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The Tin Drum
The Tin Drum
Author: Gunter Grass
Picaresque novel by Gunter Grass, a purported autobiography of a dwarf who lives through the birth and death of Nazi Germany, published in 1959 as Die Blechtrommel. The work's protagonist, Oskar Matzerath, narrates the novel from an asylum for the insane. He claims to have consciously stopped growing at the age of three in protest a...  more »
ISBN: 23893
Publication Date: 1/16/1990
Pages: 576
Rating:
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 1

5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Fawcett Crest Book
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Write a Review

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reviewed The Tin Drum on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Good book but sad. About war in Europe and how different people cope.
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reviewed The Tin Drum on + 20 more book reviews
an interesting book, for certain. being a translation it was a little bit hard for me to get into the writing style at first, but definitally an interesting and worthwile book
reviewed The Tin Drum on + 419 more book reviews
It is said that great works of literature depend on character development, not so much on the plot and the story itself. Well, this is a case in point. The whole book is sustained by the central character of Oskar, a wicked, depressed, desperate man seeing how his world crumbles apart and he has to build a life for himslef. As another reviewer aptly put it, he is the lonely voice crying in the wilderness. Oskar is a very solitary man with a great disadvantage, one that by sheer willpower he turns every time into an advantage, a means for surviving in a careless, cold world. Oskar never gives up, never surrenders, he finds a way to survive after every setback, and terrifying setbacks he experiences.

I think this book had to be written in the form of magical realism, because the pure realism would have been insufferable: the tragedies that occur are beyond telling them.

Not an easy read, it is most rewarding, for it paints a wide picture of the human experience, precisely what great literature is about.
reviewed The Tin Drum on + 2 more book reviews
best book i've read this year
reviewed The Tin Drum on + 175 more book reviews
ONE OF THE GREATEST LITERARY ADVENTURES OF OUR TIME


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