It was rather surprising to read such a short – and fundamentally simple
and linear – novella by Grass after powering through the hefty (yet absolutely
wonderful) The Tin Drum. The links
between the two are many: clearly the setting, but also the unreliability of
the narrator (Pilenz is not as unruly as Oskar, yet his desire to justify
himself makes the reader question whether or not he is telling the whole truth,
or just his own) not to mention the fact that Oskar himself does make a couple
of appearances in the book (something I could have done without, as I saw
little need for such explicit tribute).
The intimacy of the novella is very touching, as well as the narrator’s
decision to directly address Mahlke time and again. The innocence of the two
main characters is lost in the 140 pages of the book, but, given the setting,
no reader could – or should – make a moral judgement (even when Pilenz writes
that he hopes not to have said anything that might have damaged his freemason
teacher, or when Mahlke takes his dramatic decisions in the last few pages).
Throughout the book the reader knows perfectly well that things are going
to take a turn for the worse, but the sadness of the last couple of pages is
something that is absolutely lacerating for a book about teenagers growing up
together.
