Preview of The Rat Summary:

In the agenda of The Rat human civilization since the late 1950s has moved inexorably toward catastrophe.

The national culture of early 1980s Germany is representative of the whole world as it moves towards doomsday.

Grass does not predict the recent unification of Germany; instead, he predicts the continued growth of an inherent and tragic fascism, which not only was not defeated in World War II, but also actually survived and flourished as the subtextual political principle of the victorious allies who, in turn, nurtured it in the rebuilding of modern Germany. Fascists were never out of power, much less repentant. Because it is inherently perverted and self-killing, fascism will destroy the world.

A civilization made by rats — a skewed but obvious allegorical representation of humanity — emerges in a postholocaust period. The surviving rats miss mankind. In fact, they imitate mankind in...