Günter Grass - The Tin Drum (The Danzig Trilogy #1) - Themers Club : Computers , Mobiles and Web Development Themes

henry15112010 · #1 06-24-2014, 11:16 AM

The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentieth century, was published in Ralph Manheim's outstanding translation in 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its young author to the forefront of world literature.

Meet Oskar Matzerath, "the eternal 3-year-old drummer." On the morning of his 3rd birthday, dressed in a striped pullover & patent leather shoes, clutching his drumsticks & his new tin drum, Oskar makes an irrevocable decision: "It was then that I declared, resolved, & determined that I would never under any circumstances be a politician, much less a grocer; that I would stop right there, remain as I was--& so I did; for many years I not only stayed the same size but clung to the same attire." Here is a Peter Pan story with a vengeance. But instead of Never-Never Land, Grass gives us Danzig, a contested city on the Polish-German border; instead of Hook & his pirates, we have the Nazis. In place of Peter himself is Oskar, a twisted puer aeternis with a scream that can shatter glass & a drum rather than a shadow. Published in '59, The Tin Drum's depiction of the Nazi era created a furor in Germany, for the world of Grass' making is rife with corrupt politicians & brutal grocers in brown shirts: "There was once a grocer who closed his store one day in November, because something was doing in town; taking his son Oskar by the hand, he boarded a #5 streetcar & rode to the Langasser Gate, because there as in Zoppot & Langfuhr the synagogue was on fire. The synagogue had almost burned down & the firemen were looking on, taking care that the flames should not spread to other buildings. Outside the wrecked synagogue, men in uniform & others in civilian clothes piled up books, ritual objects & strange kinds of cloth. The mound was set on fire & the grocer took advantage of the opportunity to warm his fingers & his feelings over the public blaze." As Oskar grows older (tho not taller), portents of war transform into the thing itself. Danzig is the 1st casualty when, in the summer of '39, residents turn against each other in a pitched battle between Poles & Germans. In following years Oskar goes from one picaresque adventure to another--he joins a troupe of traveling musicians; becomes the leader of a group of anarchists; falls in love; becomes a recording artist--until some time after the war, he's convicted of murder & confined to a mental hospital.

The Tin Drum uses savage comedy & a stiff dose of magical realism to capture not only the madness of war, but also the black cancer at the heart of humanity that allows such degradations to occur. Grass wields his humor like a knife--yes, he'll make you laugh, but he'll make you bleed, as well. There've been many novels written about WWII, but only a handful can truly be called great; The Tin Drum, without a doubt, is one.

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