The Tin Drum (1959)

Big read. Classic and worth the read, just! ( )

Funny I missed rating and reviewing this jewel. This is the lodestar, the mandrake root, the intrepid ooze making friends in the lukewarm pools of primeval poetry. This was the point of departure. A hallowed book I finished in a laundromat. I almost can't remember my reading life before wee Oskar. Eels, fizz, post offices, onions and Dusters have littered my imagination seemingly forever. I wanted to read the new translation and likely will someday. My memories of my own grandmother now smell like butter.
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https://roxanasunwaveringopinions.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/the-tin-drum/ ( )

Excerpts from my original GR review (Dec 2012):
- 1959 novel, set in Free City of Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, the author's birthplace. The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature to Grass, "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history."
- This is a magical tale of memoir and social satire, centered on the life of our narrator, little Oskar Matzerath, who looks back upon 40-some years of eccentricity, confined now to a mental hospital in 1950s Dusseldorf. Beginning with a fable-like story of his mother's conception, compliments of an arsonist on the lam, the elements of Oskar's fantastical life are revealed. He is born with adult sensibilities virtually intact, and decides, at age three, to avoid becoming a "politician, or grocer" (his nazi-adherent father owns a store), to stop growing. He sneaks books by Goethe and Rasputin from the baker's bookshelves, while working to play the "ignoramus".
- In time, he uses his drumming skills to disrupt political rallies, and also discovers a glass-shattering skill, which he effectively employs when anyone tries to take away his drum. He toddles along as a mute, but intelligent observer of his surroundings, which include his mother's not-so-secret dalliances with a Polish postal worker. Oskar's narration is full of biting wit, occasional lewdness, and political satire. Religion - the boy Jesus and the Madonna especially - gets a lot of attention here, along with death, classic culture and, at a periphery, war.
- Aside even from the magic realism, this is a bizarre book. Matzerath is one of the oddest characters you'll ever come across in literary fiction. As much as I was carried along, the novel felt too long well before the end. As admirably imaginative as Grass is, too much of a good things can become a challenge. However, if you have any interest in...post World War II German Lit, then I'd recommend it. ( )

Though not a hard book to read, it was hard to understand. I had to rely on commentaries and reviews to understand what all the symbolism means. Nevertheless, it was certainly a masterpiece in how Grass depicted the impact of war on the Germans. Grass also switched between the use of the first person and third person in telling Oskar's story. He also occasionally reminded us that Oskar is an unreliable narrator, the most obvious instance was when Bruno took over the storytelling for a chapter and declares that he doesn't trust Oskar's version. Towards the end of the book, Oskar also kept recounting the past episodes in his life. It is as if Grass knows that his book is long and readers will forget what transpired earlier on. ( )