Yet another winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum is a novel that I'd already like to reread; this is due to the novel's complicated and subtle rhythm, designed to evoke the titular drumming. Grass frequently lays out passages that swell and build in intensity, as in a cadence. Such writing must be a bear to translate, and Breon Mitchell covers some of the steps he took in his re-translation, including working with Grass.
Our protagonist is Oskar Matzerath, who is a classic unreliable narrator -- the story is written as his memoirs, composed while he's imprisoned in a mental institution. Oskar has spent his entire life as a dwarf; he claims that he hurled himself down a flight of cellar stairs on his third birthday to retard his growth,
which is a claim that we should treat with skepticism if Oskar was not chosen to represent the German people.
Later, after his (presumptive) father's death, Oskar resolves to grow. He doesn't reach normal adult height, though -- becoming a hunchback, with limited stature. Again, suggesting that Germany's political state is not quite normal. Oskar almost achieves normalcy, though -- his mother had promised him a tin drum on his third birthday. When Oskar receives this gift, he's entirely taken with it, and it defines him. He's never without it until the death of his (presumptive) father, where he throws it into the grave.
While there's a lot going on in The Tin Drum, it's an easy and engaging read. The novel is broken up into three books, each with a different focus and tone, but again, engaging. Would recommend.
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