Die frühsommerliche Walserdebatte ist jenseits des Ärmelkanals beim Economist angekomen:

«IT CAN often seem that the only sure way to get a new novel to the attention of the German reading public is a publishing row or literary scandal. This presumably was not what Frank Schirrmacher, the literary editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, intended, when in May he explained in his page — not that anyone had asked — why the paper wouldn't be serialising Martin Walser's latest novel, "Tod eines Kritikers" (Death of a Critic)»

Und wird mit klarem Urteil sofort wieder abgeschlossen:

«"Death of a Critic" is an atrocious book, so bad that not even Mr Reich-Ranicki could have wished it worse. (...) Meanwhile Mr Reich-Ranicki may even be regretting his frequently made observation that a writer need not take the trouble to write a good book if his publishers can make so much money with a bad one. Sales of "Tod eines Kritikers" are said to be upwards of 150,000.»