About this title: First published in 1963, this is the concluding part of the Danzig Trilogy. In a fusion of mythology and reality, magic and romance, it charts 40 years of German history from 1917, with the objective of exposing the madness of a society that bred and nurtured the Third Reich.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Harvest Books
Date Published: 16-Oct-89
ISBN-13:9780156261128ISBN:015626112X
Description: Good. Moderate shelf wear, spine creases & a few creases on cover. Lightly aged pages with margin marks in text. Book Description A novel set in three parts, beginning in the 1920s and ending in the 1950s, that follows the lives of two friends from the prewar years in Germany through an apocalyptic period and its startling aftermath. Translated by Ralph Manheim. A. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Used; cover is worn, small tear bottom edge of spine. Pages are tanned, but solid. Previous owners name on first page. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Binding is slightly damaged and/or book has some loose pages. No missing pages. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin in association with Secker & Warburg, Harmondsworth
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780140028386ISBN:0140028382
Description: Good. Text in English, German. 616p. ; 18 cm. Originally published: New York : Harcourt, Brace & World ; London : Secker & Warburg, 1965. read more
Edition: 1st ed.
Binding: Mass market pb
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World, New York
Date Published: [1965]
Description: Fair. No dust jacket. spine creases store stamped. Unknown printing. [English, German]. 570 p. 22 cm. "A Helen and Kurt Wolff book. ". read more
"I'm approximately at one third of the reading process...
At first it looked a rather chaotic book, but still in a very stimulating way for my poor little brains. Then it's getting better page after page, with a clearer distinction among the different characters, an original texture and a sharp irony.
Plus, this novel is a goldmine of useful informations about life in that thin German/Polish line before the blast of World War II. Grass did it very well once again!"
"I haven't read this book for a while now, but I have read it over and over. I had to put it on the list because it's my favorite book of all time and this seems like a logical place to say so. When this book gets talked about it is generally said to be a lesser creation than The Tin Drum, which is kind of a companion. But those reviewers don't understand something critical, which is that Dog Years has an amazing underlying form that acts as a simultaneous interpretation of the events it relates. The story is about two boys, a Jew and a gentile, who become friends in the years leading up to WWII, and what happens to their friendship when the war intervenes. But the underlying form is about how the war was the end of time for Germany, because everything that happens after the war in Grass' book is a retrograde of what happened before, like the war made it impossible to continue so the whole nation had to turn around and go back. So even though time continues to move on, all the events have their corresponding events in the beginning of the book. By the end of the book there's a scene where the two boys, now much older, are bathing in adjoining rooms, as though time had gone back before their births and put them back in their separate wombs to give them another chance. How many books have you ever read that are that inventive? I have to also say that for anyone who has read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, which is often compared to The Tin Drum, the plot of that book is in my opinion plagiarized from Dog Years. Rushdie admires Grass and has even written material for his books, but the borrowing of Midnight's Children is beyond homage, it's just a ripoff. In my opinion. What gives it away, though, is that Rushdie like the reviewers doesn't understand the underlying form of Dog Years, so his imitation is cheap and superficial. He imitates characters and situations and transplants them to India on the eve of independence, but he misses the most crucial thing, which is to make a judgment about what those characters represent through the formal structure. Clearly I've given this book some thought, and if anyone would like to talk about it I would be very enthusiastic. Only the poetry of Christopher Smart might make me more so, but as I said, this is my favorite book of all time. Obviously, I recommend it highly."
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