book review - Crabwalk

This story echoes some of the same themes of The Reader about the war and guilt but is more of a modern parable of our times. The problem with writing about the internet is that there is already a slighty dated feel to the online world Gunter Grass describes.

The big questions he is trying to answer are around the idea of guilt and responsibility. In war is the sinking of a ship carrying refugees something that can be mourned over in the same way that some of the losses on the sides of victors are commemorated? Does the wartime generation have a responsibility to the way that history is passed down and interpreted by their children?

The background against how those questions are mulled over is the story of a father who has lost the respect of his mother and son. The old woman is able to influence the son and in her tales as a survivor of the sinking if the refugee ship she creates a fledgling Nazi. Her grandson uses the Internet and modern technology to refight the battles of the past. He is fighting his battles against another teenager who picks up the mantle of the Jewish sideof the debate.

Meanwhile the father can see what is happening with the son but is unable to reach him. The ultimate battle between the two teenagers playing at representing the past in the present ends in death and imprisonment.

To a certain degree the blame is squarely on the shoulders of those that propogate the lies from the past with the grandmother, who remains unrepentant. But the father is also useless in the face of the past and unable to correct the path his son is taking.

In one way if the idea of the book was to make you think about the past then it works. But if it was also taking a swipe at the Internet and the way it can be exploited by extremists then it fails because it already feels simplistic and out of date. Still it can provoke some thoughts and that is what good literature should do.

Crabwalk - post IV

If this book was part of some sort of literature course then possibly it could provoke you to fill pages and pages commenting on the questions it raises.

But as this is a blog and written by someone of only moderate intelligence the response will not be quite as grand.

The main takeaway here is the fact that history, even a corrupted version of it, continues to influence future generations. Even when that history seems to be best left gathering dust – something connected with the Nazi era – it still has the power to capture the imagination and push people into extreme positions.

Is the son guilty because he tries to act out some historical based fantasy of killing a Jew to revenge the Nazi martyr he idolizes? Is the grandmother wrong for filling her grandson’s head with historical biased nonsense? Is the father guilty for never being there to address these issues until faster too late when he decides to put them down as some sort of writing exercise?

Or is there a larger finger being pointed here at the German state for failing to face up to its past and as a result allowing misinterpretations to take hold among amateur historians?

Of course the answer is a mixture of all of the above. The problem is that it is almost impossible to identify and sympathize with any of the characters. Even the murdered boy turns out to be a liar and a fantasist disowned by his parents. There are no rights in this story. Even those who played their parts at the time ended up fading from glory.

A challenging book and one that is attacking a wide number of targets, not least of all is the power of the internet to disseminate false information and spread racial hatred, but it is not that easy to read and as a result is a frustrating experience.

A review will follow shortly…

Crabwalk - post III

Here is a question posed by Gunter Grass: Can those drowned on the losing side in a war be classed as victims?

Of course it is not as simple as that but one of the main aims of this book does seem to be to make you question your own attitude to who deserves pity and who is worthy of damnation.

On top of that conundrum there is the ongoing battle between the extreme right wing and those prepared to engage in a debate representing the Jewish side of that argument.

In the middle Grass describes a man trying to make sense of his own life by writing about his past. Instead his life continues to fall apart and the one constant in it, his mother, seems to be the cause of the majority of his problems.

Last chunk tomorrow…

Crabwalk - post II

As the battle between the father and son – moderate and Nazi - starts to come to the fore the narrator is sidelined. His ex-wife seems unconcerned by their son’s behaviour and the mother is proud that her grandson is defending her own views.

As a result the narrator turns up at memorials to the sunken ship, surfs the web to catch the latest propaganda put out by his son and then turns his hand towards his own research.

If this is a book that is partly making a veiled attack on the web and the power of the internet to disseminate not just racist propaganda but factually incorrect history then it is successful.

But in terms of it charting the personal journey the writer makes as he delves into his past and pulls on his material for a novel it is harder going. Although his story is taking shape sadly no one around him seems interested and as a result you sense he is writing for a selected audience of one.

