The Tin Drum - post VIII

This book gets more enjoyable as it gets closer to its conclusion with Oskar becoming much more of a rounded personality as he leaves the obsessions of childhood behind and the moment that he is put in a mental hospital draws closer. All of a sudden all of the characters he introduces are the same ones that visit him in hospital in Düsseldorf so you know the moment when all becomes clear is almost here.

Bullet points between pages 418 – 488

* Having been discharged from hospital Oskar comes home to discover that Kurt and Maria are busy engaged with the black market and that he is a burden to them with his appetite and lack of financial contribution

* After hanging round a grave stone makers workshop he is finally invited in and becomes an apprentice carving the letters and patterns onto the stone work and occasionally getting involved with the heavier lifting work

* Life treats him well and after taking a nurse out to a dance hall he goes there in a swish suit he gets from his boss in exchange for work rendered and for a while ploughs his money and energy into socialising which takes on a different perspective after Maria turns down his proposal of marriage

* Oskar then gets involved as a male model at the art academy after walking out on the grave stone business following the economic upheaval of the currency changes and because of his hump, stature and blue eyes he becomes a favourite of painters and sculptors

* He decides it is time to move out of the flat with Maria, Kurt and her sister and so moves into a cramped flat near the Academy and stays continues to model and do the occasion stone working for the grave stoner

* He becomes with the nurse who lives opposite him, who he never sees but reads her mail and goes in her room when she is out, and he seems to becoming fixated on her to an unhealthy level

Tomorrow might bring the end and the answers to all the questions about how and why he ends up in a mental hospital and how he made money recording and being famous…