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sidharthvardhan's review
5.0
Onions and Potatos
In the very first chapter, I was reminded of Midnight Children because of Oscar's conversational tone of narrative - same as that of Saleem Shinai. Once MC was in my mind couldn't help locating similarities - both narrators start their stories with the first meeting of their maternal grandparents, both like talking about sex, both of them feel need to hide from the world (Oskar in grandmother's skirts, Shinai in laundry box) etc. Still there are enough differences, MC is more magical realism, Tin Drum is more about unreliable narrator
Unreliable Narrator
Why would you consider a narrator unreliable ? He is out of mind or delusional, he is a habitual liar, he is full of inferiority or superiority complexes, he had lied to you before, he is full of guilt. Oscar fulfills all these conditions. The book begins with lines:
He has lied to his family half his life. He himself corrects lies he has told you half a book before - putting an asterisk on everything he says. He tells you he deliberately stopped growing - and faked an accident to provide the world reason for that. The fact that a lot of information comes from his drum is not too much satisfying either. He is using both first-person pronouns and his name to talk about himself - at times in the same sentence.
Hence you must take everything he says with a pinch, correction a bowl full of salt. It is funny to see how whenever you find a reason to doubt a declaration he wants to maintain, he would run to explanations - as if he was telling you his story face-to-face and had seen you rise your eye-brow in doubt.
His schizophrenia, self-obsession, and complexes though won't stop him from being witty - every page of the book has some really witty play of words on it. At times, it gets a bit trying but Oscar is too busy showing off to care about your time.
War and War guilt
War as such doesn't show up much in the book except a few chapters it contains no soldiers and guns. I don't think concentration camps were mentioned even once.
There are some allegorical elements - Oscar's mother (the source of harmony in his world) dies at onset of war, Oscar polish uncle (whom he calls his biological father) dies when Poland falls to Russians and his German father dies with fall of Germany trying to swallow Nazi party pin. Wartime madness mostly shows up in sexual madness.
Oscar's is attracted alternatively to Rasputin and Goethe in R-G-R-G sequence which seems to show Germany's WWI-peace-WWII-peace sequence.
During the war, Oscar gain popularity as an artist who could break glasses through his voice (showing how much Germans loved being shouted at) while after war it is his drumming (the creative art) that gets prominence.
However this book uses war references in a different context just as some fiction books refers to classics. Oskar is a dwarf with a glass-breaking voice - and in one scene is seen shouting at enchanted people (can you imagine some dwarf with a loud, destructive and seductive voice?).
His favorite toy is Tin Drum - a common sight in war times, for armies marched on sound of drums. His mother was a nurse and he too has a fetish for nurses, red cross nurses; another common sight in WWII. He may as well have served as war Mascot. Like Oscar's drumming, It could have been a more enchanting book for people who have lived through the war - unlike me who has to google out everything.
Oscar doesn't much like Hitler, but he has a love-hate relationship with Jesus (Hitler's title 'Fuhrer' literally means guardian; so does the word 'Christ') - depending upon his mood he doesn't believe in Jesus, believes in Jesus, is a messenger of Jesus, is Jesus himself, is father of Jesus etc. In another scene, our dwarf hero is seen leading his street gangs to invade church (Hitler brought down synagogues).
The later half of the book is full of symbols of war guilt. Besides German father's death in trying to swallow Nazi pin, we have Oscar's fall in an open grave (mirroring German fall at end of war) and working as gravestone architect (too many dead in war) but no symbol is as prominent as hunchback he develops when he chose to grow-up (just a little) at the end of war. He models for painters often portrayed entirely in black with an increasingly larger hunchback while painters completely ignored his blue eyes ( comment on the complete negative portrayal of Germany after the war?). Onion cellar club showed how having lived through war, people were so full of remorse, they were out of tears and needed to peel onions to be able to weep.
An aggressive indifference
The clash between art and war is a constant theme:
Beethoven's big painting in Oscar's house has to give up its supreme position when Oscar's parents had to put in Hitler's painting. Beethoven was an artist and was deaf, deaf to the Hitler shouting in front of him. That somewhat sums Oscar's attitude towards war. He is indifferent to what happens around him, somewhat like Albert Campus and his Stranger - but in Oscar, this indifference is too aggressive, almost insane. He refused to grow up because he thought grownups were evil and he is constantly running away from the world, looking for solitude - in grandma's skirts, under the table his three parents are playing cards on or inside some almirah. When there is firing going outside, Oskar spends his time playing cards inside. He risks his claimed biological father's life for a new drum - repeatedly. He betrays both his fathers and his street-gang-followers to save himself. When his whole family is facing a life threat, he is too busy watching the trail of ants on ground.
This indifference attracts an equal indifference from us. It is really difficult to sympathize with this guy. At times he seems to be trying to make it difficult for us to relate to him - this book can be a thousand things, but it is definitively not a melodrama.