More tomorrow…

Crabwalk - post I

This is a classic Grass story told at different levels all inter connected and all being slowly peeled back like an onion. When they collide you hit the centre.

A washed up journalist born in a war time disaster is pushed by his mother and some sort of creative writing teacher into putting down his experiences on paper. They focus on his arrival into the world which coincided with the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

His mother was on board the ship and the sinking, as a result of a Russian submarine torpedo, ended a vessel that had started life as a Strength Through Joy holiday ship.

The ship is sunk when it is carrying refugees, injured soldiers and the ships crew. That is one strand of the story telling the story of that night.

But there is also the historical context with the ship being named after the leading Nazi agitator in Switzerland who becomes a martyr after being shot at close range by a Jew determined to settle some scores for the abuse of his people in Germany. That story along with the added history of the Russian submarine captain is the second strand.

Then the third strand is the conflict between father and son after the narrator discovers that under the influence of his mother his son is spouting off pro-Nazi views about the ship.

The battle is being fought in cyberspace and there is a comment there from Grass about the contest online for the hearts and souls.

The book flits back and forth between the strands but they are all being peeled back and the sense of a showdown between the ships hull and the torpedo, father and son and truth and lies is always hovering over the narrative.

More tomorrow…

book of books - The Tin Drum

There are certain books you come to with a baggage that has been handed to you by the media, word of mouth and your own expectations. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass falls into that category because you start reading it with the knowledge that he is one of Germany’s most famous writers, is embroiled in controversy over his Nazi past and won a Nobel prize. There is even a film version of this book, which I have not seen, which for those that have will also add to the noise before you even turn a page.

There is also a slight intimidation in the length, not far off 600 pages, that puts it into the middle category of not a major undertaking like War & Peace but equally not a slim volume that can be consumed quickly.

Plot summary
A boy named Oskar is telling his life story from the comfort of a mental hospital explaining that from the age of three he decided not to grow up and so remained for many years three foot high. The other event on his third birthday is the drum he is given as a present. He drums his way through most of the next twenty seven years but the landscape around him changes. On the family front his mother, who has two lovers, dies and one of his presumptive fathers dies after defending the Polish Post Office in Danzig. In terms of his education Oskar is unable to fit into a school environment and mainly communicates through his drum and uses his high pitched scream that shatters glass. His life changes after he meets another midget Bebra who advises him how to behave and then after the war starts drafts him into the propaganda company cheering the troops. Meanwhile Oskar has used his third drumstick to get the family shop girl Maria pregnant but she marries his remaining presumptive father and the son Kurt is never acknowledged as being his. Following the end of the war and the Soviet takeover of Danzig Oskar and family head for Düsseldorf where Oskar starts a jazz band that makes him rich and falls in love with a nurse living in an apartment opposite his own. The nurse turns up dead and Oskar takes the blame – hence the mental hospital – but on his thirtieth birthday the news comes through that the real killer has confessed and he might be acquitted and sent out into an uncertain future.

That’s the gist of it but there are numerous episodes that have been missed but the key point is that there is a development of Oskar that is unique and although delayed takes him into some strange places and links him with some very unusual characters.

Is it well written?
The start is a challenge and it takes a fairly long time before any sort of interest grows in Oskar who is not only a deliberate freak but very annoying at times. Where you start to appreciate Grass is when it starts to dawn that in a way Oskar is a metaphor for the stunted ambitions firstly for the Poles to have an independent nation and then later for there to be a sane voice against the violence and bitterness of the post-war Germany. The character of Oksar becomes more likeable when he starts to speak and by the end the drumming and the height are not the issue it is the idea that he is frightened of the world, despite everything he has done, that is the image that you remember. There is a large amount going on here that at first is not only obvious but is also not engaging. It is only when the history starts to dictate events that the book gains a momentum independent of the main characters. Because of the length of the book Grass is also able to deploy various techniques and involved the reader sometimes in a historical battle scene, a rags to riches success story or even a thriller.

