Vast plains (Exquisite)--Grass Collection

Author: (German) Grass, translated by Di Chengjun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Depicting the forgotten side of history through playful black fables" is a major characteristic of Nobel Prize-winning author Grass in his literary creation in the 20th century. This book continues to employ his signature writing technique. During World War II, Frenzi, as a war correspondent, went to the front lines to interview and met the French girl Martha. Influenced by her, he joined the radio work of the resistance movement. After the war, Frenzi worked as a primary school teacher in the Soviet-occupied zone, assisting the government in ideological education and receiving multiple awards. However, he later faced purging within the party due to his advocacy of freedom, especially after his three sons "defected to the West," and was dismissed. After the reunification of the two German states, he was rehired as a consultant by the Treuhand. At this time, he could not help but sigh, "Our republic is finished," expressing his lingering attachment to the workers' and peasants' regime. In the cheers of celebration at the Reichstag for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two German states, people once again heard Frenzi's discordant voice, "A full moon is good, but a waning moon is even better." As time passed, Frenzi's disappointment with the reunified Germany grew. The tycoons from the West, under the guise of "cleaning up," engaged in large-scale opportunistic exploitation and forced thousands of East German citizens, including those employed by the Treuhand, onto the streets, pushing them into the ranks of the unemployed. In people's minds, "cleaning up" became synonymous with "murder." At this point, Frenzi was given a new task: to find a new term to replace the infamous "cleaning up." Only then did Frenzi realize: the freedom and democracy people pursued were actually like this! Afterward, he quietly escaped from Berlin with his French granddaughter and drove toward a vast wilderness.