The Tin Drum

Name: The Tin Drum
Author: Günter Grass

Günter Grass · 1959

Oskar Matzerath decides at age three to stop growing. Grass used this conceit and magical realism to write about the rise of Nazism from inside the German experience, with grotesque humor, savage irony, and deep moral seriousness. Published in 1959, it catalyzed the German literary reckoning with fascism. The Nobel committee took note.

The case against

on the density of imagery
“Tin Drum is a crazy book, with so much imagery and so much going on”
a book blog
on the style
“There are some passages where Grass gets lost in his ramblings or narrative experiments”
a book blog
on the cast of characters
“Such an elaborate character list is hard to effectively bring across in a book”
a book blog
on the length
“Some readers may find the novel’s length and dense prose demanding.”
a book blog