I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: .

[READ: February 22, 2025] The Living Statue

This book came as part of my New Directions subscription.  It’s a “newly discovered” story written by Günter Grass in 2003.  It’s very short.  57 pages with big margins.

This story sees Grass (or a fictional substitute) travelling around to give book talks.  On a trip before the Berlin Wall fell, he and his wife went to Naumberg.  They visited a chapel which featured “life-size” statues.  But everyone on the trip is disappointed at how small they actually are.  One of the statues is of Uta of Naumberg [click for  the Wikipedia explanation of who she was].

The repeated phrase in the book is “you can do anything on paper.”  And so, he invites the 12 statues to lunch. It’s a jolly time with these ancient statues not really grasping modern behavior (they all hate the potatoes).  He was quite taken with Uta.  She ordered a Coke and then said she had to go.

He ran into her again after the Wall fell,  She was being a living statue outside of Cologne Cathedral.  She was very convincing, standing still and doing nothing.  He approached her and got very close whereupon he whispered to her that she should take a break and get a Coke with him.  She did not break character at all. But her manager/boyfriend came up and told him to get lost.

He saw her again some time later and wanted to approach, but the manager/boyfriend was staring.

He thought about her all the time and even missed her.  Years passed and he thought he’d never see her again, but there she was in front of Deutsch Bank.  She was a different statue but it was definitely her.  He slipped her a note to meet him when she was done.  And he sat and waited.

Eventually she showed up and they ha a meal together where he learned a little about her past.  When she departed, she asked him to take a parcel out of a train station locker for her.

Later when something happens, he wonders if he played a part.

This story was slight and sweet (although not for his poor wife).  I haven’t really read much else by Grass, so I don’t know how this fits in with his works.  But this was a fun little tale.