?? Gunter Grass' second novel is quite different in character from
The Tin Drum??. ?? less of a showcase for an obstreperous talent
(although there are still scenes of caricature and occasional
scabrous humor), it is a more controlled book and far more
internalized. This time the German-realist-surrealist, while again
using many symbolic allusions, has subdued some of the
abstractions, some of the elements of the absurd. The latter is
chiefly apparent in the physical disfigurement of the central
character which again singularizes him: the demonic Oskar Matzerath
was a ??warf; now it is the protuberant Adam's apple which jumps
conspicuously like a mouse ?? the neck of Mahlke whose story is
told by his friend Pilenz. Both boys grow up together in a small
Danzig town and the always solicitous, increasingly admiring Pilenz
follows Mahlke, in a sense an unlikely hero, odd, quiet, solemn,
devout, as ??e performs his amazing feats. These extend from the
childish games, when- as an underwater diver- he brings up trophies
from a sunken minesweeper in the bay, to the atrocities of war and
his spectacular performance in action. Little by little, however,
there is the erosion of the individual by the system and Mahlke,
the "mouse", the "clown", but most of all the "redeemer" with his
resounding faith, goes deliberately to his death. It is the gesture
of the individual against the philistinism which has always
dominated German life and which was so much a part of the earlier
book.... A tantalizing, eloquent, strange and strangely moving
book, filled with remarkable scenes, a tragi-comic vitality and a
transcendental vision. (Kirkus Reviews)
For many years, Gunter Grass (born 1927) has been one of the
world's most vital literary figures. From the publication of The
Tin Drum through his latest pleas for sane government and civil
treatment of Germany's "foreign citizens" in the 1990s, Grass has
been at the forefront of both literary and political worlds. This
representative volume features two important works: Cat and Mouse
and The Meeting at Telgte. Both speak to our time, but under very
different settings. It also includes a selection of other works to
give a well-rounded view of a writer whom John Irving characterizes
in his foreword as "the greatest living novelist today".
The German Library is a new series of the major works of German
literature and thought from medieval times to the present. The
volumes have forewords by internationally known writers and
introductions by prominent scholars. Here the English-speaking
reader can find the broadest possible collection of poetic and
intellectual achievements in new as well as great classic
translations. Convenient and accessible in format, the volumes of
The German Library will form the core of any growing library of
European literature for years to come. Select list of volumes now
published:
-- German Medieval Tales -- German Humanism and Reformation --
Immanuel Kant: Philosophical Writings -- Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe: The Sufferings of Young Werther and Elective Affinities --
Friedrich Schiller: Plays -- "Intrigue and Love" and "Don Carlos"
-- Friedrich Schiller: "Wallenstein" and "Mary Stuart" -- German
Fairy Tales -- German Literary Fairy Tales -- German Romantic
Novellas -- German Romantic Stories -- German Novellas of Realism
-- German Poetry from 1750 to 1900 -- Georg Buchner: Complete Works
and Letters -- Rainer Maria Rilke: Prose and Poetry -- Gottfried
Benn: Prose, Essays, Poems -- German Essays on Art History --
Essays on German Theater -- Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Critical
Essays
General
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