Günter Grass is more than a writer; he is a phenomenon. Recognized in Germany by friend and foe alike as a formidable artistic and political force, abroad he is viewed almost as a personification of Germany and of postwar German literature. Yet, Grass has never pandered to his own popularity: what he writes, says, and does is just as likely to strike an open nerve as a responsive chord. His fame and his infamy are both by-products of his single-minded pursuit of his mission: to make Germany's Nazi experience a moral yardstick--a kind of ethical absolute zero--against which to measure all other movements and ideologies. Beginning his artistic career as a sculptor, he has become a writer of lyric poetry, drama, fiction, ballet libretti, and political tracts; he is also a painter, graphic designer, and etcher. Many of his ideas seem to have been worked out...