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Article: The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
- Article from:
- Partisan Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Partisan Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Translated by Ewald Osers. Princeton University Press. $35.00.
LESS THAN TWENTY YEARS AFTER the Nazis brutally murdered his mother and father, Marcel Reich-Ranicki went back to live in Germany, where he remains today at eighty. Why? Marcel Reich-Ranicki was born in a small Polish town in 1920. Although Marcel's grandfather was a successful merchant, his father was not. Marcel remembers him as a gentle man who enjoyed the traditions of the synagogue and the social world it provided, an educated man who spoke Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and flawless German. Marcel is certain that if his father had been asked to describe who he was, he would ...