Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Sein Leben (insel taschenbuch)

by Thomas Anz

Über ein halbes Jahrhundert prägte Marcel Reich-Ranicki als erfolgreichster, wirkungsvollster und umstrittenster Kritiker die deutsche Literaturlandschaft.
Geboren 1920 in Polen, verbrachte er den Großteil seiner Kindheit und Jugend in Berlin, bis er 1938 von den Nationalsozialisten nach Warschau deportiert wurde. Im Ghetto lernte er seine spätere Frau Teofila kennen, gemeinsam gelingt es ihnen, 1943 zu fliehen und sich zu verstecken. Nach Kriegsende war er für den polnischen Geheimdienst und das polnische Konsulat in London tätig, wurde aber 1950 entlassen und aus der kommunistischen Partei ausgeschlossen. 1958 kehrte er nach Deutschland zurück, zunächst nach Hamburg, dann nach Frankfurt am Main, wo er bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 2013 lebte.
In diesem Leben gibt es, das zeigt die Biografie von Thomas Anz, einen „doppelten Boden“, hinter dem viel zu entdecken über den Zusammenhang seiner starken Mutterbindung mit seiner obsessiven Liebe zur deutschen Literatur, über das Scheitern seiner Karriere im polnischen Geheimdienst, über die verborgenen Motive beim Schreiben seiner Autobiografie oder über die Kriterien seiner Kritik.
Thomas Anz, Nachlassverwalter Marcel Reich-Ranickis, stellt die bewegte und bewegende Lebensgeschichte des berühmten Literaturkritikers dar, bezieht die letzten Lebensjahre mit ein, berücksichtigt jüngere Forschungen und greift auf bisher unbekannte Dokumente aus dem Nachlass zurück.

245 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 18, 2020

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is getting recursive: writing a review of a book that reviews the world's most famous book reviewer. I found Marcel Reich-Ranicki's 1999 autobiography "Mein Leben" riveting, 553 pages of vivid prose: An amazing story of beating the odds, surviving the Warsaw ghetto, and even more improbably, becoming a rock-star book reviewer in post-war Germany, a homely-looking man instantly recognized by cab drivers and passers-by. Not to mention his long and happy marriage to the young woman he met under the most tragic of circumstances. Despite the autobiography's length and its disarming candor, there are -- not exactly "blank spaces," but very vague phases, like his time in London employed by the post-war Polish government. So I immediately ordered the 2020 MRR biography by his literary executor Thomas Anz. Published after the MRR died in 2013 and after his Polish security files were made available for research. After all, MRR insisted that a good reviewer be totally independent and review the text not the writer, criticizing bad writing even by good friends, who typically became former friends. So after heaping praise and admiration on his deceased colleague, Anz feels authorized by his subject himself to point out the man's weaknesses as well. In fact, there is substantial evidence that MRR was an enthusiastic "communist spy" while in London, moving on to literary criticism in Germany only after being evicted from the Polish communist inner circles. Anz presents the facts in an even-handed fashion. Even the title "Sein Leben," positions the biography as a corrective addendum to "Mein Leben." Reading the two books together certainly creates a more balanced and accurate portrait. Anz emphasizes how MRR insisted on the distinction between a writer and a reviewer. Once in a snit over an author's negative reaction to negative criticism, MRR insisted that writers understand about as much about literature as bird understand ornithology. Anz's highest compliment is that MRR's "Mein Leben" was such an achievement that it transcends literary criticism to become literature. At the end of his life, the super star literary critic had become a super star writer himself, and worthy of reviews himself...