Cheap Cat and Mouse (Book) (Gunter Grass) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Cat and Mouse

Guenter Grass's Cat and Mouse is the one to read
It is true that Grass is always a sweet read and this book is no exception. Do not be confused by the incorrect synopsis which is about a cheap American thriller. Grass has not lowed his high standards. He has written a moving, informative tale of youth in war-time Poland. The story is short, but powerful. Well worth a couple hours of your time.

---

Why is it I always end up liking books I read in school?
Okay, I'll admit freely: "Katz und Maus" was required reading in school, which obviously biased me against it immediately. What's worse, it was German postwar literature, which never fails to be depressing and downbeat. I knew I was in for a greuling read.
And then, suddenly, it wasn't. In fact, I started liking it from the first line, and carried on until the end, which I'd give away if I said wasn't an end, so I'll let you read it yourself.

The story is complicated and non-linear. It is told from a first person narrative, the exact reliability of which is consatantly brought into question, either by the fog of the years or deliberate misconstruction due to feelings of guilt, the narrator never seems too sure about what happened, often offering several different versions of the same story at the same time, and even going so far as to admit his own fictitiousness. The story that serves as a Leitmotiv, as well as title of the book, is the cat that attacked Mahlke's adam's apple, and exactly how it got there.

What I found most striking about the book on first glance was the descriptions of the places and characters that the novella is centered on. At the same time, you have a feeling that it's merely a part of a greater whole. It fits in with the other two books in the so-called Danzig Trilogy seamlessly, yet still sets itself apart.

I have another confession to make: I attend a German high school, and so I read it in German. In my opinion, though what I've read of the excerpts seems like a decent translation, Günter Grass is an author who uses the German language to its full extent, emplying every manner of grammatical and syntactical tricks to underline the story. These, unfotunately, are completely lost in the translation. If you understand German decently, I would strongly encourage you to seek out an original language text.

---

World War II boyhood
Mahlke was asleep in the grass. The narrator was on a ball team and had a tooth ache. The caretaker's black cat was present and jumped at Mahlke's neck, his Adam's apple. The crematorium between the United Cemeteries and the Engineering School was operating.

Shortly after the outbreak of war Joachim Mahlke turned fourteen. Mahlke was an only child. His father was dead. Mahlke had an English screw driver. He lived in Osterzeile. In front of his house there was ceramic frog. His room was in the attic.

He and the boys raised a phonograph from a sunken Polish vessel, a mine sweeper. The boys built a raft to haul it ashore. The naval battle in the Gulf of Danzig had lasted a month.

A big tall character, a Latvian, turned up in their class in 1941. His first name was Karel. Karel drew Mahlke full face. Mahlke became infatuated with serious music. He whistled tunes dedicated to the virgin. He bullied the boys.

A lieutenant commander spoke at their school. Pilenz, the narrator, dubbed Mahlke the Great Mahlke. Mahlke was expelled and transferred to the Horst Wessel School. He received a special wartime diploma, as did many of the others, and was drafted into the Reich Special Labor Service. Sergeant Mahlke returned to the school to give a talk.

An atmosphere of deprivation and adventure is portrayed given the wartime conditions.