Product Description
A critical examination of Grass's work offers overwhelming evidence that Cat and Mouse and Dog Years are part of a unified structure begun by The Tin Drum and that they continue to explore the same key figures, themes, and symbols. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

What a bore
I made it through 90% of the first story and couldn't take the pain any longer!

The Tin Drum
I can't say that it's the kind of book Iread without putting down.It took me four years to read it in German, it was a project from which I learned more German, to like Gunther Grass and to look at midgets or short people in a different way. For me they now stand for Oskar, the main character of the book a boy who shatters windows and glasses of his teacher, makes the Nazis dance to the wrong tune, loves nursesand much more. It's a wonderful book.I recently read a list of the 50 favorite books of Germans.This one was number 48 for them.It's close to number one for me. It's a wonderful book -whether it takes you a week or 4 years.

Well worth reading
I have read the book in the original language (German)and I couldn't put it down until I was done.
I dont know if it is just as good translated, but I love his choice of words and the pictures he is painting with them.
I mainly read the book, because I am interested in the history of that time,place and the people.
If that is what you are looking for, this book is a must.

A great set, great value
If you can't check these out at a library (or can't just have these greatworks for just a few weeks) this trilogy is for you.Tin Drum, in myopinion, is the best of the set, expressing oppression and pain with thebest of Grass's stark realism and sardonic wit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

wunderbar!
Die Geschichte ist wirklick super muess ich sagen. Guenter Grass ist ein wohlgezeter Autor. Man fuehlt als ob man aller miterlebt. Du muesst "den grossen Malke" einfach kennenlernen!. ... Read more

Product Description
The setting is Danzig during World War II. The narrator recalls a boyhood scene in which a black cat pounces on his friend Mahlke’s “mouse”-his prominent Adam’s apple. This incident sets off a wild series of events that ultimately leads to Mahlke’s becoming a national hero. Translated by Ralph Manheim. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Tribute
As I began "Cat and Mouse" I was reminded how gifted a writer Gunter Grass is.As he weaved his folksy way around a story about a character from his youth, I realized a sincere tribute was beginning to unfold.Grass's tales of misspent and well-spent youth gives a mixture of laughter and admiration.There is an element of religion that is key to the understanding of the narrator and the main character.We see faith represented with words of ridicule, respect, and devotion.The way the narrator dismisses his own metamorphisis of faith is essentially an impressive way of focussing on the hero of his story: Let me preach another time, this is about Joachim.

It's interesting the way that we only get to know Joachim Mahlke through the narratror's eyes.Whatever secrets the narrator fails to uncover or understand, we miss as well.The way this mildly mysterious yet quite humorous short novel leads us through a part of a young man's life teases us in a way that keeps us interested.The ending may not be what we want but it's what we get and we realize it is why Grass wanted us to hear the story.

School yard hero
Joachim Mahlke could easily fall under the "Readers Digest" category of "the most unforgettable person I have ever met."Endowed with a gigantic Adam's Apple (akin to a huge mouse) as well as another unmentionable part, he covers up his throat with a hanging screw driver and with other items that he retrieves from swimming near a sunken barge.Mahlke becomes an expert swimmer and obtains the sobriquet "the Great Mahlke" during his school days.He reinforces this image by later winning the Iron Cross, being instrumental in sinking a number of allied ships during World War II.Yet, he cannot live down an act of thievery perpetrated during his youth and is prevented by his old school principal from speaking at an assembly planned in his honor.

_Cat and Mouse_ is a pleasant enough read about this ordinary extraordinary young man.The book has its moments and Mahlke is somewhat likeable and unquestionably brave.However, I could not help but feel that Gunter Grass's under 200 page allegory is the perfect length for discussing a character who was not engaging enough to sustain my interest in him for very much longer.

World War II boyhood
Mahlke was asleep in the grass.The narrator was on a ball team and had a tooth ache.The caretaker's black cat was present and jumped at Mahlke's neck, his Adam's apple.The crematorium between the United Cemeteries and the Engineering School was operating.

