Cat and Mouse and Other Writings

by Günter Grass, John Irving (Foreword), Leslie Willson (Editor)

For many years, Gunter Grass (born 1927) has been one of the world's most vital literary figures. From the publication of The Tin Drum through his latest pleas for sane government and civil treatment of Germany's "foreign citizens" in the 1990s, Grass has been at the forefront of both literary and political worlds. This representative volume features two important works: Cat and Mouse and The Meeting at Telgte. Both speak to our time, but under very different settings. It also includes a selection of other works to give a well-rounded view of a writer whom John Irving characterizes in his foreword as "the greatest living novelist today".
The German Library is a new series of the major works of German literature and thought from medieval times to the present. The volumes have forewords by internationally known writers and introductions by prominent scholars. Here the English-speaking reader can find the broadest possible collection of poetic and intellectual achievements in new as well as great classic translations. Convenient and accessible in format, the volumes of The German Library will form the core of any growing library of European literature for years to come. Select list of volumes now published:
German Medieval Tales -- German Humanism and Reformation -- Immanuel Kant: Philosophical Writings -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The Sufferings of Young Werther and Elective Affinities -- Friedrich Schiller: Plays -- "Intrigue and Love" and "Don Carlos" -- Friedrich Schiller: "Wallenstein" and "Mary Stuart" -- German Fairy Tales -- German Literary Fairy Tales -- German Romantic Novellas -- German Romantic Stories -- German Novellas of Realism -- German Poetry from 1750 to 1900 -- Georg Buchner: Complete Works and Letters -- Rainer Maria Rilke: Prose and Poetry -- Gottfried Benn: Prose, Essays, Poems -- German Essays on Art History -- Essays on German Theater -- Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Critical Essays

Genres: Literary Fiction

Paperback

Published November 1, 1994

About the author

Novels, notably The Tin Drum (1959) and Dog Years (1963), of German writer Günter Wilhelm Grass, who won the Nobel Prize of 1999 for literature, concern the political and social climate of Germany during and after World War II.

This novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor since 1945 lived in West Germany but in his fiction frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. He always identified as a Kashubian.

He is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. He named this style “broadened reality.” “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and Dog Years (1963) also succeeded in the period. These three novels make up his “Danzig trilogy.”

Helene Grass (née Knoff, 1898 - 1954), a Roman Catholic of Kashubian-Polish origin, bore Günter Grass to Willy Grass (1899 - 1979), a Protestant ethnic German. Parents reared Grass as a Catholic. The family lived in an apartment, attached to its grocery store in Danzig-Langfuhr (now Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz). He has one sister, born in 1930.

Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.

In 1946 and 1947, he worked in a mine and received an education of a stonemason. For many years, he studied sculpture and graphics, first at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and then at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He also worked as an author and traveled frequently. He married in 1954 and from 1960 lived in Berlin as well as part-time in Schleswig-Holstein. Divorced in 1978, he remarried in 1979. From 1983 to 1986 he held the presidency of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Berlin Academy of Arts).

During the German unification process in 1989 he argued for separation of the two states, because he thought a unified Germany would resume its past aggression. He moved to the northern German city of Lübeck in 1995. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. In 2006, Grass caused controversy with his disclosure of his Waffen-Schutzstaffel service during the final months of World War II, which he had kept a secret until publishing his memoir that year. He died of complications of lung infection on 13th of April, 2015 at a Lübeck hospital. He was 87.

Reviews

[Clarisse N Montag · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the second book of the Danzig trilogy, Cat and Mouse, which is shorter than the Tin Drum (the first one), as well as other novellas and poems.

Cat and mouse:

To read this sequel, we do not need to read the Tim Drum, they are two independent stories. This story is about guilt. It is fascinating how Grass shows us the struggle of a war, how kids were involved, how people were trying to live through it, and how citizens were affected once they were in front of the battlefield.

“Osterzeile, Westerzeile, Bärenweg, no, the whole of Langfuhr, West Prussia, or Germany for that matter, smelled in those war years of onions, onions stewing in margarine; I won't try to determine what else was stewing, but one thing that could always be identified was freshly chopped onions, although onions were scarce and hard to come by, although jokes about the onion shortage, in connection with Field Marshal Göring, who had said something or other about short onions on the radio, were going the rounds in Langfuhr, in West Prussia, and all over Germany. Perhaps if I rubbed my typewriter superficially with onion juice, it might communicate an intimation of the onion smell which in those years contaminated all Germany, West Prussia and Langfuhr, Osterzeile as well as Westerzeile, preventing the smell of corpses from taking over completely.”

In a big picture, I can think the cat could be seen as Germany and the mouse as Poland. And perhaps Malkhe (the main character) a mouse…
Chapter three was fascinating and reminded me of some of the irreverent scenes with the kids in the Tim Drum.

Through reading this sequel, I puzzled over why Gunter seemed to know the specifics of the war and then read that he was a member of the SS in his youth. There is no condemnation, blame, or critique of him or the entire story. It is hard to think that someone capable of creating this level of art could possess any trace of cruelty.

As usual, the remarkable ending left my jaw on the floor.


The meeting at Telgte:


I hesitated to read this novella and delayed it because, at the beginning, there is a “warning” note that it would not be easy for Western readers to follow. But this was my favourite one! Yes, it took me a little more time to follow each character, and thanks to the good job of Leonard Foster, who helped the reader with these extra notes on each character after the end of the story, it came in very handy to be able to understand.

A meeting of German poets and editors took place in the forty-seventh year of the century (1647), while the country was still at war, a war that had lasted 29 years, and peace negotiations were taking place.

“A meeting of all possible poets should be held in Breslau or in Prussia, to unite our confraternity in these days of the fatherland’s division…” - Opitz.

And all the intellectual drama and disputes between them. For a person who loves poetry, it was fantastic to learn about it. I think for a German who is fond of poetry, it would be a very good story. I enjoyed it, but I had to keep going back to remember who X and Y were. Even though it was strongly focused on religion, it was enjoyable to read what they expressed.

“…In that in the forty-seventh year of this woeful century, our hitherto drown-out voice be heard above all the long-winded talk of peace and despite the continuing clamor of battle; for what we had to say is not foreign-contaminated chatter, but part and parcel of our language: Where, O Germany, shall I leave you? For well night thirty years, by murder and rapine, Thou hast destroyed thyself, the guilt is thine…”-Dach.


How beautiful was the music intertwined with a poem! Albert, a cathedral organist, embodies the connection between music and poetry, as poetry itself possesses melody.

And for the end…well, Gunter always gets very interesting endings!


Ballerina:

I have only one comment on these short, well-made “essays”(?): Anyone who wanted to be a ballerina would think twice about becoming one after reading these.

Lastly, for the poems, I particularly enjoy “Family Matters” and “Brass Music.”

Now, I must delve into the third book of the trilogy: Dog Years. I believe it will be worth the time.

[Elizabeth Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange book of clown and hero behaviour. Not a favorite of mine

[Olga · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novella is about World War II and I don't quite see why Grass had to write it. The Tin Drum seemed all-encompassing. Herr Grass did very thorough research for every single thing he wrote. He wasn't one to write a book every couple of years and advised other writers against this false "productivity". Given this, I was surprised how at his self-repetition. True, the subject of the novella was different from that of "The Tin Drum" but some motifs remained.
However, this is opinion of a person who hasn't yet read "Dog years". The third part of the famous "Danzig Trilogy" might be able to make things clear for the readers.