can imagine that if I were required to
study his works in any depth, I might loathe him.