Kutu: Karanlık Oda Hikâyeleri

Autobiografical Trilogy #2

by Günter Grass, Levent Konca (Translator)

“Grass’ın romanla deney yapma konusundaki tükenmez tutkusundan ve Kutu’daki olağanüstü pasaj ve hikâyelerden etkilenmemek olanaksız.”
CHARLES SIMIC

Nobel ödüllü Alman romancı Günter Grass’ın büyük tartışmalar yaratan Soğanı Soyarken adlı yaşamöyküsünün devamı niteliğindeki Kutu, aynı zamanda deneysel bir kurmaca.
Romanın gizli kahramanı Günter Grass, farklı kadınlardan olan sekiz çocuğunu bir araya getiriyor ve onlardan, çocukluklarını, birbirleriyle ve genellikle yeni bir kitabın peşinde olduğu için ortalarda görünmeyen babalarıyla ilişkilerini anlatıp kaydetmelerini rica ediyor. Çocukların konuşmaları, anıları, bellekleri bir süre sonra üst üste biniyor; çekişmeler, suçlamalar, kıskançlıklar, yalanlar ortaya saçılıyor.
Tüm bu performansın merkezinde ise, Grass’ın teneke trampet gibi büyülü nesnelerinden biri yer alıyor: Agfa Box fotoğraf makinesi. Adeta usta yazarın gölgesine dönüşen, makinesiyle yazarın temalarına ilişkin binlerce kare çeken gizemli Mariecik’in elinden düşürmediği sihirli “Kutu”su, kimi zaman gerçeklikte olmayan şeyleri kimi zaman da geleceği gösteriyor, sıradan görünümlerin ardındaki gizli niyetleri, arzuları ortaya çıkartıyor.
Artık kendileri de birer ebeveyn olan çocuklar, roman boyunca, Pandora’nın “Kutu”su misali ortaya çıkan bu sihri anlamlandırmaya çalışıyorlar; yazarın ilham kaynağı mı, sanatın gücü mü, tanrının gözü mü, yoksa yalnızca çok ünlü, çok önemli bir yazarın ölmeden önceki son cüretkâr hesaplaşması, son fantezisi mi?

“Günter Grass, ressamlığından dolayı görsel bir yazardı. Hikâye ne kadar acımasız, sert ve siyasi olursa olsun, hikâyeyi yazarın yaratıcılığına dayandırmayı öğretti bize.
Yaşayan en büyük Alman yazarıydı…”
ORHAN PAMUK

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, Germany, Photography, Classics, Nobel Prize, Literature

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

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

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro lindo. A história é contada por meio da gravação de vários diálogos entre oito irmãos, nos quais eles contam e debatem algumas memórias da infância. O objetivo do livro é mostrar como cada irmão teve sua personalidade moldada pela forma com a qual interpretou e, consequentemente, lidou com esses acontecimentos. A história é ambientada na Alemanha Ocidental durante a Guerra Fria e, para não fugir do formato de transcrição, o autor retratou o cenário turbulento da época inserindo pequenas referências na fala ora de um personagem, ora de outro. A princípio, o livro pode parecer confuso, pois o narrador não deixa claro quem está falando o quê, mas com o passar das páginas e o aprofundamento das personagens, a identificação explícita de cada uma se torna desnecessária.

[Hermien · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really felt like siblings getting together sharing childhood memories. It was just that I had to keep reminding myself that it were the writer's own words describing a life in which he played a pivotal role, not the children's version of events.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy it that much. There isn't anything setting this book apart, except maybe for the way in which the autobiography is presented, as a dialogue between the author's eight children. Even so, there's a lack of a "natural" feeling, given how much dialogue there is. The story of someone can be much more than the stories that their children can say about them, and I felt like I was missing on the author's *actual* thoughts, even if it was written by him.

[Hamed Khatiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that this book has the makings of an outstanding short story, any segment whatsoever. That said, spread it out over five hours, and you have the makings of a very boring novel indeed. The characters are also somewhat difficult to follow, changes in time, and age, about six different people who the children call their mother, and a difficult-to-identify narrator across the chapters. The novel is OK, but by no means streamlined.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like a lot of Günter Grass's novels very much. Indeed, some of them rank among my absolute favourites. However, I do find Grass the public figure, a little bit tiresome, so it was with some trepidation that I began reading the autobiographical The Box. Tracking his life from the early-1960s to the early-1990s, Grass (with some creative sleight of hand) reconstructs events using the memories and viewpoints of his eight children – across several mothers – to give insight into his life.