Should it be read?
This deserves to be read because it not only contains a very good story but it is a challenging book that almost deliberately throws in the face of the reader a collection of ugly, freakish characters that it is almost impossible to like. The struggle he makes you go through is worth it because the ending is something that is very thought provoking. It is also a good idea to read works of literature from other cultures because it not only provides a different geographical perspective on the world but also throws up a different writing style. I would recommend this book to anyone that was prepared to work at it and stick with it until the end but for a casual holiday read it would not make it into hand luggage. That is a shame because it does deserve to be read but it is a reality.

Summary
Oskar the midget grows up in a world that is tainted by the evil and actions of others and realises at the end that hiding behind a childhood façade is not a long term solution

The Tin Drum - post IX

If you ever intend reading this book then please do not read this post any further because it will spoil everything for you.

The ending reminds you that at 572 pages this has been a much bigger book than it feels encompassing a thriller, biography, and history of the war from the perspective of an outsider and finally a commentary on the way society treats those who are different from the norm. Although it didn’t seem like a word that I would have used last week to describe this book it is in parts brilliant and the way all the strands are weaved together is done with the touch of a great writer.

Bullet points between pages 488 - 572

* Oskar is finally reunited with his drum as he discovers that his neighbour is a flute player and they play music together and following that moment he decides to stop being a grave stone engraver or a model and decides to become a jazz accompanist

* The problem is that they need to find a guitarist and so the neighbour Klepp who until the music session was a bed-ridden royalist heads out to visit the nightclubs to find someone suitable

* In the meantime Oskar without any clothes on and just a bit of coconut matting to hide his genitals bumps into the nurse in the dark and then for some reason in response to her questioning in the dark pretends to be Satan

* In response to his impotent sexual encounter with her in the dark hall and confession of his real name she packs and leaves the house leaving Oskar to carry on being a jazz player on his own

A job at the strangely named Onion Club, where the guests peel an onion and communally cry, is the next location in the story with Oskar and Klepp there to stop people from getting too carried away

* One night as the guests at the onion club are given too many onions Oskar drums in a way he hasn’t for years and uses his drum to conjure up memories of childhood that the audience all share

* He is then saved from a car accident by luck and the owner of the Onion Club is killed leaving Oskar out of work but he is offered a contract by an agent who wants him to start drumming on his own

* Oskar accepts but only after taking a trip with Lankes the solider he met in the concrete pillbox on his tour of France coastal defences and they head back to the same pill box for a holiday before coming back and Oskar launches his drumming career

* Things are going well with Oskar buying Maria a delicatessen and becoming financially stable but he discovers a ring finger in a field and then events take an odd turn with Oskar deciding to confess to the murder of the woman who once was attached to the finger – the nurse who had lived opposite his room

* He is caught on the run, something he does for effect, and is then put in the mental hospital but the book comes right up to date and Oskar who has been in the hospital after he was found to need treatment rather than prison is celebrating his 30th birthday

* At this point it emerges the real killer of the nurse, a jealous friend, has confessed and as he waits to be acquitted and turfed out of the hospital he considers his future as a 30 year old and is almost paralysed with fear of the black witch – childhood fears and a superstition that he is being watched and you start to understand that finally death could be coming for the man/boy who has seen so many funerals

A review will follow at the weekend…

Gunter Grass on writing a story

As I get to the end of The Tin Drum before the moment is passed there was a great passage at the start of the book where Grass talks about how to write a story. For any budding writer (can budding also apply to someone completely dormant?) this is a particularly interesting part of the book.

“You can begin a story in the middle and create confusion by striking out boldly, backward and forward. You can be modern, put aside all mention of time and distance and, when the whole thing is done, proclaim, or let someone else proclaim, that you have finally, at the last moment, solved the space-time problem. Or you can declare at the very start that it's impossible to write a novel nowadays, but then, behind your own back so to speak, give birth to a whopper, a novel to end all novels. I have also been told that it makes a good impression, an impression of modesty so to speak, if you begin by saying that a novel can't have a hero any more because there are no more individualists, because individuality is a thing of the past, because man--each man and all men together--is alone in his loneliness and no one is entitled to individual loneliness, and all men lumped together make up a "lonely mass" without names and without heroes.”

