OBOC - Germany

"Born under a light bulb, deliberately stopped growing at the age of 3, given drum, sang glass to pieces, smelled vanilla, coughed in churches, observed ants, decided to grow, buried drum, emigrated to west, lost east, learned stonecutter's trade, asked as a model, started drumming again, visited concrete, made money, kept finger, gave finger away, fled laughing, rode up escalator, arrested, convicted, sent to mental hospital, soon to be acquitted, celebrated thirtieth birthday and still afraid of the Black Witch."

This is how Oskar Matzerath, the unlikely hero of Gunter Grass' Tin Drum sums up his life. Bizarre is the one word that comes to mind when I think of the novel. Controversial at the time of publication and a Classic today, it is hailed as the single most important book from Germany in the post-war period receiving a Noble Prize nod for the author. Is it a political novel? For sure, but it is also psychological, mythical, allegorical in style that to get to the political you need to peel through many layers of the onion.

Oskar Matzerath is an unlikely hero for a novel. At the age of 3 he contrives to not grow any further by getting himself into an accident. With a tin drum as his constant companion and a voice that can shatter glass we meet him at the beginning of the novel in a mental asylum. So the credibility of the narrator himself is in big question. His mother married to Matzerath a German who owns a store, carries on the side with her cousin Jan Bronski who is Kashubian and works in the Polish post office, so much so that Oskar has no idea who his real father is. Carrying this 2 father allegory further, Oskar constantly finds himself caught between Jesus and Satan, Rasputin and Goethe, just like Danzig itself is caught between Poland and Germany. Danzig is to Grass what Dublin is to Joyce.

If one is not willing to look for allegorical references I am not sure this novel will work. Oskar spends a whole lot of time observing the action from a different point of view, from under the table or from under the dais - again offering a view unlike no other about Nazi Germany. In some sense by deciding not to grow beyond 3 year he is able to absolve himself from all the happenings of that period with a child like innocence. Also his unique voice that shatters glass is on the surface a reference to Kristallnacht, I also thought it was an allegory to the purpose of this novel - shattering the myths surrounding Nazi Germany.

Gunter Grass' main point seems to be that the petit bourgeois cannot excuse themselves by blaming it all on one man - Hitler the monster. After all Hitler was democratically elected and grew in their own midst. At a time when the German nation was trying to distant itself from the past and heal its wounds, this novel seems to confront the past and reopen the wounds which explains the uproar caused by the novel.

While the horrors of the Nazi regime are described through Kristallnacht and the massacre at the Polish Post Office Gunter Grass also shows that innocence was a rare commodity among the complicit public at that time. Even little kids play some of the cruelest games. Oskar's mother is certainly not innocent and neither is Oskar who by his own admission was indirectly responsible for 3 deaths. There are so many gross scenes in the novel which were so hard to read, making me very uncomfortable (especially the eels scene and how Oskar's mom meets her death) but i guess that is precisely the point - this is uncomfortable public and personal history and everyone in their own sphere was culpable to some extent.

Gunter Grass appears to have a very pessimistic view of the future of Germany and there are several passages and references where the pessimism comes to the surface.  The Black Witch who is an evil figure in German folklore is mentioned often and as Oskar admits he is still afraid of her.

I've only scratched the surface of this novel. There are a lot more themes like the role of the Church, the post-war recovery and psyche etc.  I read an older edition and found out that a new revised translation has come out which is much closer to the original. Although the narration, the themes and the technique make it a challenging read it was a hard book to put down and I am glad that I didn't give up!