Gunter Grass's PEELING THE ONION caused a furor in Germany after its publication when it revealed for the first time that Grass had been a member of the Waffen SS, the combat wing of Hitler's feared secret police. Detractors and defenders were numerous, and some groups demanded that Grass return his Nobel Prize for literature, but no one should take a stance until they have read Grass's exuberant memoir, which has the same zest for life and gnawing guilt that animate his novels. Grass slips in and out of third person when discussing his life, and it is not always easy to discern fact from fiction--did he meet Pope Benedict XVI when he was a teenage member of the Hitler Youth? Probably not.--but Grass's true sense of shame over his own involvement in Germany's dark past is powerfully felt. For fans of Grass's literature, the book will provide delightful insights into his boisterous postwar life, his bohemian antics, his lovers, his love of jazz, and his formative years as a writer. This is no typical memoir