It’s a novel way of going about the job, but understandably one that drifts along inconsistently, as voices emerge and depart, overlap one another, become confused and bicker about the details. Credit to Grass for allowing an image of a loving but disconnected father who was always more interested in himself, his writing and his role as a public provocateur than he is in engaging with his children.

Structurally, The Box is, at times, a tricky read. Imagine being stuck in a room of squabbling siblings with a grumpy old German snapping at them to “talk about me!” For the strong of will, why not? For anybody else, it might be worth giving it a miss.

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even a minor work by a master is worth an afternoon. Very self-referential but still moving ride along the uncertain landscapes of family and memory.

[Al Staumont · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have been a much better book with consistent revelation. Too trailer-y.

[John M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only read one chapter. Not my cup of tea. It was like reading a stranger's diary or being a voyeur at a party of strangers.

[Parsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

گونتر گراس، همانقدر که در ساحت ادبیات مطرح و مهم است، در پهنه زندگی شخصی اش هم تجارب فراوانی را زیسته. چهار همسر و هشت فرزند و البته کهولت سن و ناقوس مرگ، گراس را بر آن داشت که آخرین شاهکار ادبی ش را هم خلق کند. این بار هم رئالیسم جادویی: دوربین عکاسی به بیان مترجم شهر فرنگ طور و به دید من، جام جهان نما. دوربینی که عکس می گیرد ولی در عکسها، چیزیها را همانطور که هستند نشان نمی دهد. بلکه آنطور که بوده اند یا آنطور که خواهند بود یا اصلا آرزوها را نشان می دهد.
بدین ترتیب، سرمایه گذاری گونتر گراس در ژانر شبه خاطرات باز می شود. گراس با تخیل وقایع خانوادگی با افسانه در هم می آمیزد و دائماً در امتداد خط ظریف بین دنیای واقعی و جادویی حرکت می کند. او با اتخاذ رویکرد نوآورانه تصور «ارزیابی انتقادی» زندگی‌اش از دیدگاه فرزندان، آزاد است تا برخی از بینش‌های صمیمی را در مورد زندگی خصوصی، کارهای در حال انجام و روابط خود آشکار کند، در حالی که دیگران را از دید پنهان نگاه دارد. در حالی که خاطرات کودکان بزرگسال بر روی پدر و زندگی خانوادگی در حال تغییر آنها متمرکز است، گرس از آنها می‌خواهد تا در خاطرات فردی یا گروهی خود بازنگری‌های متعددی را به رویدادها یا تحولات اجتماعی تاریخی و معاصر بگنجانند - که آنها را به فرآیندهای تحقیق و نوشتن کتاب‌اش پیوند می‌دهد

[belisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mariecik'in de birkaç defa söylediği üzre "karmançorman"dı...

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will write review when I have proper internet access.

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Once upon a time a father, because he was getting old, gathered his children...”

Thus opens Günter Grass's venture into the genre of quasi-memoir. Imaginatively blending family chronicle with fairy tale, Grass moves constantly along the fine line between the real and the magical worlds. Taking the innovative approach of imagining his life being "critically assessed" from his children's perspectives, he is free to reveal some intimate insights into his private life, his work in progress, and his relationships, while keeping others hidden from view. While the reminiscences of the adult children are focusing on the father and their ever-changing family lives, Grass has them weave into their individual or group recollections numerous flashbacks into historical and contemporary societal events or developments - linking them to his research and book writing processes or his active engagement in public policy in post-war Germany.

For the writing of The Box, Grass had asked his reluctant grown-up children, eight in all, not all his own offspring, to come together from time to time and in different groupings in the course of a summer to record their honest views of their father. While he stays in the background, he admits that he has his own ideas of directing the discussions, tinkering with the various accounts. We, as readers, are flies on the respective kitchen wall in one of the children's homes, listening in on a medley of overlapping, interrupting, contradicting dialogs and accounts, full of fun, love and teasing, with detailed or fleetingly passing insights into the complicated childhoods within the "Kuddelmuddel" (hodgepodge) of the father's families.

