The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

TITLE: The Tin Drum
AUTHOR: Günter Grass
READ: December - January (ABANDONED 1/3)
THOUGHTS: I have been corresponding with someone about this book, and so therefore have already written a good amount about it. That does not auger well for a thought-out lengthy write up here! I have abandoned this book for now, at about 200 or so pages in. I finished the first book, and have about 400 pages left. There are a few reasons why I was not completely enamored with the text, and despite that I could harp on it for a while, I will try to just limit myself to essentials. First...the structure. I found the structure of this book to be slightly frustrating. There are three books in The Tin Drum, each with several chapters, and each chapter is named. The effect of this is that each chapter has its own little module of narrative, at least from what I read. What I mean by this: a chapter begins, we are already familiar with Oskar and the people he knows, and the chapters relates an anecdote involving him and other people. Each chapter follows the same pattern: self-contained module of narrative that very slowly threads a larger overarching story and then stops. Repeat. Why I find this frustrating is because I feel as though each chapter presents itself more as a short story that only very occasionally doles out important information about the characters. Speaking of the characters: I never took to Oskar's form of narration. Something about it strikes me as excessively coy, 'quirky', affectedly 'innocent', etc. I understand what Grass is doing, he is creating a very strange idiosyncratic character, a character who would be considered on the 'fringes' of society, and using this character as a way in which to depict 'history happening to someone' -- or something to that effect. Anthropologically the book is of course very interesting: a perspective into what life in Germany during those very dark times was like, for someone not aligned with the Nazis. I don't want to sound too harsh on the book, I thought it was good, and I did enjoy reading it, it just took some unnecessary effort to pick it up each time I did, and my patience started to wane. I might pick it up again. The last chapter of the first book I found to be very powerful -- pertaining to Oskar's experience of Kristallnacht. In 2012 I unfortunately want to abandon more books if they are not winning me over, simply because there is too much to read!!! Sorry books!!