Book Review: The Flounder

Reviewed By: Jennifer Jordan

The Flounder     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Gunter Grass
Class/Genre:   Fiction
1989, (Reprinted in March '03) Harcourt Brace, Fiction/560 pages

Gunter Grass wrote this book as a fiftieth birthday present to himself. Every time I read it, I am glad he is so generous with himself. This epic takes us through gestational months, instead of chapters and Grass tosses in the odd poem as nutriment for the growing story. What is gestating? An immortal fishing man and many cooking women, coupled since the Neolithic period.

Month one has our narrator introducing himself and his companion through time, Ilsebill. She asks him, her mouth stuffed with food, "Should we go to bed right away, or do you first want to tell me how when where our story began?" He tells the story. After.

Coupled since the Stone Age, these two have witnessed the turning of matriarchy to patriarchy due to our narrator taking the advice of a talking fish trying to escape the cooking pot. With each month, there is a new cook, with a new name and the same quarrel. Despite the Flounder's teaching, it seems the narrator doesn't learn a thing. Not about women. Maybe the Flounder made a mistake? When a woman catches him and finds out what he's done to further the male cause, he finds himself with a lot to answer for.

Grass has written an earthy history of feminism and cooking and the male psyche. It is a funny, ironic and whimsical book that delights me with each reread. A birthday present I open and enjoy every year. Thank you, Mr. Grass.

Jennifer Jordan

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan