As a young man I tried to
read Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum two
times and failed miserably both the times. I was not intelligent enough to
understand the subtle depths of a novel that narrated the story of a man who
had chosen on his third birthday not to grow up any more. His toy tin drum became his best friend or his
means of expressing his protest at the political chaos that surrounded
him. Eventually he allows himself to be
falsely convicted of the murder of the woman whom he loved and ends up in a
mental asylum.
The pipe was Grass's most abiding companion |
The novel put me off so
much that I never read anything that Grass wrote. Yet I felt sad when allegations of Nazism and
inveterate hypocrisy were levelled against him a decade back when he admitted
in his autobiography that at the age of 17 he had been drafted into Hitler’s
Waffen-SS towards the end of the second World War. He was accused of trying to sell more copies
of the book by making the confession, accused of cynicism and hypocrisy and
even of being a supporter of Nazism. I
read more about him and learnt that none of the charges were deserved.
Grass passed away
yesterday. I cannot write about his contribution to literature since I stayed
away from his books. Yet I always felt
drawn to him whenever I read something about him. I liked his refusal to commit himself to any
ideology. I loved his scepticism. I loved the helpless yet raucous protest that
his eccentric protagonist raised by hiding himself under a platform and subverting
the Nazi band during a rally.
Grass was a rebel and his
enfant terrible protagonist was an aesthetic expression of his own
rebellion. It is the rebellion of a
person who thinks differently from the vast majority of the people on the
planet and hence is destined to remain an alien throughout his life. And that’s what Grass was. He was not a coward, however. He did not hide beneath any platform when
Germany was unified in 1990, for example.
When his compatriots celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall as “the
greatest street party in the history of the world”, he remained sceptical and his
reasoning was vindicated by the ruthless treatment meted out to many former
East Germans.
Grass was credited with a
profound understanding of public life.
His views were solidly founded on clear ethical principles. Yet when he admitted honestly his erstwhile
connections with the Nazis people including so-called intellectuals found it
difficult to digest. This difficulty of
the people to understand certain subtle truths about life is what made me write
this.
Great tribute to this literary giant!
ReplyDeleteI too could't gather much from 'The Tin Drum' some 30 yrs back.
Taking inspiration from here will try again...that is if I manage to grab a copy(it will be in great demand now)!
The novel is available, Amit. Just checked out Amazon a few minutes back. I too want to give it another chance.
DeleteI have only heard about the novel .. but now its a must read ..only - if I'll be able to grasp it ! By your words, to me, he seems a complicatedly simple man .And I feel that being simple is the toughest task.
ReplyDelete"Complicatedly simple" - good phrase, Kokila. That's what all good writers are, I guess.
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ReplyDeleteCan you imagine that the only thing I took away from this post was that how much the man looks like Saddam Hussain.
ReplyDeleteMy god! Have I become that mysterious?
DeleteAppreciate your tribute to Mr. Grass. May his soul rest in peace. Am tempted to read some of his work. Thanks for sharing sir.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. Glad to have drawn your interest in Grass.
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