The Flounder (1977)

Well. Uh. This is definitely something.

An odd book, to put it mildly. Grass has his trademark humor and historical wisdom here. But the whole concept of the novel is something baffling - a talking fish gives advice to the reincarnations of a man and his cook-wife in the areas near Danzig, and the fish is accused by a gang of radical feminists that he has altered the course of history by instituting the patriarchy. There's also a lot of discussion on food, particularly potatoes.

I have no idea what to make of this, but I will return to it. And maybe on a full stomach, as Grass' writing makes me hunger. ( )

One of the best books I've ever slogged my way through. The way he picks apart man verses woman, via the diplomacy of a fish... well you have to read it to believe it. History, myth, magic, folklore & a love of all food. Fill your belly. ( )

Contrary to my fellow reviewers this was for me a compelling book and , if i'm honest the only Grass novel I have really relished. Amusing , informative and should be read with a lightly chilled chablis . ( )

Gunter Grass indulges in a kind of protohistory of the sexes from the pre-human to modernity, stewed in the broth of legend, with chunks of religion, nationalism, and affectations of the arts.

A hard but slightly overwritten book about the history of Prussia (the Danzig area) and cooks through the eyes of a fish... What a feminist-socialist court can do with a flounder who can be the Zeitgeist or the Tempter...? ( )