Book Review: Günter
Grass, Im Krebsgang.
This is an impressive book - not uplifting, and not to be read
fast as entertainment to fill the hours. It makes you think in unusual
ways; it leaves you disturbed about the human fate and the problems of
our communal life that seem to be beyond solution. It affects the way
we
should think about ourselves.
Grass is master of his language, in a few words, he sets off thinking
in various different directions. The story is deceptively simple at the
beginning. But gradually the book reveals a complexity and
psychological depth that reminds us of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg with
the protagonists set in their multi-dimensional web of relations and
events. But, while Mann is of the patrician class of Hamburg, Grass
paints the lives of a rudimentary working class family, people who use
coarse language while they suffer a brutal fate in the flight before
the Russian tanks. Many perish, exposed to the sub-zero January
weather, the survivors lose everything. Yet life continues while only
memories remain. The central idea in the story is that fanaticism is a
curse that feeds on itself and, unless stopped by an extraordinary act
of selflessness, can continue through generations.
After the first thirty pages, I thought little about the book: why
turning all this old stuff over and over again. Why wallow in things
that happen
in every but the most fortunate life? But then, I could not stop, the
course of events took hold of me and I continued with the whole thing,
finally coming to the end after some ten hours, deeply moved in my own
memories that I had of these terrible times of the great war and the
hard life afterwards. What it means for a people to go through several
such national upheavals, with the collapse of your country in total
defeat, the uncounted personal catastrophes, with two totally different
totalitarian regimes in succession! All this is not easy to explain to
those for whom this is but a part of the dusty past. Yet this is what
Grass achieves and this, together with his masterful language, is the
reason why this book is so meritorious.
As one could expect, Grass has created sensation with his book.
Mentioning the plight of the Germans who were expelled from the former
Eastern provinces at the end of the war caused consternation and
displeasure among parts of the reading public in Germany. This subject
has been taboo ever since 1945 and now one is suddenly reminded of this
tragic chapter of recent history. Inevitably, the uncomfortable
question of guilt arises again. However, just like the holocaust, these
catastrophes must be kept in our collective memory because otherwise,
the disasters will repeat with greater likelihood. Of course, people
are shaped by the events, but these events are caused by these people!
Stupidity, ignorance, or hate are no help to avoid them. The national
tragedies are not facts of nature, and we have to accept our part in
them before anything can be done to avoid, or at least to control, such
events. Man, after all, is a being capable of thought and learning. But
he must be taught, anew in every generation. And he must learn to
discipline himself, otherwise freedom is only a short dream to be
followed by another man-made catastrophe.
Copyright © 2003, Gernot M. R. Winkler
Last
Correction 12/30/2008