There wouldn't have been much magic in the stories, however, without the "old Marie", or "Knips-doch-mal, Mariechen" (take another snap, Mariechen). Marie, a photographer and close and longstanding family friend (the book is dedicated to her memory), was like a fixture in the daily life of the older children, and "clinging" to "Väterchen" wherever he went, capturing the family members and anything of minor or major importance for "Vatti's" next book project. Maybe, it was that she had a special talent to master the "Box", an apparently simple pre-war Agfa box camera that, having been clobbered and knocked about during the war, had apparently developed a mind of its own, or it was that she could imprint visions onto the photos once they passed through her darkroom... In any event, "Mariechen with her Box could not only see into the past but also into the future." And she shared what she saw... The novel's subtitle "Tales from the Darkroom" suggests upfront that we can expect some surprises when photos emerged from processing in the darkroom. The "children", moving back in time, recall many of Marie's stories and her photos from the Box.

The children's narratives, constantly interrupting each other, meander back and forward in time, reminding me of a jigsaw or, even better, a crossword puzzle, the only chronology being established by Grass's work in progress on one of his novels. Words are often triggers to associations and insinuations, not only for the others in the groups around the table, but also for the reader familiar with Grass's writing and/or life and the German context in which the life stories are set. The recounting is full of humour and ironies, mixed in with tidbits of wisdom and serious reflections. Grass's language deserves highlighting (having read the book in German). It is a jumble of direct voices (never indicated by quotes, except for Mariechen), half or incomplete sentences literally falling over each other; jokes and colloquialisms, jumping from one speaker to another, creating a vividly evoked intimacy and an immediacy of a lively debate that one would feel tempted to jump into to ask questions, or just to join in the laughter and fun with the rest of them... I would think that the author''s language here is almost impossible to translate without losing much in the process. Grass is never easy to translate as he invents words as he goes and creates images and associations with unusual usages of words that have to be transposed rather than translated into other languages.

Publicized as the second volume of his three-volume memoir, THE BOX could not be different in style, tone and author's perspective from the first, Peeling the Onion, which was written with hindsight of age and critical reflection on Günter's youth and younger years. The third volume, now published in German, "Grimms' Wörter", melds the biography of the Grimm brothers with his own life, continuing roughly the chronology in his life's works. Grass demonstrates with this fictionalized memoir that he is, at 83, still innovative, experimental and avant-garde in his writing and thinking. A visual artist, a poet as well as a fiction and non-fiction writer, he shows himself here again as an exquisite storyteller with rich imagination that is, despite the magical visions he creates, nevertheless solidly grounded in the realities of his time.

[Jim Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tilted his head as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth

[Steve Petherbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Günter Grass novel. In the blurb it is described as a work of fiction, but, seems to be a record of his eight children as they recall their complex childhood. Perhaps, this allows Mr. Grass to exercise a degree of censorship! Am I being cynical? Maybe. Let's just say that Mr Grass fulfilled the instinct of nature and dispersed his seed widely, entering into numerous relationships resulting in the eight children. The structure of the book is original and can be entertaining.

This is a a sequel to his novel of 2007, "Peeling the Onion", which I gave not read, but, is quite acclaimed. In it he confesses to his controversial, though youthful, membership of the Nazi Waffen SS.

In this sequel, Grass examines himself through the recollections of his eight children, who were apparently tape-recorded on various occasions talking about their childhoods and their father. Voices cut in and out, or overlap one another, or engage in arguing of facts, understandably differing in details as they would have been of different ages. A picture emerges of Grass as a fond, but, frequently disconnected father, tolerated by his partners, yet, someone who was always more interested in writing his books than in conversing with his children. As we readers know, one doesn't get those years back! Children grow up and leave. 'You could never be sure whether he’s really listening or just pretending,’ an unidentified voice says at one point.

To quote from a professional review:

"At the heart of the book is a mysterious woman called Marie, the possessor of an old-fashioned box camera, an Agfa, who takes photographs that stoke Grass’s imagination and enable him to write his novels. Marie’s Agfa is also a kind of time-travelling machine that allows her to summon up the past or foretell the future. As for Marie herself, she may or may not be Grass’s mistress, but she’s clearly his muse.
Meanwhile reality goes on around them: the Berlin Wall is built, and eventually demolished, while the children are left picking up emotional crumbs from their father’s table. In part, The Box is about something that writers very seldom write about, namely what goes on around them while they are writing. Although Grass doesn’t lambast himself for his behaviour, there’s a strain of guilt running through the novel, a sense that he should have been more attentive to his family. Yet he’s helplessly in thrall to the creative process, riding Marie’s Agfa to wherever it will take him next.
The Box is not an easy book to read – at times, it’s a bit like being stuck in a telephone exchange listening to a tangle of crossed lines. But it hums with vivacity, boldness and unflagging curiosity. As Grass writes of himself at the end, 'Something is still ticking inside him that has to be worked through, as long as he is still there …’..."

