Crabwalk
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Beschreibung
Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke is a middle-aged journalist trying to piece together the tragic events. While his mother sees her whole existence in terms of that calamitous moment, Paul wishes their life could have been less touched by the past. For his teenage son, who dabbles in the dark, far-right corners of the Internet, the Gustloff embodies the denial of Germany's wartime suffering.
"Scuttling backward to move forward," Crabwalk is at once a captivating tale of a tragedy at sea and a fearless examination of the ways different generations of Germans now view their past.
Winner of the Nobel Prize
Buchinformationen
Beiträge
This was the first work of Grass I've ever read. As I learned, his style in "Crabwalk" differs to his writing in the Danzig Trilogy although it deals with the same subject: The Second World War and the German responsible. The book is told by Paul Pokriefke, son of Tulla Pokriefke (known from the Danzig Trilogy)who survived the sinking of the "Gustloff" on 30th January 1945, a ship, torpedoed by a Russian submarine. It was one of the most fatal sinking in history whose victims were mainly women and children, fleeing from the Red Army. Tulla is changed by this experience and keeps remembering the day over and over again. When Paul does not write about his fate, predestined by his birth on the sinking ship, Tulla projects all her hopes on her grandson Konrad whose parents are divorced. Influenced by his grandmother, he opens a website, remembering the sinking of the "Gustloff", even praising the Nazi system. His glorification of the Nazis culminates in a murder on Wolfgang Stremplin who impersonates himself as a jew, just like Frankfurter killed Wilhelm Gustloff, after whom the ship is named. The story is told in a crab walk way, telling non-fictional parts of german history in combination with the history of the Pokriefke family. We had to read this book in school and mainly, we were taught that it deals with the difficulties of the distinction between victim and perpetrator. It is hard to distinguish between "Good" and "Bad" when many people suffered under the circumstances of this World War, even the "Bad Ones", the Germans. The focus of the story is the sinking of a ship, a german ship which was by law warship so its torpedoing was allowed though the victims were women and children, not guilty of any crimes, maybe only guilty of accepting the Nazi government without acting against it. It is hard to distinguish here between "good" and "bad" because how can a child who never harmed anyone be guilty of a crime just because it fled from the Russian soldiers? But for me the most impressive thing about "Crab Walk" is how it also functions as a reminder not to repeat history and also as a reminder to stop right wing radicalism. Tulla slowly indoctrinates her grandson with all her stories about the sinking which at first seem harmless but later end in a murder. For me, the main message of the book was to talk more open about the history so that we can prevent crimes motivated by right wing radicalism. The book had a great influence on me because I realized that this part of German history is more difficult and complex than I thought the years before. I started thinking about crimes cause by racism and hate and I began thinking that never ever a war like this should happen again. And I felt like it is the task of my generation to prevent this from happening and to always act tolerant and not swallow everything parents or other authorities tell us (like Tulla did with Konrad). The writing style was rather different than what is said to be "typical" for Grass. After that I read a few pages of "The Tin Drum" and even poetry and came to the conclusion that style-wise this work of "Grass" is weaker than others. But even in "Crab Walk" were some sentences which made my heart beat faster and which reflected his exalted style of writing. For me, this book is way more than a story about a sinking ship, it is a story about the rehabilitation of the Second World War (with the both sides: Paul who never talks and Tulla who talks too much)and me and all of my classmates, as I can speak for them, thought differently about it after reading.
Beschreibung
Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke is a middle-aged journalist trying to piece together the tragic events. While his mother sees her whole existence in terms of that calamitous moment, Paul wishes their life could have been less touched by the past. For his teenage son, who dabbles in the dark, far-right corners of the Internet, the Gustloff embodies the denial of Germany's wartime suffering.
"Scuttling backward to move forward," Crabwalk is at once a captivating tale of a tragedy at sea and a fearless examination of the ways different generations of Germans now view their past.
Winner of the Nobel Prize
Buchinformationen
Beiträge
This was the first work of Grass I've ever read. As I learned, his style in "Crabwalk" differs to his writing in the Danzig Trilogy although it deals with the same subject: The Second World War and the German responsible. The book is told by Paul Pokriefke, son of Tulla Pokriefke (known from the Danzig Trilogy)who survived the sinking of the "Gustloff" on 30th January 1945, a ship, torpedoed by a Russian submarine. It was one of the most fatal sinking in history whose victims were mainly women and children, fleeing from the Red Army. Tulla is changed by this experience and keeps remembering the day over and over again. When Paul does not write about his fate, predestined by his birth on the sinking ship, Tulla projects all her hopes on her grandson Konrad whose parents are divorced. Influenced by his grandmother, he opens a website, remembering the sinking of the "Gustloff", even praising the Nazi system. His glorification of the Nazis culminates in a murder on Wolfgang Stremplin who impersonates himself as a jew, just like Frankfurter killed Wilhelm Gustloff, after whom the ship is named. The story is told in a crab walk way, telling non-fictional parts of german history in combination with the history of the Pokriefke family. We had to read this book in school and mainly, we were taught that it deals with the difficulties of the distinction between victim and perpetrator. It is hard to distinguish between "Good" and "Bad" when many people suffered under the circumstances of this World War, even the "Bad Ones", the Germans. The focus of the story is the sinking of a ship, a german ship which was by law warship so its torpedoing was allowed though the victims were women and children, not guilty of any crimes, maybe only guilty of accepting the Nazi government without acting against it. It is hard to distinguish here between "good" and "bad" because how can a child who never harmed anyone be guilty of a crime just because it fled from the Russian soldiers? But for me the most impressive thing about "Crab Walk" is how it also functions as a reminder not to repeat history and also as a reminder to stop right wing radicalism. Tulla slowly indoctrinates her grandson with all her stories about the sinking which at first seem harmless but later end in a murder. For me, the main message of the book was to talk more open about the history so that we can prevent crimes motivated by right wing radicalism. The book had a great influence on me because I realized that this part of German history is more difficult and complex than I thought the years before. I started thinking about crimes cause by racism and hate and I began thinking that never ever a war like this should happen again. And I felt like it is the task of my generation to prevent this from happening and to always act tolerant and not swallow everything parents or other authorities tell us (like Tulla did with Konrad). The writing style was rather different than what is said to be "typical" for Grass. After that I read a few pages of "The Tin Drum" and even poetry and came to the conclusion that style-wise this work of "Grass" is weaker than others. But even in "Crab Walk" were some sentences which made my heart beat faster and which reflected his exalted style of writing. For me, this book is way more than a story about a sinking ship, it is a story about the rehabilitation of the Second World War (with the both sides: Paul who never talks and Tulla who talks too much)and me and all of my classmates, as I can speak for them, thought differently about it after reading.