SOURCE: Glass, Erlis. Review of Nach Maβgabe meiner Begreifungskraft, by Monika Maron. World Literature Today 67, no. 4 (autumn 1993): 822-23.

In the following review, Glass compliments the essays in Nach Maβgabe meiner Begreifungskraft, noting the collection's “honesty and passion.”

Monika Maron is a well-established contemporary author of novels and short stories. Her most recent novel, Stille Zeile Sechs, appeared in 1991. The twenty articles in Nach Maβgabe meiner Begreifungskraft include her own autobiographical comments, “Ich war ein antifaschistisches Kind”; commentary on the reunification of the Germanies, on writers' quarrels, and on Ernst Toller; a review of Judith Kuckart's novel Wahl der Waffen; and a lovely essay on the process of writing itself, “Schreiben auf dem Lande.” Some readers may find the essays written during the early days of reunification of less interest than later pieces. Insights seem faded now, and their impact lessened by frequent repetition; but it...