A review by misslezlee
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

3.0

I began reading Tin Drum in 1976/77 when I picked up a paperback copy belonging to one of the students I shared a house with. Years later I could vividly remember the opening scene. By then, I owned a wonderful 1962 hardback copy I had found somewhere, I don’t remember where. I love the cover and the way the pages lie open so easily. So much of a good read is in the physicality of the book. I’ve pecked away at it for several decades, enjoying it, forgetting about it and enjoying it some more. Today, I finally finished reading it in a digital version because I had an hour to kill due to a scheduling mixup and a wreck that blocked the road to school. This version included an interesting article at the end which talked about translating the original into English and how Grass used German in an innovative way.

This review sums up the story and its importance in twentieth century literature:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/oct/07/the-tin-drum-gunter-grass