Zig Zag: The Politics of Culture and Vice Versa

Munich-based German poet, essayist and editor Enzensberger (Mediocrity and Delusion; Civil Wars) reveals his forcefully lyrical sensibility in this new collection of essays. His subjects range from a look at Bartolome de Las Casas, the Spanish historian of the colonization of the New World, to a vehement indictment of Saddam Hussein in a 1991 article titled, ""Hitler Walks Again."" No slacker for attacking vast targets, he also takes on the World Bank and IMF in a chapter, ""Billions of All Countries, Unite!"" After a number of such subjects in which the author shows his verve and mettle, the reader is inclined to lend him an even more attentive ear when, toward the end of the book, he addresses literary and aesthetic issues, such as the value of the literary avant-garde. Some of these pieces approach Swiftian irony; ""In Praise of the Illiterate,"" where Enzensberger mentions that the German scandal sheet Bild Zeitung ""proved that it is possible to sell the abolition of reading as reading, and to manufacture a print medium for secondary illiterates."" Despite the many different hands involved in translating the present volume, including critic John Simon, who praises the author's ""humanism"" and ""sardonic acumen,"" it reads with force and momentum. This worthy collection suggests that politics and culture are indeed inseparable. (Nov.)