On the size of the book
You may think that with over 550 pages or this long review, it is a long book - do not be deluded by that; through its witty pose, it becomes a much, much, much longer book, almost Dickens long. Like Dickens, Grass seemed to have perfected each chapter separately with too much detail and wit, rather than trying to keep a natural flow which makes you go to next chapter as soon as you finish one.
In the very first chapter, I was reminded of Midnight Children because of Oscar's conversational tone of narrative - same as that of Saleem Shinai. Once MC was in my mind couldn't help locating similarities - both narrators start their stories with the first meeting of their maternal grandparents, both like talking about sex, both of them feel need to hide from the world (Oskar in grandmother's skirts, Shinai in laundry box) etc. Still there are enough differences, MC is more magical realism, Tin Drum is more about unreliable narrator
Unreliable Narrator
Why would you consider a narrator unreliable ? He is out of mind or delusional, he is a habitual liar, he is full of inferiority or superiority complexes, he had lied to you before, he is full of guilt. Oscar fulfills all these conditions. The book begins with lines:
"GRANTED: I AM an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight."
He has lied to his family half his life. He himself corrects lies he has told you half a book before - putting an asterisk on everything he says. He tells you he deliberately stopped growing - and faked an accident to provide the world reason for that. The fact that a lot of information comes from his drum is not too much satisfying either. He is using both first-person pronouns and his name to talk about himself - at times in the same sentence.
Hence you must take everything he says with a pinch, correction a bowl full of salt. It is funny to see how whenever you find a reason to doubt a declaration he wants to maintain, he would run to explanations - as if he was telling you his story face-to-face and had seen you rise your eye-brow in doubt.
His schizophrenia, self-obsession, and complexes though won't stop him from being witty - every page of the book has some really witty play of words on it. At times, it gets a bit trying but Oscar is too busy showing off to care about your time.
War and War guilt
I look for the land of the Poles that is lost to the Germans, for the moment at least. Nowadays the Germans have started searching for Poland with credits, Leicas, and compasses, with radar, divining rods, delegations, and moth-eaten provincial students' associations in costume. Some carry Chopin in their hearts, others thoughts of revenge. Condemning the first four partitions of Poland, they are busily planning a fifth; in the meantime flying to Warsaw via Air France in order to deposit, with appropriate remorse, a wreath on the spot that was once the ghetto. One of these days they will go searching for Poland with rockets. I meanwhile, conjure up Poland on my drum. And this is what I drum : Poland's lost, but not forever, all are lost, but not forever, Poland's not lost forever.
War as such doesn't show up much in the book except a few chapters it contains no soldiers and guns. I don't think concentration camps were mentioned even once.
There are some allegorical elements - Oscar's mother (the source of harmony in his world) dies at onset of war, Oscar polish uncle (whom he calls his biological father) dies when Poland falls to Russians and his German father dies with fall of Germany trying to swallow Nazi party pin. Wartime madness mostly shows up in sexual madness.
Oscar's is attracted alternatively to Rasputin and Goethe in R-G-R-G sequence which seems to show Germany's WWI-peace-WWII-peace sequence.
During the war, Oscar gain popularity as an artist who could break glasses through his voice (showing how much Germans loved being shouted at) while after war it is his drumming (the creative art) that gets prominence.
An entire credulous nation believed, there's faith for you, in Santa Claus. But Santa Claus was really the gas man.
However this book uses war references in a different context just as some fiction books refers to classics. Oskar is a dwarf with a glass-breaking voice - and in one scene is seen shouting at enchanted people (can you imagine some dwarf with a loud, destructive and seductive voice?).
His favorite toy is Tin Drum - a common sight in war times, for armies marched on sound of drums. His mother was a nurse and he too has a fetish for nurses, red cross nurses; another common sight in WWII. He may as well have served as war Mascot. Like Oscar's drumming, It could have been a more enchanting book for people who have lived through the war - unlike me who has to google out everything.
Oscar doesn't much like Hitler, but he has a love-hate relationship with Jesus (Hitler's title 'Fuhrer' literally means guardian; so does the word 'Christ') - depending upon his mood he doesn't believe in Jesus, believes in Jesus, is a messenger of Jesus, is Jesus himself, is father of Jesus etc. In another scene, our dwarf hero is seen leading his street gangs to invade church (Hitler brought down synagogues).
The later half of the book is full of symbols of war guilt. Besides German father's death in trying to swallow Nazi pin, we have Oscar's fall in an open grave (mirroring German fall at end of war) and working as gravestone architect (too many dead in war) but no symbol is as prominent as hunchback he develops when he chose to grow-up (just a little) at the end of war. He models for painters often portrayed entirely in black with an increasingly larger hunchback while painters completely ignored his blue eyes ( comment on the complete negative portrayal of Germany after the war?). Onion cellar club showed how having lived through war, people were so full of remorse, they were out of tears and needed to peel onions to be able to weep.
An aggressive indifference
The clash between art and war is a constant theme:
They are coming," he whispered. "They will take over the meadows where we pitch our tents. They will organize torchlight parades. They will build rostrums and fill them, and down from the rostrums, they will preach our destruction. Take care, young man. Always take care to be sitting on the rostrum and never to be standing out in front of it."