A good book. A good translation. An easy read - two days in my case. A decent man. A loved man. An insight into the Grass family, perhaps, informing his large body of work.

[Chad Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the premise of this book: All 8 of Gunter Grass's kids sit around in various locations and arrangements talking about their childhood and their father. They also spend a lot of time talking about Marie, Grass's close companion who was always around taking pictures with her Agfa camera. The thing about Marie's pictures though--as repeated ad infinitum until I nearly puked in my brain--is that when developed, the pictures showed images from the past, the future, dreams, wishes, etc. Fine, whatever. My main objection really is that this is all the kids ever talk about. Every time they start to get to something maybe interesting about growing up in Germany or living with their father or whatever, they get into this insipid shit about Marie's camera, and was it the Agfa Special or the box or whatever.

Maybe I'm just missing something. Or everything. But on page 150 when they're talk about the box and say, for basically the bajillionth time: "Maybe what made the box special was not only that it fulfilled wishes but also that it could save the past like a computer, before any such thing as hard drives or diskettes," I wanted to throw the damn book out of the airplane window.

It's too bad. I really wanted to like this, but instead found it insufferable. Especially after reading Heartbreak Hotel, which is so, so good.

[Ellie Sie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dialéctica novelada sobre la charla que tienen ocho hermanos (de padre) reunidos para rememorar, a través de los retratos hechos con una cámara Agfa- la caja de los deseos- con los que se retrataban acontecimientos pasados (la Guerra Mundial) y futuros (la etapa de la división de Alemania).

Te pierdes en quién es el interlocutor al comienzo. Hay que darle tiempo para acostumbrarse a las formas de hablar y adivinar quién habla, ya que carece de guiones.

Trama simple: es una forma que tuvo el autor de plasmar su propia vida en voz de sus hijos ya adultos.

Un pequeño pero atrevido galimatías que deja entrever la nostalgia que siempre inspiran los recuerdos pasados.

[Dana Osburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea of a magic camera as a device for discussing social and historical memory is an interesting one. It's too bad it was used in this supremely vain and lazy memoire where each of Grass's apparently identical eight children wax nostalgic about dear ol' dad's lovable philandering. That's a yikes from me, friends.

[Justina Contenti · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit slow. I think some of the charm of the book was likely lost in translation. It’s short but I had a hard time making my way through it.

[André · Rating 4 out of 5]

Citaat : Mijn box schiet plaatjes die niet bestaan . Of ze laat dingen zien die jullie niet eens kunnen dromen. Ze ziet alles mijn box.
Review : In De box beschrijft Grass zijn leven door de ogen van zijn acht kinderen. Zes daarvan heeft hij met vier verschillende vrouwen gekregen, zijn tweede echtgenote bracht er zelf nog twee mee.

Grass plaatst ze allemaal in wisselende samenstelling om de tafel en laat hen aan het woord. Ze praten een beetje over zichzelf, maar vooral over hun gemeenschappelijke vader. Het lijkt een wat gekunstelde vertelwijze en dat is het ook. Want Grass is, via zijn kinderen, natuurlijk zelf aan het woord. Wat we lezen is dus niet zozeer de beleving van de kinderen, maar de visie van Grass op hun beleving.



In de tafelgesprekken draait het voor een belangrijk deel om het nogal ingewikkelde huiselijke leven van Grass. Hij sloot niet altijd de ene relatie af alvorens een nieuw gezin te stichten en bij een nieuwe vrouw kocht hij vaak weer een nieuw huis, ergens op het platteland van Noord–Duitsland. Anno 2008 zijn de kinderen allemaal volwassen en hebben ze zelf ook weer kinderen gekregen.



Een toegevoegd element aan de quasi documentaire aanpak van dit boek, is de fotografe Marie. Met behulp van een vooroorlogse Agfa–camera ('de box') nam zij jarenlang foto's die Grass nodig had voor zijn werk. Deze box heeft de bijzondere eigenschap dat ze door middel van de door haar gemaakte foto's kan tonen wat er ooit geweest is, of dat wat nog plaats moet vinden. De foto's van Marie zijn geregeld onderwerp van gesprek bij de kinderen.