Shortly after the outbreak of war Joachim Mahlke turned fourteen.Mahlke was an only child.His father was dead.Mahlke had an English screw driver.He lived in Osterzeile.In front of his house there was ceramic frog.His room was in the attic.

He and the boys raised a phonograph from a sunken Polish vessel, a mine sweeper.The boys built a raft to haul it ashore.The naval battle in the Gulf of Danzig had lasted a month.

A big tall character, a Latvian, turned up in their class in 1941.His first name was Karel. Karel drew Mahlke full face. Mahlke became infatuated with serious music.He whistled tunes dedicated to the virgin.He bullied the boys.

A lieutenant commander spoke at their school.Pilenz, the narrator, dubbed Mahlke the Great Mahlke.Mahlke was expelled and transferred to the Horst Wessel School.He received a special wartime diploma, as did many of the others, and was drafted into the Reich Special Labor Service.Sergeant Mahlke returned to the school to give a talk.

An atmosphere of deprivation and adventure is portrayed given thewartime conditions.

What on Earth is this book talking about??!!
Being a member of a local book club, I was given an Arabic print of this book to read.From the first paragraph, I could not comprehend a single word, so I blamed it all on the Arabic translator and bought an English one. Still, no luck. I felt quite stupid for not understanding a Nobel winner book! but after reading reviews here and there, I came to the conclusion that this novel can only be read in its native language, German.

So if you cant read German, I dont suggest that you toture yourself with reading any other version of it.

Why is it I always end up liking books I read in school?
Okay, I'll admit freely: "Katz und Maus" was required reading in school, which obviously biased me against it immediately. What's worse, it was German postwar literature, which never fails to be depressing and downbeat. I knew I was in for a greuling read.
And then, suddenly, it wasn't. In fact, I started liking it from the first line, and carried on until the end, which I'd give away if I said wasn't an end, so I'll let you read it yourself.

The story is complicated and non-linear. It is told from a first person narrative, the exact reliability of which is consatantly brought into question, either by the fog of the years or deliberate misconstruction due to feelings of guilt, the narrator never seems too sure about what happened, often offering several different versions of the same story at the same time, and even going so far as to admit his own fictitiousness. The story that serves as a Leitmotiv, as well as title of the book, is the cat that attacked Mahlke's adam's apple, and exactly how it got there.

What I found most striking about the book on first glance was the descriptions of the places and characters that the novella is centered on. At the same time, you have a feeling that it's merely a part of a greater whole. It fits in with the other two books in the so-called Danzig Trilogy seamlessly, yet still sets itself apart.

I have another confession to make: I attend a German high school, and so I read it in German. In my opinion, though what I've read of the excerpts seems like a decent translation, Günter Grass is an author who uses the German language to its full extent, emplying every manner of grammatical and syntactical tricks to underline the story. These, unfotunately, are completely lost in the translation. If you understand German decently, I would strongly encourage you to seek out an original language text. ... Read more

Product Description
These fifty-four poems, spanning four decades, depict a landscape at once recognizably mundane and grotesquely surreal.Grass's spirited humor and linguistic creativity transcend the cant of political poetry. The German originals face the translation. Translated by Michael Hamburger. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book ... Read more

Product Description
Günter Grass is Germany's best-known and internationally most successful living author, from his first novel The Tin Drum to his recent controversial autobiography. He is known for his tireless social and political engagement with the issues that have shaped post-War Germany: the difficult legacy of the Nazi past, the Cold War and the arms race, environmentalism, unification and racism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999. This Companion offers the widest coverage of Grass's oeuvre across the range of media in which he works, including literature, television and visual arts. Throughout, there is particular emphasis on Grass's literary style, the creative personality which inhabits all his work, and the impact on his reputation of revelations about his early involvement with Nazism. The volume sets out, in a fresh and lively fashion, the fundamentals that students and readers need in order to understand Grass and his individual works. ... Read more