A review by eelsmac
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I'm struggling with this one because on an academic level I understand that there is well developed satire and allegory that speaks to a certain cultural complexity that, as I am not a German man living in the 20th century, I don't fully appreciate. And I think if I were taking a class and had that layer of guided analysis based on cultural context that I would probably have enjoyed it far more than I did, and indeed I have a feeling that beneath all the layers, this is saying something very real about how the cataclysms of the 20th century marked the German psyche as well as landscape. BUT, for like casual, solo reading this is not it. This is the kind of book that does require a bit of extra work to really divine meaning from and quite frankly I'm not invested enough in Oskar to do that leg work on my own.