De term autobiografie is voor dit boek misleidend, het is eerder een autobiografisch sprookje. Wie iets te weten wil komen over de artistieke of intellectuele ontwikkeling van Grass vanaf 1959 tot nu, komt bedrogen uit. Het is duidelijk dat de auteur zichzelf en zijn familie wil afschermen van de controverse die zijn boek De rokken van de ui opriep. Dit werk is op literair vlak het minst sterke, ook al is het personage van de fotografe wel knap uitgewerkt, omdat het niet de spanningselementen van eerder werk heeft.



Als je een echte Günter Grassfan bent net als ik, raad ik je toch aan om ook dit boek te lezen, want er straalt enorm veel genegenheid uit dit boek en dit is dan weer een nieuw gezicht van de schrijver dat toch ook wel interessant is om ontdekt te worden.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fost odată un tată care, pentru că îmbătrânise, şi-a adunat laolaltă fiii şi fiicele - patru, cinci, şase, opt la număr -, iar aceştia, după lungi ezitări, s-au supus dorinţei sale. Stau aşadar cu toţii în jurul unei mese şi încep de îndată să pălăvrăgească : fiecare în legea lui şi toţi deodată, desigur, după planul şi cu vorbele tatălui, dar în felul lor propriu şi, cu toată iubirea pentru el, fără a dori să-l cruţe. Încă se mai joacă cu întrebarea: cine începe?
La început au sosit pe lume gemenii biovulari, aici de faţă: Patrick şi Georg sau, pe scurt, Pat şi Jorsch, care în realitate se numesc altfel. Apoi, spre bucuria părinţilor, o fată, căreia îi vom spune Lara. Aceşti trei copii au îmbogăţit lumea noastră supra- populată înainte ca pilula anticoncepţională să fie pusă în vânzare, înainte ca prevenirea sarcinii şi planning-ul familial să devină regulă generală. Astfel că, nechemat - parcă printr-un capriciu al sorţii -, a mai apărut încă unul, care ar trebui să răspundă la numele de Thaddeus, dar toţi cei adunaţi în jurul mesei îl numesc Taddel: ,,Taddel, nu te mai prosti !“,
,,Taddel, leagă-ţi şireturile!“, ,,Hai, Taddel, mai arată-ne o dată numărul tău cu Rudi-Perplexul...“

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

The children of an eccentric German author tell the stories of their upbringing together in this translated novel that strikes me as a German flavor of magic realism. Throughout the novel there is Marie, the father's muse in many ways with her old camera that can describe the past or tell the future.

I appreciated the idea, and the writing style of several people talking in turn as on a tape recording was certainly interesting. At the end of the novel, though, I was left without a clear experience, or sense of purpose in the work, or strong emotional response, or really much of anything. Maybe on rereading it might be useful to take notes on and devote more time to learning about each of the children, or maybe it's more impactful after having read more of Grass's work, but for me it mostly fell flat beyond the novelty of ideas and presentation revealed in the first few pages.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second part of author Gunter Grass's memoirs. Peeling The Onion told the controversial tale of Grass's wartime experiences, up until the publication of Tin Drum. In this book we follow his career as an author, but told from the perspective of his numerous children from various relationships. Apparently a transcription of various meetings between his adult children, as usual the storytelling has all the trickery of his fiction, with reality and imagination overlapping. The ever present character in the recollections is Marie, an assistant to Grass, who apparently provides material for his writing with the photographs from her AGFA box camera. They remember their hopes and wishes in these photographs, and a father who was not always there. The English translation is excellent and conveys real emotion.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha parecido un libro muy denso, complejo y caótico. La idea de la que parte es innovadora y el hecho de que se trate de una autobiografía hace que resulte muy original, pero el autor fracasa estrepitosamente a la hora de desarrollar el argumento. Para empezar la mayoría de la historia se centra en otro personaje, Marie, mujer muy misteriosa, de la que no se cuenta prácticamente nada. Además es una historia contada por unos hijos, probablemente inventados, de forma muy desordenada. Nunca sabes quien está contando qué, lo que resta verosimilitud a todo el conjunto, y eso tratándose de una biografía es malo.
No puedo comparar por que es el primer libro de Günter Grass que leo, pero no me ha parecido nada del otro mundo, sobre todo tratándose de un Premio Nobel, ni me han dado ganas de leerme otras novelas suyas.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no such thing as one, single perspective on any story, and I love the fact that Günter Grass acknowledges that in writing his "biography" through the eyes of his many children.

Sitting at a table, discussing and arguing and remembering a past together - that is the perfect fiction of a functionally dysfunctional family.

