I gave this book to my dad to read first since I was in the middle of other books and I thought he'd find it interesting since the author is/was German. When my dad gave it back to me I asked him how it was and all he would say is, "It's weird. It's just.... weird." He liked it, but, like me, didn't really 'get it' completely. My level of enjoyment regarding this book have would greatly benefited from a literature professor holding my hand and walking me through the deeper meanings of the book as I wasn't picking up on them. Rather, I was definitely distracted by it's 'weirdness.' Even without as much understanding of the book as I would have liked it wasn't too bad a read.

Found this very similar to "Midnight's Children" although I preferred Grass's writing to Rushdie's. As is the case with this types of books, The Tin Drum is also filled with a lot of symbolism that I didn't get, to quote from the book, "Allegorical rubbish." Then again, I don't want to denounce something just because I don't understand it.

Wonderfully compelling and rich story of the first 30 years of the life of Oskar Matzerath.

While reading this book, I was already wondering how many stars I would give it. That was because I found it difficult to judge at first. When I started out, it was maybe a 2 or 3 stars books, but before I was half way through, I felt it was creeping towards 4 stars. In the last of the three books, I became suspicious of this being a five star book for me. Sometimes, it would fall back to four, but the last chapters made me nudge toward five stars again.

I would probably reread this in some year's time. In fact, I have started reading the first ten pages or so right after I finished reading the book.

'Or you can start by declaring that novels can no longer be written, and then, behind your own back as it were, produce a mighty blockbuster that establishes you as the last of the great novelists.'

This is a difficult, beautiful and disgusting, altogether remarkable novel.

Oskar recounts his life story from the moment of birth in pre-war Germany to the moment of writing. He's a perverse, murderous and paranoid egocentric with a Messiah complex. As we might expect, he's also an unreliable narrator, a teller of tall tales. He gives himself supernatural powers and uncanny experiences.

As Oskar tells his stories he's also telling Danzig's, Poland and Germany's. I'm sure I didn't see all of the symbolism, grasped a fraction of the references.

The structure is quite unlike anything else I've read, wandering between periods and locations, foretelling and flashbacks and flashbacks of flashbacks, but I was never once lost. There are long sections of exposition, in particular street directions and history, the purpose of which I missed entirely. There are descriptive phrases of jaw-dropping brilliance, astonishing sentences that break all the rules. There are dark jokes set up hundreds of pages before the punchline.

Though the novel has moments of playfulness, and occasionally touched me, Oskar and his Tin Drum most often sickened me. More than once I considered putting them aside - but made a conscious decision to respect the genius in the writing, and learn what Grass would do. The four stars mean my utter respect, but I could not love this book.

I enjoyed this book, although the story was not always easy to follow and the characters, especially Oskar the main character, were not very likable. But I found myself liking Oskar as the story progressed. His was not an easy life living in Danzig,Poland during the German occupation, through WWII, and after the war living in Dusseldorf.
This is from the back cover:
"The Tin Drum is the autobiography (fictional) of thirty-one year old Oskar Matzerath, who has lived through the long Nazi nightmare and who, as the novel begins, is being held in a mental institution. Willfully stunting his growth at three feet for many years, wielding his tin drum and piercing scream as anarchistic weapons, he provides a profound yet hilarious perspective on both German history and the human condition in the modern world."

This book was not a quick and easy read, but once I got passed the first 50 pages or so I had a very hard time putting it down.

No sé qué decir. Qué ASCO he pasado. Por otro lado, qué metáfora del nazismo, la violencia, la guerra, la cobardía... Entiendo que es un gran libro, pero lo he padecido más que disfrutado.