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…

The Tin Drum - post VII

Oskar seems to become a living version of the figurehead Niode touching those he comes across with bad luck and with Danzig in flames and his father dead. It is hard not to start believing that when he sent his gang of troublemakers to find the figurehead and they came back empty handed that Oskar in some way had replaced her.

Bullet points between pages 344 – 417

* Maria becomes obsessed with Catholicism and while waiting for her in church he is spoken to by Jesus and told that he will become someone that people follow and although he initially doesn’t believe it the notion starts to grow on Oskar

* He gets his chance to lead when he stumbles across a gang wreaking havoc across the city called the Dusters who Oskar tells them are to follow him after referring to himself as Jesus

* Their campaign of theft and intimidation is finally stopped when they are captured by the police but Oskar is acquitted exploiting his height and sympathy to the full when the police and then the trial starts

* Anyway there are enough things going on as the Russians capture the city and in a rush to hide his party badge as the Russians storm the cellar they are all hiding in Oskar hands his father the pin, which he chokes on before being put out of his misery by the Russians

* At his funeral Oskar decides that enough is enough and it is time to start growing and the next chapter in the mental hospital sees him getting measured and he has grown to four foot and even manages to grow an inch over the weeks he recalls these events

* The final episode in part two of the book is the departure of Maria, Kurt and Oskar from Danzig to head West with Oskar now growing and in pain he heads straight for hospital once they arrive and once he is discharged he decides to head out and discover an adult life

* Because of some notes made by Bruno his watcher in the mental hospital you know that Oskar becomes a famous performer who becomes rich because of the records he makes but that is all to come in the final part of the book

More tomorrow...

The Tin Drum - post VI

If it was not for the events happening all around Oskar in terms of his trip to see the French coastal defences and the collapse of the German forces then it would have been even harder to stick with this book. The main character is a combination of useful observer and annoying oddball that sometimes tips too much in the direction of the latter for comfort.

Bullet points between pages 262 – 344

* Oskar discovers that after an encounter that starts out innocently sharing fizz bombs it develops into a bed sharing sexual relationship with Maria that he states ends with the a pregnancy that is responsible for the creation of his son Kurt

* But Maria has an affair with his presumptive father and as a result of the pregnancy the grocer marries her and views the child as his own when it is finally born and although he makes a promise to buy a drum for his third birthday Oskar has very little to do with Kurt

* Part of that might be because he does attempt twice to force a miscarriage and so Maria must have her doubts about the suitability of him being near the child

* This story of the past is intercut with Maria popping up at the hospital in 1953 – the date is given away by Stalin’s death – to visit Oskar and bring him new drums and a radio but she disappears the minute be produces the fizz powder

* Back in the past Oskar starts an affair with fellow grocer Grieff’s wife and the pair are almost given the husband’s blessing while the old paedophile starts to build machines to get exact weights and measures

* In the end, faced with a charge of unmoral conduct and having been informed one of his favourite scouts has died in action the old scoutmaster hangs himself with a device that measures his weight in potatoes exactly down to the last pound

* Then Oskar meets his old friend the circus midget Bebra who recruits him to an acting troop that goes to lift the morale of troops but they are caught up in the invasion by the Allies of the French coast and he returns to Danzig to face a bemused family who have not known where he has been for a year

* He hands over a drum to Kurt on his third birthday hoping history will repeat itself but the toddler smashes the instrument and hits Oskar with the wreck of a boat he had been given as a present

More tomorrow…

The Tin Drum - post V

Things start to get historically set in a context that most people would be familiar with as the city of Danzig is declared a free city by the League of Nations to try and ward off Nazi attempts to swallow it up. But it does not take long for fighting to break out between the German’s backing Hitler and the Polish contingent dividing families and parts of the City.