Beethoven's big painting in Oscar's house has to give up its supreme position when Oscar's parents had to put in Hitler's painting. Beethoven was an artist and was deaf, deaf to the Hitler shouting in front of him. That somewhat sums Oscar's attitude towards war. He is indifferent to what happens around him, somewhat like Albert Campus and his Stranger - but in Oscar, this indifference is too aggressive, almost insane. He refused to grow up because he thought grownups were evil and he is constantly running away from the world, looking for solitude - in grandma's skirts, under the table his three parents are playing cards on or inside some almirah. When there is firing going outside, Oskar spends his time playing cards inside. He risks his claimed biological father's life for a new drum - repeatedly. He betrays both his fathers and his street-gang-followers to save himself. When his whole family is facing a life threat, he is too busy watching the trail of ants on ground.
This indifference attracts an equal indifference from us. It is really difficult to sympathize with this guy. At times he seems to be trying to make it difficult for us to relate to him - this book can be a thousand things, but it is definitively not a melodrama.
On the size of the book
You may think that with over 550 pages or this long review, it is a long book - do not be deluded by that; through its witty pose, it becomes a much, much, much longer book, almost Dickens long. Like Dickens, Grass seemed to have perfected each chapter separately with too much detail and wit, rather than trying to keep a natural flow which makes you go to next chapter as soon as you finish one.
kostogher's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mishasw's review
4.5
Woah. Really hard to talk about this one. On one hand it is definitively incredible and captures all of the 20th century in a single book. On the other hand... ugh idk. So hard to review this book. Go read it!
100reads's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I didn’t get at all. It was annoying at some point.
matissrv's review
3.0
Beidzot! Beidzot es piebeidzu to mazo, gotiski reālistisko ļaunuma ģēniju.
Ja pirmās aptuveni simts lapas, kad vēl tikai ieskrējos visā notiekošajā, likās diezgan interesantas un lasījās ātri, tad aptuveni no simtās līdz trīssimtajai lappusei bija īstas mocības divu mēnešu garumā. Nesapratu, ko un kāpēc es vispār lasu. Tomēr ap 300 (no 690 lappusēm latviešu izdevumā) grāmata tā aizrāva, ka bija grūti apstāties. Varbūt pagrieziena punkts bija izcilais apraksts par divām atsevišķi domājošajām galvām un aveņu un gaileņu meklēšanu. Arī citi trāpīgie, citēšanai noderīgie alūziskie, gotiskie un smaidu izraisošie apraksti krietni pārgrozīja manu vēlmi ielikt romānam divnieku, nemaz jau nerunājot par apjomīgu un novatūrisku skatpunktu uz traģiskā gadsimta vēsturi.
Kopumā ļoti saturīgus secinājumus par šo romānu vēl izdarīt nevaru, galvā pārāk liela putra. Pēc 10-20 gadiem jālasa vēlreiz.
Ja pirmās aptuveni simts lapas, kad vēl tikai ieskrējos visā notiekošajā, likās diezgan interesantas un lasījās ātri, tad aptuveni no simtās līdz trīssimtajai lappusei bija īstas mocības divu mēnešu garumā. Nesapratu, ko un kāpēc es vispār lasu. Tomēr ap 300 (no 690 lappusēm latviešu izdevumā) grāmata tā aizrāva, ka bija grūti apstāties. Varbūt pagrieziena punkts bija izcilais apraksts par divām atsevišķi domājošajām galvām un aveņu un gaileņu meklēšanu. Arī citi trāpīgie, citēšanai noderīgie alūziskie, gotiskie un smaidu izraisošie apraksti krietni pārgrozīja manu vēlmi ielikt romānam divnieku, nemaz jau nerunājot par apjomīgu un novatūrisku skatpunktu uz traģiskā gadsimta vēsturi.
Kopumā ļoti saturīgus secinājumus par šo romānu vēl izdarīt nevaru, galvā pārāk liela putra. Pēc 10-20 gadiem jālasa vēlreiz.
savaging's review
2.0
Fine: I sometimes thought this was funny. I thought the main conceit of the eternal-boy and his drum charming, even.
But why didn't anyone tell me Gunter Grass was a misogynist?
Why is it people can get away with making lists of must-reads that include books by self-proclaimed anti-feminists (check out The Flounder) -- who write a scene of a woman welcoming a gang-rape, because she's lonely?
But why didn't anyone tell me Gunter Grass was a misogynist?
Why is it people can get away with making lists of must-reads that include books by self-proclaimed anti-feminists (check out The Flounder) -- who write a scene of a woman welcoming a gang-rape, because she's lonely?
jiska_b's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
naarah's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jenny_hedberg's review against another edition
1.0
Okay, the only reason I don't like this novel is because I hate Oskar and his little narcissistic self. I don't even know if this is well-written or anything, Oskar destroyed everything for me. Don't let my review affect your decision to read or not read this novel (unless you too hate characters who have "figured out the world" and think they're better than everyone else).