I re-phrased my summary of the reviewer's portrayal of Thomas Mann before you posted—but, yes, I agree that it's an unfair and misleading picture of Mann.
Mann became an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime after he emigrated, especially after his arrival in America, but like many other prominent Germans of his era, he was silent during Hitler's rise to power. Despite abhorring what Nazism stood for (and despite having a Jewish mother and being a gay man—but also for those reasons), Mann did not publicly denounce the Nazis until 1936.
There were reasons for his passivity that did not amount merely to his being a "great respecter of authority." My intention in posting (aside from sharing a favorite line of his writing) was to point out that the reviewer's portrait of him as such lacked nuanced.
Mann became an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime after he emigrated, especially after his arrival in America, but like many other prominent Germans of his era, he was silent during Hitler's rise to power. Despite abhorring what Nazism stood for (and despite having a Jewish mother and being a gay man—but also for those reasons), Mann did not publicly denounce the Nazis until 1936.
There were reasons for his passivity that did not amount merely to his being a "great respecter of authority." My intention in posting (aside from sharing a favorite line of his writing) was to point out that the reviewer's portrait of him as such lacked nuanced.