Bullet points between pages 190 – 262

* There is a brief chapter about the trumpet player who lives in the attic of Oskar’s apartment block who tries to kill his cats and fails and then is reported by a neighbour and as a result stripped of his position in the SA organisation

* Then Oskar with a broken drum decides to go and visit his Uncle Jan at the Polish post office to get the janitor there to mend it for him but instead he drags his Uncle, who had tried to escape, back into a confrontation with anti-Polish forces

* The Post Office is attacked and under fire his uncle turns out to be a coward who prefers to hide with the injured in the safe room waiting for the outcome of the battle that is raging all around them as they play cards

* In the end though the opposition is too strong and Jan and the rest of the defenders are arrested and taken off and shot and buried in a shallow grave that Oskar is told about later from the serial mounrner who turns up at every funeral

* Oskar is introduced to the delights of female company after his father employs Maria to run the store and because of a moment when the present day breaks the memories of the past you realise that Oskar has a son that presumably is borne by this woman

More tomorrow...

The Tin Drum - post IV

Each chapter seems to have a theme and although they are interrelated because the story is being told in a chronological way. But there is a two-fold process happening with his talking about growing up but also covering off big issues like religion and the death of his mother.

If you were to look at the themes of the first 150 pages of the book - apart from the obvious one of Oskar and his odd ambition to remain at the height of a three year old and play a tin drum all the time – then there are quite a few to deal with.

Firstly, there is the question of adultery with Oskar never really knowing who his father is with the choice being between his mother’s two lovers. Then there is a question of identity with the growing tension caused by the Nazi’s and the question marks over the value of pushing a Polish identity. Finally there is a theme of guilt with not only Oskar’s presumptive father having to live with the knowledge he left the cellar door open that caused Oskar’s accident but also the guilt felt by his mother with her sexual relationships and even the guilt Oskar makes others feel when he helps them become thieves. Finally, and it goes almost without saying, there is the theme of size with those who are small able to make observations and disrupt political meetings in a way anyone larger would fail to achieve.

Bullet points between pages 126 – 190

* Oskar is taken to church with his mother and receives a blessing but remains convinced that despite the priests words against Satan he has still go the devil sitting on his shoulder encouraging him to sing and break glass

* Then the scene shifts to a bank holiday day out that takes the mother and her two lovers to the coast where they come across an old fisherman hauling on a line that turns out to have a horses head attached

* As the fisherman picks off the eels the mother wretches and following the experience is never quite the same and start eating massive amounts of fish and drinking fish oil until it kills her

* Despite the other thoughts in her head Oskar is blamed for the death by gossips who say that the mother had been driven top the brink by his drumming but Oskar genuinely misses her and starts to notice gaps in his life she used to fill

* There then follows a great chapter when Oskar and a friend who has been in numerous fights and has scars all across his back spend some time with a cursed figurehead from a boat that has caused numerous deaths in its history

* While Oskar is allowed to spend time with his friend who is a museum guard they have the confidence to face the cursed figurehead but when left alone the survivor of numerous fights ends up killing himself as he tries to carve himself into the figurehead with the aid of an axe

More tomorrow...

The Tin Drum - post III

Because today was a bank holiday I had no work and as a result no commute so reading has not been easy and I have waited until everyone has gone to bed to get some pages of Tin Drum under my belt. The reading will start again tomorrow in earnest but these few pages at least keep it ticking over and make it possible to complete the book this week.

Bullet points between pages 101 – 125

* Oskar meets a dwarf who decided to stop growing when he reached the age of ten and he warns him never to be in front of a rostrum but on it or behind it because a time is coming of torch light parades and speeches

* Sure enough Oskar’s father joins the party and Oskar starts to attend rallies but he hides underneath the rostrum and using his drum infects the bands above with waltzes and swing and disrupts the meetings

* He then moves on to experimenting with turning people into thieves by using his voice to smash shop windows and then in the shadows watch as normal people, including his mother’s lover, succumb to temptation

More tomorrow…

The Tin Drum - post II

Knowing that Oskar is remembering his childhood from the sanitised situation of a mental hospital it is becoming a question of working out what point he ends up there – is there something in his behaviour that triggers it, bearing in mind he is already acting up.

