Dog Years

July 27, 2018 Drama, History novel, Novel, War novel

Every book by Gunter Grass is a challenge. This fight is a cruel and uncompromising battle with oneself, not for life, but for death. The book is divided into three parts, and the narrative is conducted on behalf of three different characters. This pre-war, military and post-war years – formally different, but in fact – the same dog years. In addition to the chronology, one can also assume another principle of dividing the novel into parts. In the final, one of the main characters – Eduard Amzel – demonstrates to the friend three “primary emotions”. They are cry, laughter and teeth gnashing. To some extent, they relate to the three parts of the novel. The theme of the work is how human thoughts could be filled with a nonhuman idea and ideology – fascism. But the author does not directly point to the evil, he points to the guilty. Author, gradually allows the reader to trace the birth of Nazism in people’s heads, in fleeting shades of speech, in the behavior of this collective madness. The text of the novel abounds with a subtle irony, both light and sad. Grass conveys a truthful picture of the life of Germany in...

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