Bernhard Schlink
"Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?"
This book was amazing, I could not put it down to do any real life things. I finished The Reader in just under two and half days. The novel always kept me on my toes and I thought the ending was going to be totally different than what is ended up being. It was a good surprise, not a bad one.
The novel takes place in Germany during around the time of WW2 and onward (there are three parts to the book - the main character (Michael) in highschool; as a law student; and as a legal scholar). The novel focuses on law, memories, guilt, and illicit first loves. It also looks at what it means to love someone, how mush we can accept them and how blind we can be to those we love. Having all of these topics jammed into one book sure makes it hard to put down. The three parts of the book are:
- Michael who is 15 at the time and still in highschool having an affair with Hanna, who is 36. They have the same ritual everyday together - he comes over to her apartment, they bathe each other and then they go into the bedroom. During all of this, Michael also reads out loud to Hanna.
- Hanna's secrets are revealed and Germany's past is explored. Michael as a law student follows Hanna's case closely and is the only student who goes to the courthouse everyday. Michael's generation accuses their parents in the whole service of enlightenment - "Pointing at the guilty parties did not free us from shame, but at least it overcame the suffering we went through on account of it. I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. But what gave rise to this swaggering self-righteousness I so often encountered? How could one feel guilt and shame and at the same time parade one’s self-righteousness."
- Part three - you will just have to read the book to see what happens in part three. Is there grace or is there redemption? This part won me over for the whole book.
Some may argue that the relationship in the first part of the book is disgusting and a writer should not write about something illegal like that, but it made the book what it is. Good literature, like what Schlink is writing, makes us understand the complexity of the topic and cautious us against over broad and hasty judgments. Boys will be boys. Boys want to grow up fast and I think this is what Michael was trying to improve to himself and his family.
Schlink brings up some hard topics in the novel and readers really have to think about what he means by what he writes and puts the pieces of the puzzle back together. If we have a responsibility towards the past, to learn from it, and most people believe we do, then this book will help you to go some way towards fulfilling it. I highly recommend this read! And now to watch the movie....
Till the next review (The Giver - Lois Lowry)!
Rebekka. :)
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