It’s odd reading this with a child of two and a half because if he turned into Oskar on his third birthday it is doubtful I would keep buying drums and smiling through the madness. I’d be in the mental ward not the child.

Bullet points between pages 55 – 101

* As his third birthday comes Oskar is given his drum and resolves to throw himself down the cellar stairs and land on his head to provide the medical justification to why he won’t grow and he discovers that he has the ability to smash glass with his high-pitched scream

* The scream is deployed whenever anyone tries to take away the drum and gets him into trouble at school when he ends up smashing most of the glass in the classroom as the teacher tries to wrestle the drum away

* All the time he remains a small backward boy that is the butt of other children’s curiosity and almost an affliction that his mother has to carry around as she goes between her lover, husband and music shop owning admirer

* Oskar climbs to the top of a tower and from there decides to smash the glass in the theatre and only comes down when he can see his mother coming leaving a bewildered public wondering just what caused most of the glass to shatter

More to come over the weekend…

The Tin Drum - post I

The choice of books to follow The Fall of France was limited by simply what was on the bookshelf so The Tin Drum it is for the next couple of days and next week. Having read Cat & Mouse there is a sense that at least you might be prepared for the style but the opening to this book is a powerful reminder that you should always accept the unexpected: “Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital”

Bullet points between pages 1 – 54

* Having introduced the main character Oskar as a resident of a mental institute the character starts to lead us through the story of his life starting with his grandmother, a woman who wore her skirts for the week one on top of another

* She finds her husband as he hides under her skirts after being chased by the police for arson and that evening they get married and he assumes the identity of a dead rafter and for many years is a well-behaved citizen

* But then he is given a job delivering wood for the mill owner that employed him when he burnt down the mills in the region and the police surround the rafts as they come into the river basin and the grandfather jumps into the water never to be seen again

* The story then shifts to the next generation with Oskar describing his mother who had two loves and spent her time running a grocery store that managed to survive even through the hard times of the first world war

* Then he describes his own birth, which he recalls in perfect detail, and remembers his [parents promising to buy him a drum for his third birthday an event that is captured on film and inserted into a family photograph album that Oskar is strongly attached to

* Having got his drum the three year old decides never to grow or develop beyond that point and vows not to follow his father into the grocery trade

More tomorrow…

book of books - Cat & Mouse

Having never read Gunter Grass before this was an introduction that was a result of choosing a slim-line volume for lunchtime reading rather than on the strength of the reputation of the title.

There is a motif running through the book to do with the cat and the mouse and although it initially concerns the main character Mahlke’s Adam’s apple being clawed by a cat it widens out to become about chasing other elusive goals. The most elusive of all the things the narrator wants to find, a relationship with girls being amongst them, is to drill down into the essence of Mahlke.

Plot summary
A group of boys spend their free time out of school swimming out to a partially sunken barge where Mahlke dives with a screwdriver round his neck to retrieve prizes from below the water. Part of the reason he wears something round his neck is because he has a particularly large Adam’s apple and he is conscious of it. Mind you he also has (using Grass’s language) a particularly large cock. Despite his heroics on the barge Mahlke is a loner and the narrator, who is a neighbour seeks and fails to try and work out what makes him tick. You do discover that Mahlke is obsessed with the Virgin Mary, steals an Iron Cross medal and gets expelled because of his attraction to wearing a medal round the neck and finally that he is tremendously successful in the tank regiment. This success is rewarded with the Knights Cross and more infamy but it fails to get him back in front of his old school to deliver a speech. In revenge Mahlke wastes his leave waiting to slap the headmaster and then goes AWOL living back on the barge. At the end the narrator visits an evening event to celebrate those who won Knight’s crosses and although Mahlke’s name is called he fails to appear.

