Marcel Reich Ranicki

The Lord of the books has died at age 93. A shadow of his former self, weighed down by age and cancer, he was humiliated by media coverage, when he napped away at literature contests those last months and promptly was shown to the public. Revenge is sweet, journalists might have thought, thinking of how he had treated  prospective as well as successful authors. He had been no nice person as a literary critic. Thumbs up or thumbs down, and nothing in between. Entertainmain as the ultimate goal was what books had to convey to their readers, and if they did not, then God have mercy! He reminded me of my grandfather, strong-minded, self-opinionated and powerfully eloquent, feared by many. May Germany´s most famous literary critic rest in peace, and may his successor be as witty as he was but twice as friendly, that would be a welcome change in the literary landscape.