SOURCE: "The Tin Drum," in Günter Grass, Barnes and Noble Books, 1975, pp. 48-83.

Miles is an English dramatist, short story writer, novelist, author of children's literature, critic, and educator. In the following excerpt, a small portion of which was reprinted in CLC-15, he discusses the literary influences of Herman Melville, Lawrence Sterne, and Thomas Mann on The Tin Drum, and examines Grass's portrayal of Oskar, who acts as commentator on "the character and history of the German people in the twentieth century."

It was not out of modesty that I wanted to become a drummer. That is the highest thing, the rest is a trifle.

      Adolph Hitler, Munich People's Court, 1924
      When I go down to the cellar
      There to draw some wine
      The little hunchback who's in there
      Grabs that jug of mine.
           Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ed. Arnim and Brentano (1805–8)

Literary criticism is born of suspicion. When...