THE TIN DRUM presents Hitler's rise and fall through the eyes of the dwarfish narrator whose magic powers become symbolic of the dark forces dominating the German nation in the period. Like Thomas Mann's DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Grass's novel explores the dark roots of power and creativity. An early advocate of 'magic realism'. Gunter Grass is the most powerful and celebrated novelist to appear in post-war Germany. His home city of Danzig is a powerful presence in this novel.
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THE TIN DRUM presents Hitler's rise and fall through the eyes of the dwarfish narrator whose magic powers become symbolic of the dark forces dominating the German nation in the period. Like Thomas Mann's DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Grass's novel explores the dark roots of power and creativity. An early advocate of 'magic realism'. Gunter Grass is the most powerful and celebrated novelist to appear in post-war Germany. His home city of Danzig is a powerful presence in this novel.
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Add this copy of Tin Drum, the to cart. $14.16, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Everyman's Library.
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Add this copy of The Tin Drum to cart. $27.00, like new condition, Sold by Brian Bauld (B-Line Books) rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Amherst, NS, CANADA, published 1993 by Everyman's Library.
Add this copy of The Tin Drum: Gunter Grass (Everyman's Library Classics to cart. $27.66, very good condition, Sold by BARNABY rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Oxford, OXFORDSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1993 by Everyman's Library.
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Very Good Condition. A very presentable copy with minimal wear. Dust jacket is fully intact. All pages clean, crisp and fresh. xxxvii, 551 pp. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Fiction; German fiction; ISBN: 185715147X. ISBN/EAN: 9781857151473. Add. Inventory No: 240329PB004.
Add this copy of The Tin Drum (Everymans Library Classics) to cart. $27.66, very good condition, Sold by Reuseabook rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester, GLOS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1993 by Everyman.
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Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Grubby book may have mild dirt or some staining, mostly on the edges of pages.
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Add this copy of Tin Drum, the [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 1993] Gunter Grass to cart. $49.31, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Everyman.
Add this copy of Tin Drum, the [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 1993] Gunter Grass to cart. $81.74, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Everyman.
This novel deserves its reputation as a landmark work. It is innovative, amusing, haunting, musical and with an impressive storyline. There is a constant shift in the narration between the first- and third-person. In an essay Grass wrote, he says that sometimes Oskar wants to talk and sometimes not. Many readers seem to get carried away with the ?commentary on wartime Germany? but the real beauty lies within the prose and style. The initial setting is in an asylum and there one meets several important characters. The story is almost entirely a flashback, beginning with potato fields and the Polish region of Kashubia. The grandmother and her many skirts are memorable and some implied unusual sexual situations do keep the reader?s attention. The card game skat seems to constantly come up. Indeed, this is a connection between the characters in several parts, including one in which a post office is being bombed and one player?s life is ending. A scene with eels is at once revolting and arousing, with a woman accompanied by her husband, her lover and an eeler with a horsehead. Grass? skill with words is what sets the book apart. An entire chapter deals with a cat named Bismark and each paragraph begins by repeating the same phrase. This technique creates a rhythm that brings the reader sliding along. Rushdie?s Midnight?s Children makes use of this in chapters on snakes and ladders and saffron and green. Oskar?s musical talent affects many things and eventually leads to the formation of a jazz band. This turns up in the Dog Years. His relations with his sitter who becomes his father?s squeeze add another intriguing sexual aspect that is unexpected but extremely well expressed in terms of fizz powder and drum sticks. This type of thing happens often with Grass. The end returns to the asylum. The last few scenes of the novel are quite perplexing and still leave me wondering if I have followed Gunter completely. This is his first major book and later works seem to wrap up much better. This is an impressive work, in every way. One should continue with Cat and Mouse and the Dog Years. Apparently, there is more to be enjoyed when read in German, as the Kashubian dialect adds a wonderfully musical quality to the story. The translation is excellent, in my view and I would recommend this to any serious reader.
Ange1oBear
Apr 11, 2007
In The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass has written a slightly absurd, somewhat bizarre, and extremely engaging masterpiece. The autobiography of a mental patient born just before the Nazi's rise to power, The Tin Drum is a story of a willful outsider, one who simply refuses to grow any older, abhorring adults as he does.
One of the defining qualities of the book is the fact that it is told by the main character Oskar, a resident of a mental institution. It almost becomes a game, trying to figure out what really happened using only his account. To hear him tell it, he was fully mature intellectually from the moment he was born, and far superior to his "presumptive" fathers. He willfully decides to stunt his own growth - the fact that he fell down the stairs is a coincidence. Though he is a strange character of questionable mental stability, Oskar manages to make very perceptive statements about life and living it through the course of the book.
Grass's writing style is here very fitting. The narrative will often digress into a jazz-like fugue on a word or idea, mimicking Oskar's tin drum. My translation was by Ralph Manheim, and according to my German-speaking friend is faithful to the original. I think it is a wonderful translation, and only wish that I could read German, to capture the full effect of Grass's writing.
