The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Too Far Afield by Günter Grass
Richard J. Murphy

Günter Grass. Too Far Afield. Trans. Krishna Winston. Harcourt, 2000. 658 pp. $30.00.

Grass’s wonderful novel is to be read by anyone interested in the role of literature at the end/beginning of the century. Like the sofa stuffed with secrets in the Ministries’ basement, Too Far Afield bulges with German cultural history, opening with a chronology (1598-1990) and emphasizing the political and literary from Luther forward. Creating a partnership reminiscent of Faust between two contemporary East Germans—Theo Wuttke (a minor lecturer and clerk in the Stasi archives with a “time-defying understanding of politics and literature”) and his shadow, the Havana-smoking, suddenly appearing Ludwig Hoftaller—the novel unravels their intersections and that of their historical doubles, Theodor Fontane (for whom Wuttke is called “Fonty” because he seems to know, write, speak Fontane’s every word) and his spy/shadow, Tallhover. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries echo with similar occurrences—German unification in the Franco-Prussian War (celebrated by Fontane) and at the fall of the Wall (doubted by Wuttke); also, Grass’s characters’ lives repeat Fontane’s plots; Turks have replaced the Jews as the alien group. An archivist (the Fontane Archive is in Potsdam) provides the narrative perspective while his group embodies the spying techniques that are such a part of German history; the archivists observe, speculate, fictionalize, and include various perspectives on an incident to fill in gaps in knowledge. The five-section structure—as well as references to Macbeth, the tragedy of over-reaching—suggests drama. While the novel ends without resolution, the necessity that doubt replace Luther’s absolute reliance on faith comes along with the fear that the future once again will repeat the past. [Richard J. Murphy]