Synopses & Reviews
“Once upon a time there was a father who, because he had grown old, called together his sons and daughters—four, five, six, eight in number—and finally convinced them, after long hesitation, to do as he wished. Now they are sitting around a table and begin to talk . . .”
In an audacious literary experiment, Günter Grass writes in the voices of his eight children as they record memories of their childhoods, of growing up, of their father, who was always at work on a new book, always at the margins of their lives. Memories contradictory, critical, loving, accusatory—they piece together an intimate picture of this most public of men. To say nothing of Marie, Grasss assistant, a family friend of many years, perhaps even a lover, whose snapshots taken with an old-fashioned Agfa box camera provide the author with ideas for his work. But her images offer much more. They reveal a truth beyond the ordinary detail of life, depict the future, tell what might have been, grant the wishes in visual form of those photographed. The children speculate on the nature of this magic: was the enchanted camera a source of inspiration for their father? Did it represent the power of art itself? Was it the eye of God?
Recalling J. M. Coetzees Summertime and Umberto Ecos The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Box is an inspired and daring work of fiction. In its candor, wit, and earthiness, it is Grass at his best.
Review
"It may not be a memoir, but it is an exercise in soul-searching…this is a novel of great humility, questioning whether the measure of a life really is a lifes work... [Grass] shows a remarkable willingness to kick a hole in the usual self-importance of a prize-winning author."
-The New York Times Book Review
"Functioning both as experimental fiction and as a sequel of sorts to Peeling the Onion, Grasss latest sheds light on a role the revered German author has thus far only touched upon: fatherhood."
- Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A family documentary in the form of a novel, leaving the reader to decide where the line blurs between fact and fiction…A short, engaging and puzzling novel: “He simply dreams us up!” says a daughter, as the reader wonders what to make of these dreams.”
- Kirkus Reviews
"The Box offers "the spectacle of a superb writer examining with playful seriousness and intelligent candor the relations between his work and the past."
-Boston Globe "Freed from the defensive crouch of his straightforward memoir, Grass has produced something more obscure and occasionally just as beautiful."
-The Daily Beast
"Is writing in this way the act of a generous father, maybe even a penitent one, or of a tyrannical egotist? This ambiguity is what gives The Box its modest but genuine power."
-Adam Kirsch, Slate
"The Box moves between the voices of his eight children, in whose collage-like recollections their elusive father-- along with a mysterious woman whose Agfa box camera is an almost magical source of inspiration-- takes shape."
-Vogue ("Fall's Best Memoirs")
Review
"A
fascinating journal."
--Booklist
Review
"A
fascinating journal."
-Booklist
Review
PRAISE FOR CRABWALK
"This short yet sprawling book serves as a reminder of Grass' myriad writerly gifts."-San Francisco Chronicle
"Masterful . . . This is his most powerful book since The Tin Drum." -The Seattle Times
PRAISE FOR TOO FAR AFIELD
"It is the work of a seasoned craftsman, certain of what he wants to do, completely in control of his gifts." -The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentieth century, was published in Ralph Manheims outstanding translation in 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its young author to the forefront of world literature.
This fiftieth anniversary edition, translated by Breon
Mitchell, is more faithful to Grasss style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work. After fifty years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance. All of Grasss amazing evocations are still there, and still amazing: Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer; his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek; his mother, Agnes; Alfred Matzerath and Jan Bronski, his presumptive fathers. And Oskars midget friendsBebra, the great circus master, and Roswitha Raguna, the famous somnambulist; Sister Scholastica and Sister Agatha, the Right Reverend Father Wiehnke, the Greffs, the Schefflers, Herr Fajngold, all Kashubians, Poles, Germans, and Jewswaiting to be discovered and rediscovered.
Synopsis
In a work of great originality, Germany's most eminent writer examines the victories and terrors of the twentieth century, a period of astounding change for mankind. Great events and seemingly trivial occurrences, technical developments and scientific achievements, war and disasters, and new beginnings, all unfold to display our century in its glory and grimness. A rich and lively display of Grass's extraordinary imagination, the 100 interlinked stories in this volume-one for each year from 1900 to 1999-present a historical and social portrait for the millennium, a tale of our times in all its grandeur and all its horror.
Synopsis
Germany's Nobel Prize winner chronicles the most important year in recent Germany history--the reunification of the country in 1990
Synopsis
andldquo;Very much the work of a writer conscious of his role as a political man of letters.andrdquo;andmdash;
Kirkus Reviews In January 1990, just months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ganduuml;nter Grass made two New Yearandrsquo;s resolutions: the first was to travel extensively in the newly united Germany and the second was to keep a diary, to record his impressions of a historic time.
Grass takes part in public debates, writes for newspapers, makes speeches, and meets emerging politicians. He talks to German citizens on both sides, listening to their bewilderment and their hopes for the future. Ideas for stories take rootandmdash;his novels The Call of the Toad and Too Far Afield.
