The tastes of Grass

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 24

The tastes of Grass

The Flounder. From the Diary of a Snail. Cat and Mouse. The Tin Drum. Dog Years. AH by Gunter Grass. Picador, 1989. Each approximately $2O (paperback). (Reviewed by Tom Weston) Gunter Grass is the pre-eminent contemporary German writer. His novel “The Tin Drum” first brought him to public attention in 1959. The novel in turn became the extraordinary film (directed by Voiker Scholondorff) and was, for many English-speaking viewers, their first introduction to this novelist’s work. It is a mistake to leave it just at that. Picador has now reissued his works. Grass has been available in English editions for some time, but this looks like a concerted push. New readers can expect a rich feast, but one that comes with its own set of demands. Gunter Grass is not an easy read. His novels are usually intense, as minutely figured as a Durer etching (or equally his own etching of a flounder that appears on the cover of his, novel of the same name). He is consciously political, his sensibilities formed in the chaos of the Nazi regime. Grass served in the German Army in the Second World War before being captured by the Americans. The obsessional ugliness of the Third Reich is never far from the forefront of his concerns.

"The Flounder” strikes me as the most remarkable of his novels. It has been subtitled, “A celebration of life, food and sex.” The latter arises in the context of the Women’s Movement. The Flounder, the archetypal male essence in Grass’s pantheon of

metaphors, is put on trial by a women’s tribunal. In between times, we canvass the history of Central European cooking and its food. The story is witty, earthy; the smell of cooking palpable.

“The Flounder” is less grim than, say, “The Rat” which details a post apocalypse world told from the perspective of a caged female rat — an unusual starting point and breathtaking in its boldness. The unrelenting pressure can be a bit much, though. Characters from earlier Grass novels make cameo appearances. Oskar Matzerath, the dwarf of “The Tin Drum,” is now an older businessman. The group of women who put to sea on their search do so in a vessel called "The New Ilsebil,” a name redolent with echoes from “The Flounder.” Each work is self-contained, but Grass cannot resist creating his own dynasties. Grass acknowledges his roots in German folklore, his odd kinship with Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. He is quite as comfortable with characters such as Rumpiestiltskin and Hansel and Gretel as he is with abstract ones called Doubt. Even Willy Brandt makes an appearance or two. Grass can make a fable from the oddest assortment of ingredients. I read the shortest of these novels the most recently. “Cat and Mouse” is a more gentle, almost whimsical work. It would provide a less arduous introduction to this novelist. But, if you’re in a mind to live dangerously, go for “The Flounder." Food will never be the same again.