Cats-mouse. Grass G.

“Cats-mouse” is the second book of the Danzig Trilogy Gunter Grasse, published shortly after the novel “Tin drum”. In the center of the story is the story of a teenager Joachim Malke, whose childhood and youth are held in the military Danzig, in a militaristic atmosphere, imbued with the spirit of national socialism. All the despised outsider.

Malke is trying to change the attitude of others towards himself and earn the glory of the hero, but tolerates defeat. Even the reward he received - the knightly cross - does not help to find recognition. A grotesque story acquires tragic tones and turns out for the hero with cruel disappointment. Grass himself explains her like this: “The story of Malke exposes the church, school, the cult of the hero - the whole society. In his case, everything turned out to be insolvent. "