The Tin Drum
by Gunter Grass
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gunter GrassEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-11-10
ISBN: 0375420576
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Tin Drum
Book Review: An overwhelming, impressive, confusing, masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
I have just completed this masterpiece of literary fiction - of all the great works I have read, Grass's is a tour de force of imagination surpassed by few. It is a grotesque and pathetic but brilliant portrait of humanity - like Oskar and all of of the characters who become unforgettable. I could not put it down. True, the book is lacking in plot - but that is not its genius. Its genius is portraying the human condition -- and human behavior. ...I agree that it is not the ultimate testiony about the horrors of Nazi Germany that it is billed to be. This was confusing to me -- I think much of the retrospective critisicm of this novel credits Grass too much with portraying the horrors of the Third Reich. It is a more generic portrait of the evils of humanity. Two hundred years from now, a reader will not learn of the German atrocities from the Tin Drum; however it will still be a great work of literature with universal truths. I also want to strongly disagree with the reader who commented that the message is that humans are not good or evil - just a product of their situation. If we learn anything from this novel, we must learn the horrible truth that human beings have an incredible capacity for callousness, dispassionateness and, yes, pure evil. Take the Alfred Maskereth's warming his hands over the burning remains of the synogogue; the children of Danzig; the Polish looters on the train ride West; the "innocents" Oskar converts to petty thieves, to name a few. All of the characters in Tin Drum have knowledge of right and wrong - most seem to choose wrong - a sad commentary on humanity, but appropriate considering the period and circumstances which gave bith to this book. END
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