Is it well written?
It is working on different levels and the metaphor play with the cat and mouse is easily understandable, which makes a difference compared to some authors. On another level it is a rites of passage tale for not just two boys but a war time generation that learnt names of boats that they expected to conquer the world only to hear that, like the barge, they had been sunk. It shows the awe that the military was able to inspire but with the narrator’s brother dying in the Russian campaign it also showed the indifference and fatalism that seemed to be growing as defeat neared. The constant focus on the Adam’s apple does grate sometimes but you can imagine that if you were trying to recall a boyhood friend only the exaggerated details would be memorable.

Should it be read?
It is reasonably accessible and not too daunting. It does require a commitment to get past a lot of the sometimes hard to understand desperation to find the truth of Mahlke. But ultimately this is one of those books that sits in your head and starts to unravel after it has been finished and all of the different levels and the clever repetition of themes become striking as the days since consumption pass by. It provides a taster for Grass, who regardless of the SS membership issues, is seen as one of the great modern German writers.

Summary
A boy with striking physical features manages to stand out on the battlefield for different reasons but always continues to remain an enigma to his friends.

Version read – Penguin paperback

Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse

The book ends with a sense of mystery and despite the style, which has at times been hard to follow, it is with a sense of affection you put this down for the final time. A story of growing up against the background of the war and overcoming teenage worries about physical appearance and is in essence what Cat & Mouse is all about.

Bullet points between pages 121 - 137

* Having returned to not much of a hero’s welcome Mahkle decides not to return to report from duty and after having a one night stand with one of the old gang he tells the narrator that he has had enough of the war

* But he doesn’t know where to hide until the idea of the barge is brought up and then in the rain he taxes the loyalty of the narrator to get him some food, row him to the barge and then agree to come and meet him later that night

* He loses touch with Mahkle the moment his friend dives under and heads for his secret room and even after the stretch of the coast is bombed there is never any mention of Mahkle on the film footage or in despatches

* Years later the narrator is trying to get into an evening organised to celebrate those who received the Knights Cross and Mahlke’s name is mentioned but he fails to appear allowing the mystery to deepen and continue

A review will appear in the next couple of days…

Lunchtime read part II: Cat & Mouse

With the story set in 1944 inevitably even those who had not volunteered for the army were called up, as the collapse became more of a certainty. Bearing in mind the Nazi’s were using children at the end to try to defend Berlin the idea of a 16-year-old going off to training and then into battle seems quite normal.

But what makes it harder is the success that Mahlke is having blazing a trail in the tank regiment blowing up Russian tanks with such regularity that he gets the Iron Cross and becomes a legend in his own lifetime.

Bullet points between pages 91 – 121

* Having told the narrator that he is joining up Mahlke disappears from the story and is only heard of through second hand accounts including a letter his aunt shows off in the street with drawings of tanks that Mahlke has hit

* Even at training camp above the toilets there is some religious, Virgin Mary, inspired text scratched in by Mahlke and there are stories about his big ears, cock and passion for wearing something round his neck

* That passion is finally sated when he gets a medal of his own for his performance in his tanks against the Russian enemies and like those before him heads back to the school to give a lecture of his own to the students but is told to go away because of his former expulsion

* Having failed to get the headmaster to back down Mahlke waits for him near his home and then gets his chance and pushes him up against the railings and slaps him in the face before heading off into the night

Final few pages over lunch tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse

The cost of stealing the iron cross is an expulsion from school for Mahkle and a self imposed exile from the barge, the beach and those friends he has made. But the disappearance of someone just helps increase the mystery around them and in the end the narrator ends up running back to become an altar boy just to see his old friend.

Bullet points between pages 81 – 92 (will post a bit more later)

* Mahkle shows off the medal that he stole and is encouraged to give it back and then he fails to appear at school on the Monday and then the pupils are told that he has been expelled

* All summer there is no sign of Mahkle on the barge and nobody seems to see him even after school starts because he goes a completely different route so the narrator starts going back to church in the hope of seeing him there

* Finally they meet and the former monosyllabic Mahkle is talkative and talks about the problems he has had with his Adam’s apple and the experience of the cat being put on his neck and then reveals he has volunteered to join the submarines

More to come…