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missbookiverse's review against another edition
Seit der Blechtrommel bin ich ja eh extrem schlecht auf Günter Grass zu sprechen, deshalb hab ich von Anfang an erwartet, dass mir Katz und Maus nicht gefallen würde. Dank des Deutschunterrichts musste ich es mir trotzdem zu Gemüte führen, was ich aber (gepriesen sei das Internet) nur teilweise getan habe. Gott sei Dank ist dieser Roman wenigstens um ein Vielfaches dünner als Die Blechtrommel. Spaß gemacht hat's trotzdem nicht. Die ganzen Masturbationsolympiaden u.ä. fand ich abschreckend und eklig beschrieben. Die Symbolik, die hinter jeder Ecke und unter jedem Stein lauert, haben wir in der Schule hoch und runter interpretiert, aber auch die fand ich nicht sonderlich beeindruckend.
Ich werde wohl nie ein Günter Grass Buch komplett lesen, schon gar nicht freiwillig. Der Mann und sein enormer Erfolg bleiben mir nach wie vor ein Rätsel.
Ich werde wohl nie ein Günter Grass Buch komplett lesen, schon gar nicht freiwillig. Der Mann und sein enormer Erfolg bleiben mir nach wie vor ein Rätsel.
daladala's review against another edition
1.0
Ei, ikävä kyllä ei tämäkään Grassin teos iskenyt minuun. Kieli hyppelee niin koreasti että on lähinnä sekavaa ja samalla kirjassa käsitellään monia teemoja, minkä johdosta teoksen jääminen vieraaksi ja kysymyksiä herättäväksi kokonaisuudeksi on varsin johdonmukainen seuraus.
notyourvegetable's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
bengriffin's review against another edition
3.0
I was initially quietly gripped by the boyhood adventure against the backdrop of war, but even though it's only short and has large print, I felt like I ran out of steam about halfway through. I imagine I missed a lot of the nuance having not read the other books in the trilogy and I got the impression studying them would make them a lot more rewarding. Despite meandering a bit too much, the ending and final lines resonate nicely though, and I'm interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.
edgar_allans_hoe's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ida0810's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
minnie_loves_to_read's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
k5tog's review against another edition
3.0
Set in Germany duRing WWII, this is a coming of age story about a strange teenager nicknamed the Great Mahlke. Socially awkward, devoutly religious, and strikingly odd, Mahlke moves from anti-social outcast to admired swimmer to being expelled from school, and finally to becoming a decorated war hero. The narrator, Pilenz, is slightly younger than Mahlke and obviously in awe.
There were weird changes in point of view - narrating about Mahlke as a third person then narrating as if talking directly to Mahlke - in the middle of paragraphs. Because this book was a translation from German, I’m not sure if this is the way the author intended it or if was just a translation problem. Either way, it really bothered me.
There were weird changes in point of view - narrating about Mahlke as a third person then narrating as if talking directly to Mahlke - in the middle of paragraphs. Because this book was a translation from German, I’m not sure if this is the way the author intended it or if was just a translation problem. Either way, it really bothered me.
david_rhee's review against another edition
4.0
Still a bit wobbly from just having read Günter Grass' The Tin Drum, the second entry in Grass' Danzig trilogy, Cat and Mouse, has a way of confounding like few others. I was on skates with rotating wheels for a large portion of this work and this worried me. Slowly realizing Grass' intentions helped me see the reasons for my state. No, I wasn't totally off my game, maybe a little bit. It is the state of the narrator which drives the bizarre feel of the novella which at times strings out long stretches of incoherent relating of events which are strange enough already.
The interplay between Cat and Mouse and The Tin Drum coaxed smiles from me early on. The two stories shared the same time and setting and familiar faces from the The Tin Drum made their way into this narrative. Remember how Oskar the narrator of The Tin Drum bounced from first to third person when telling his story? In Cat and Mouse, Pilenz mixes second and third person addresses when relating the story of his friend, Mahlke the Great. This clever conversational interplay is yet another device employed by the genius Grass.
Say what you will about the story. Maybe one could be inclined to think there isn't much to it. The vulgarity might be a turn-off to some. A mere sixty pages in and you'll be treated to public masturbation and people casually chewing on seagull poop (unless, of course, my suspect reading comprehension skills have failed me yet again).
I believe the level of life-like realism in Pilenz's relationship with Mahlke is reason enough to open Cat and Mouse. There is admiration, jealousy, love, hatred all intertwined in the same cord. The ambivalence of an already volatile mixture is still more heightened by the fact that Pilenz is still distraught and jarred by Mahlke's fate. His slips into second person addresses betray his failure to understand his friend and what became of him. He is still making pleading remarks, at times really deranged ones, to Mahlke while trying to tell an objective story about him. It is a relationship so organic and pure that the only thing which can produce it is real life itself.
The interplay between Cat and Mouse and The Tin Drum coaxed smiles from me early on. The two stories shared the same time and setting and familiar faces from the The Tin Drum made their way into this narrative. Remember how Oskar the narrator of The Tin Drum bounced from first to third person when telling his story? In Cat and Mouse, Pilenz mixes second and third person addresses when relating the story of his friend, Mahlke the Great. This clever conversational interplay is yet another device employed by the genius Grass.
Say what you will about the story. Maybe one could be inclined to think there isn't much to it. The vulgarity might be a turn-off to some. A mere sixty pages in and you'll be treated to public masturbation and people casually chewing on seagull poop (unless, of course, my suspect reading comprehension skills have failed me yet again).
I believe the level of life-like realism in Pilenz's relationship with Mahlke is reason enough to open Cat and Mouse. There is admiration, jealousy, love, hatred all intertwined in the same cord. The ambivalence of an already volatile mixture is still more heightened by the fact that Pilenz is still distraught and jarred by Mahlke's fate. His slips into second person addresses betray his failure to understand his friend and what became of him. He is still making pleading remarks, at times really deranged ones, to Mahlke while trying to tell an objective story about him. It is a relationship so organic and pure that the only thing which can produce it is real life itself.