From Germany to Germany is also a personal record. Grass reflects on his family, remembers his boyhood, and comments on the books he is reading, the drawings he is making, and the sumptuous meals he cooks for family and friends.
The picture that emergesandmdash;not only of the two Germanys struggling for a single identity but of a changed world after the end of the Cold Warandmdash;is engrossing, passionate, and essential for anyone who wants to understand Europeandrsquo;s new leading nation.
Synopsis
Günter Grass tells us a story for every year of our century. He writes of great events and seemingly trivial occurrences, of technical developments and scientific discoveries, of achievements in culture and sports, of megalomania, of persecution and murder, of war and disasters, and of new beginnings. Although each story has a different narrator, collectively the stories form a complete and linear narrative in which the individual is the focus. As the sequence unfolds, a lively and rich picture emerges, an historical portrait of this millennium in all its grandeur and in all its horror. One hundred stories come full circle to create a novel of our century.
Synopsis
Memories from Grass's children
Synopsis
Selected from the vast range of his work, the writings included in this anthology trace Günter Grass's development as a writer, and with it the history of a nation coming to terms with its past.
Excerpts from Grass's major novels-from The Tin Drum to Crabwalk-are included, as are numerous short fictions, essays, and poems, many of which have never appeared before in English. Grass's gifts as an observer of and participant in the social and political landscape are justly celebrated, as are his inimitable sense of humor, his consistent defense of the disadvantaged, and his mastery of the forms of expression he has employed over the years.
For readers in search of an introduction to his work or for those familiar primarily with his novels, this diverse collection offers a fresh and stimulating introduction to one of the world's greatest living writers.
About the Author
The Tin Drum, one of the great novels of the twentieth century, was published in Ralph Manheim's outstanding translation in 1959. It became a runaway bestseller and catapulted its young author to the forefront of world literature.To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grasss publishers all over the world, is bringing out a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources: from a wealth of detailed scholarship; from a wide range of newly-available reference works; and from the author himself. The result is a translation that is more faithful to Grasss style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work.
After fifty years, THE TIN DRUM has, if anything, gained in power and relevance. All of Grasss amazing evocations are still there, and still amazing: Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer; his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek; his mother, Agnes; Alfred Matzerath and Jan Bronski, his presumptive fathers; Oskars midget friendsBebra, the great circus master and Roswitha Raguna, the famous somnambulist; Sister Scholastica and Sister Agatha, the Right Reverend Father Wiehnke; the Greffs, the Schefflers, Herr Fajngold, all Kashubians, Poles, Germans, and Jewswaiting to be discovered and re-discovered.
Günter Grass was born in Danzig, Germany, in 1927 and is the widely acclaimed author of numerous novels, plays, poems, and essays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999. He lives in Germany.
Breon Mitchell is Professor of Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, where he is also Director of the Lilly Library. A Rhodes Scholar, he received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Oxford University. His areas of specialization include literary translation, Anglo-German literary relations, literature and the visual arts, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Samuel Beckett.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
When the LZ-126 Drew Close to New York (from MY CENTURY)
The Stockturm. Long-Distance Song Effects (from THE TIN DRUM)
In the Tunnel
Nursery Rhyme
By the Time the War Broke Out (from CAT AND MOUSE)
Execution on the Playground (from MY CENTURY)
Roll Your Own
There Was Once a City (from DOG YEARS)
Dixieland! (from MY CENTURY)
A Look Back at The Tin Drum, or: The Author as Dubious Witness
Two Left-handers
When the Wall Went Up
Operation Travel Bureau (from MY CENTURY)
I Like Riding the Escalator
On Writers as Court Jesters and on Non-existent Courts
Literature and Politics
A Father's Difficulties in Explaining Auschwitz to His Children
When Father Wanted to Remarry
Isn't It Nice to Be Rich and Famous? (from FROM THE DIARY OF A SNAIL)
A Call to the Special Unit (from MY CENTURY)
Police Radio
Israel and Me
Immured
By a Rough Estimate
Askesis
But What Is My Stone? (from HEADBIRTHS OR THE GERMANS ARE DYING OUT)
The Stone
The Artist's Freedom of Opinion in Our Society
The Last Meal (from THE FLOUNDER)
Literature and Myth
The Hare and the Hedgehog
The Destruction of Mankind Has Begun
In Posthuman Times (from THE RAT)
Bikini Atoll
Berlin-A Projected Fiction
Alexander and Alexandra (from THE CALL OF THE TOAD)
Madness! Sheer Madness! (from MY CENTURY)
The Wallpeckers (from TOO FAR AFIELD)
My Old Olivetti
Willy Brandt at the Warsaw Ghetto
Obituary for Helen Wolff
Literature and History
To Be Continued...
In the Midst of Life
I remember...
Kleckerburg
When Time Had Run Out (from CRABWALK)
After Midnight
Tango Nocturno
Tango Mortale