Of course it is metafiction in the most Grassian style, too. After all, he writes in the name of his children, and he lets himself interfere with his own imagination too. The more unreliable the storytelling becomes, the more truth in the core of the story. We are all subjects in our own heads, and each time we try to step into the realm of "objective" thinking, we fight not only other witnesses' subjectivity, but also our own changing perceptions and feelings.

This is beautifully captured in the box!

[Kalkwiese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als Hörbuch gehört. Sehr schön vom Autoren eingelesen, es war eine Freude. :)
Manchmal etwas unübersichtlich, welches Kind denn nun gerade spricht, aber die Erinnerungen mit der fiktiven Zauberkamera zu umspannen, war eine schöne, märchenhafte und einfach sehr grass'sche Idee. Einfach nur Erinnerungen aufzuschreiben, würde ihm wohl nicht gelingen, aber selbst mit sich selbst schaffte der Alte noch Kunst.
Eine interessante Form also, aber auch interessant, dass Grass zugibt, dass er über sein schaffen als Schriftsteller seine Rolle als Vater durchaus vernachlässigte. Vielleicht musste er die Perspektive seiner Einnehmen, um so ein Urteil überhaupt erst glaubhaft schreiben zu können?
Wer sich für Grass interessiert und die deutsche Sprache liebt, für den könnte das was sein.

[Astrid Guerrero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es inusual encontrar una lectura que esté plasmada de esta forma. Günter Grass se encarga de contar desde la perspectiva de sus ocho hijos la historia de Marichen, una querida fotógrafa que con su Agfa box mira el pasado, presente y futuro del espacio que obtura.
Es un libro que construye de manera orgánica la vida de las familias del padre (el mismo autor), pero visto a través de la experiencia personal de cada hijo y de su narración sobre la fotógrafa Marie y su increíble don. Ella es una fotógrafa de los deseos, la observadora que siempre está allí, presente pero lejos, pero que a través de lo catado en su cámara brinda un espacio donde todo puede ser posible, donde imaginan, sueñan y construyen visiones sobre el espacio que habitan.

[Feli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Also, das war nun aber wie er so. Ja, es kann anstrengend sein, weil er ja immer.

Unvollständige Sätze als Stilmittel mal so hingestellt, aber wenn gefühlt jeder zweite Satz abgehakt ist und öfters mal das Hauptverb fehlt, wird es schnell zur Quälerei.
Inhaltlich geht es um die Geschichte der Familie, erzählt von den Kinder in größtenteils langen Dialogen. Zwischendurch wird auch diskutiert und gestritten, wie man es eventuell ja selbst von der Familie kennt. Dadurch bleibt manches auch nur teils erzählt.

Klingt auf dem Papier spannender, als es sich beim Lesen anfühlt. Muss man nicht lesen – kann man aber, wenn man stilistisch experimentelle Familiennacherzählungen mag. Für mich war’s eher zäh.

[Hugo David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book.
It´s a story about memory and imagination, family and the visual impact of an image and it´s representation. This was the first book that my wife gave me. It was on the 30th of November 2009.
She passed on February 2015. The book has a special meaning to me. She dedicated the book and wrote "For all the images and memories that we already created and that we are going to create. Memories of a time, a temple, our being together, our love." It´s also a book about family. G. Grass had 8 children. We also wanted to have children. Well, our child was our love. I recomend the reading of the book to everyone.

[Zane Neimane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grasa eksperimenti valodā un literatūrā ir tik emocijas raisoši un skaisti. Būtu pārāk intensīvi lasīt visus "Brīnumkastes" stāstus uzreiz. Tādēļ tos lasīju vairāku mēnešu periodā. Atkal un atkal satiekot Grasa bērnus, klausoties viņu stāstos par tēvu, kurš nekad tā īsti nav bijis līdzās, bet vienmēr ir ļoti iespaidojis. Man ir dažādas versijas, kas notika ar brīnumkasti, bet tas pat nav svarīgi. Bija forši pakavēties Grasa ģimenē. Šo neiesaku kā pirmo Gintera Grasa darbu, ko lasīt, jo ir daudz atsauču.

[Yonina · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Grass, can you believe it?! This was wonderfully choral and metaleptic— the absent father of the characters is Grass himself. Amazing fairy tale inflected story about the differences of perception and the unreliability / inability of even indexical media (camera, audio recording) to capture a single stable truth. Instead they capture a truth of yearnings and memories and imaginings. Strange Coleridge reference at the end about the future : “water, water everywhere”. Is there any to drink?

Also realized late that this is #2 of a trilogy so I’ll have to dig up #1.