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Too Far Afield - by Grass, Gunter - Trade Paper Edition.
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- Buy it nowToo Far Afield - by Grass, Gunter - Trade Paper Edition.
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Located in: Clinton Township, Michigan, United States
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eBay item number:325621574499
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 9780156014168
- Book Title
- Too Far Afield
- Item Length
- 9in
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Publication Year
- 2001
- Format
- Trade Paperback
- Language
- English
- Item Height
- 1.4in
- Genre
- Fiction
- Topic
- Literary, Historical
- Item Width
- 6in
- Item Weight
- 23.7 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 672 Pages
About this product
Product Information
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of My Century and The Tin Drum, a novel of broad historical proportions set in Berlin during the years of German reunification. Two old men roam through Berlin observing life in the former German Democratic Republic after the fall of the Wall in 1989. Theo Wuttke, a former East German functionary, is a keen observer and a gifted speaker. Ludwig Hoftaller is a mid-level spy whose loyalties shift with each new regime. Together, both men see what the future is bringing as they try to save what they can from the past and understand the meaning of being German. A complex and challenging exploration of what Germany's reunification will mean-for Germans, for Europe, and for the world-Too Far Afield is a masterwork from one of Europe's greatest writers. Written with the wit, fantasy, literary erudition, and political acerbity for which Grass is celebrated, it is a deeply human story laced with pain and humor in equal measure.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
HarperCollins
ISBN-10
0156014165
ISBN-13
9780156014168
eBay Product ID (ePID)
1918257
Product Key Features
Book Title
Too Far Afield
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Literary, Historical
Publication Year
2001
Genre
Fiction
Number of Pages
672 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
9in
Item Height
1.4in
Item Width
6in
Item Weight
23.7 Oz
Additional Product Features
Reviews
Recent German unification is neatly, if protractedly, likened to the inner development of one of its bureaucrats in this novel of Berlin after reunification. The book is a worthy follow-up to My Century, which taught 100 years of history in human, understandable terms. Theo Wuttke, known as "Fonty" because he's obsessed with famous German novelist Theodor Fontane, is a former war correspondent now on his uppers as an elderly file courier in a government agency of the former German Democratic Republic. Blessed with an encyclopedic memory, Fonty often recites poems from different languages, to his co-workers' secret derision. Weary of life at the agency, he tries to escapeDonce to Scotland, another time to Great BritainDbut a spy named Ludwig Hoftaller, himself an incarnation of a 19th-century figure and often called Fonty's "day-and-night-shadow," always finds him. Hoftaller's motivation is never made clear: perhaps fear that Fonty will leak German state secrets, perhaps loneliness, perhaps both. The past keeps impinging on the present; Hoftaller knows truths about marital infidelities in Fonty's past that keep Fonty from rebelling too forcefully. The two old men wander the streets of Berlin, each struggling with WWII guilt, as both of them had connections to Hitler's regime. Some overlong passages detailing German history will be lost on American readers, and Fonty's rambling monologues constantly threaten to bring the novel to a halt. However, the psychologically complex portrayal of a man's gradual relinquishing of his social position in order to keep his spirit intact is more than enough to maintain a reader's passion in the work. Fonty does manage to escape eventually, his victory that of a profoundly human figure who embodies both the bitterness and the sweetness of an era's passing., "Grass has succeeded in setting down monuments to those dog days of division, with their linguistic shifts and iconography, rapidly changing cast of characters, uncertainty, and exhilaration.-the Times Literary Supplement (london) "A broad and wonderful novel, full of surprising twists, grotesque jokes, and mocking reflections about Germany's fate over the last 150 years."-Polityka (Poland) "Grass's novel is a perfect instrument for tracing echoes and parallels across German writing and history...no other German novelist could have pulled off such a feat."-The Economist, "Grass has succeeded in setting down monuments to those dog days of division, with their linguistic shifts and iconography, rapidly changing cast of characters, uncertainty, and exhilaration.-the Times Literary Supplement (london) "A broad and wonderful novel, full of surprising twists, grotesque jokes, and mocking reflections about Germany's fate over the last 150 years."-Polityka (Poland) "Grass's novel is a perfect instrument for tracing echoes and parallels across German writing and history...no other German novelist could have pulled off such a feat."-The Economist --, It is the work of a seasoned craftsman, certain of what he wants to do, completely in control of his gifts."-The New York Times Book Review A perfect instrument for tracing echoes and parallels across German writing and history . . . No other German novelist could have pulled off such a feat." -The Economist A rich, troubling work that offers incontrovertible evidence of this great writer's undiminished artistry, integrity, and passion."-Kirkus Reviews (starred), When this hefty novel was first published in Germany in 1995, many readers reacted antagonistically, finding it unmanageable and rudely outspoken. This, of course, hardly comes as a surprise. Grass has always unswervingly spoken his mind through memorable characters. His latest work is another sober commentary conveyed through the words and actions of two eccentric and weary but always vigilant 70-year-old protagonists who observe the logic, the aftermath, and the inevitable price of German reunification. Through a clutter of references to Germany's turbulent history, Grass blends the past with the present and almost convinces us that social history is politics, and yet politics remains the history of one. Like the legendary The Tin Drum, this is only superficially a work of magical realism. One of the key sentences, "I'm afraid the shame will live on," which actually alludes to the evasive ending of Kafka's The Trial, suggests that what lies beneath this multilayered, if a bit overambitious, story is a potent message that transcends even the actual characters and their humanity. One cannot help but wonder if the demanding form and content would be more decipherable if the novel had the accessible format of Grass's recently published My Century. Nevertheless, the recognizable honesty of Grass's literature still hovers in the background. This is why we continue to revere him. -DMirela Roncevic, "Library Journal"
Copyright Date
2001
Dewey Decimal
833.9/14
Intended Audience
Trade
Dewey Edition
21
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