Cat and Mouse (1961) by Günter Grass
A cooperation of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) in Toronto: The Alliance Française, the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Camões Toronto, and the Goethe Institut.
We will be kicking of 2018 with the first meeting of the European Book Club in Toronto! We will be discussing Günter Grass’s
Cat and Mouse (1961), which is part of the Danzig Trilogy. The trilogy was what made the Nobel Prize laureate gain international recognition and fame.
Copies of the book(s) can be ordered online or at your local bookstore. Our library also carries English and German copies of the book, along with several other books about the author’s life and writings.
The novel tells the story of Joachim Mahlke, who is not your typical hero. A high school student and an outsider amongst his peers, his main distinguishing mark is his physical disfigurement in the form of an enormous Adam’s apple, which, when in motion, resembles a mouse. Throughout his life Mahlke tries to either hide his apparent deficiency behind various items or by performing amazing physical stunts.
When a visiting lieutenant commander from the submarine warfare brings an Iron Cross medal to Mahlke’s school, he becomes obsessed with it and imagines using the medal to cover up his disfigurement.
He attempts to steal it and gets expelled from school for the theft. Mahlke volunteers to go to war, in the hopes of receiving his own Iron Cross, which he eventually does. Using this opportunity, Mahlke goes back to his old school in the hopes of receiving the recognition he so desperately wanted. But can an Iron Cross turn a mouse into a cat?
With his novel, Günter Grass, not only entertains readers through his elaborate descriptions of atmosphere and characters, but also draws a stunning portrait of the individual’s survival during war. And so it is no surprise that this novel was turned into a movie, which will be screened at the Filmklub in February.
The Book Club discussion will be moderated by Philipp Schnaase. Born and raised in Rostock, Schnaase studied Philosophy and Social Science not only in his home town, but also in Müsnter, and in Montreal, where he received his MA in Philosophy. Philipp Schnaase is a regular host for the Deutscher Filmklub at the Goethe-Institut and a library assistant for the Toronto Symphony.
EUNIC the network of the European cultural relations institutes in Toronto is formed by Alliance Française, British Council, Camões Toronto, Italian Cultural Institute and Goethe-Institute Toronto and exists since 2010.
The European Book Club meets periodically to discuss a European contemporary book translated into English in the different cultural institutions.
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