Friday, May 10, 2013

Book Beginnings: The Tin Drum


Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING




Granted: I'm an inmate in a mental institution; my keeper watches me, scarcely lets me out of sight, for there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can't see through blue-eyed types like me.

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass.

I've had a copy of The Tin Drum on my TBR shelf forever, but it daunts me.  The whole notion of German literature daunts me, although I'm of 100% German stock, so I feel I should appreciate it, and I've read hardly any, so don't have a basis for my opinion.

Then I read about the new translation of this Nobel Laureate's classic, and decided to go that route.  My library had an unabridged audio version, so I can read it with my ears.  I figure I can just keep listening, even when I don't get it, like with this opening sentence.  Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you. 

10 comments :

  1. I have The Tin Drum in my Classics' reading list, and I find it hugely daunting as well. Good luck! :)

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  2. I wonder if the blue-eyes are a reference to the Aryan ideal?
    Interesting choice this week - I look forward to your review.

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  3. Hahaha, that's a good way of starting a book! I am in a mental institute XD Thanks for hosting, hope you have a good weekend!
    Juli @ Universe in Words

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  4. I'm intimidated by such books too. Will be very interested in your thoughts when you have finished this one.

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  5. Hi Gilion,

    Some powerful opening lines and I tend to agree with Brona Joy's take on the Aryan race concept.

    It is certainly a chunkster of a story and given that it is also the first part of a trilogy, I think that you have a few monts of serious reading ahead of you!

    Not a book for me, but thanks for sharing and I hope that you manage to stick with it!

    Have a great weekend and thanks for hosting,

    Yvonne

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  6. Very interesting beginning. And German literature intimidates me too....

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  7. Nice beginning. I hope that you get through it and end up liking it.

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  8. I read this book many years ago and, sad to say, not a bit of it stuck with me. Generally a line of dialogue or a bit of setting is etched in my mind and stays sharp, but I have only a vague memory of reading that story.

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  9. I read this book many years ago and, sad to say, not a bit of it stuck with me. Generally a line of dialogue or a bit of setting is etched in my mind and stays sharp, but I have only a vague memory of reading that story.

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  10. Oh this book has been on my wishlist since the time I read the opening line. That was however a different translation:

    Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me. —Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959; trans. Ralph Manheim)


    I find German literature fascinating and have just read three German novellas.

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