I picked this up at a Bookcrossing point in a pub. It's really short, but felt longer, I found it quite a tedious read. It presents aspects of Nazi Germany as seen through the eyes of a group of children. The central character, Mahlke, is an oddball that the others look up to, but also find weird. I just found him weird. I finished it because it was so short, but otherwise would have abandoned this halfway I think. ( )

I absolutely loved the Tin Drum and had been looking forward to my next read with this author. I feel really disappointed because Cat and Mouse does not even come close to the Tin Drum in my opinion. ( )

Classic

I found this book incredibly compelling for reasons I am struggling to put my finger on. Grass is, as usual, addressing the advent of Nazism in Germany through the most oblique of angles, in this case a portrait of a strange, aloof, superior boy called Joachim Mahlke. Mahlke's development from awkward boy to Aryan war hero is charted by a close friend and admirer. Grass paints a vivid picture of Mahlke, the archetypal German soldier, with love, affection and fear in equal measure. The narrative is only occasionally visible, but studded with Grass-esque motifs such as the half sunken polish warboat and that little boy with his tin drum, resulting in an almost dreamlike journey through Mahlke's life. Mahlke is one of the most singular characters in world literature, yet manages to represent a whole country's descent into madness better than almost any I have read. Consequently, 'Cat and Mouse', despite saying little directly, speaks volumes in its details.