Amazon.com Review. Oprah Book Club® Selection, February 1999: Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"
In the mood for a book that I could, hopefully, finish more quickly than some I’ve read recently, I searched my TBR shelf. I was surprised to find a copy of The Reader, which I had borrowed from my dad at least six years ago. The fact that I had hung on to this book that has now regained popularity by becoming a movie gave me some sort of satisfaction along with the happy surprise of finding that I owned it. As if it somehow helped prove my case that books are never a bad investment…they don’t get moldy or slimy like the bulk container of baby carrots that made its way into my cart during the first trip to Costco.
Unlike the carrots, I finished this book in less than a week. Although it wasn’t light reading, it was engaging. Bernhard Schlink’s writing style was uncomplicated, yet rich. I had no trouble connecting with Michael and understanding his fascination, confusion, and self-doubt surrounding his interactions with Hanna. Their affair impacts him throughout life, leading up to the trial and long beyond it. The end took me by surprise, but seemed perfectly fitting.
The moral questions go far beyond those specific to the Holocaust. How do you reconcile your personal experience of an individual when it conflicts so drastically with his/her past actions? How do you balance your emotions with logic? How do you reconcile a past that still influences you with the present?
If you enjoy books that make you ponder life, I recommend this one.
In the mood for a book that I could, hopefully, finish more quickly than some I’ve read recently, I searched my TBR shelf. I was surprised to find a copy of The Reader, which I had borrowed from my dad at least six years ago. The fact that I had hung on to this book that has now regained popularity by becoming a movie gave me some sort of satisfaction along with the happy surprise of finding that I owned it. As if it somehow helped prove my case that books are never a bad investment…they don’t get moldy or slimy like the bulk container of baby carrots that made its way into my cart during the first trip to Costco.
Unlike the carrots, I finished this book in less than a week. Although it wasn’t light reading, it was engaging. Bernhard Schlink’s writing style was uncomplicated, yet rich. I had no trouble connecting with Michael and understanding his fascination, confusion, and self-doubt surrounding his interactions with Hanna. Their affair impacts him throughout life, leading up to the trial and long beyond it. The end took me by surprise, but seemed perfectly fitting.
The moral questions go far beyond those specific to the Holocaust. How do you reconcile your personal experience of an individual when it conflicts so drastically with his/her past actions? How do you balance your emotions with logic? How do you reconcile a past that still influences you with the present?
If you enjoy books that make you ponder life, I recommend this one.
2 comments:
i had a similar 'find a gem on your bookshelf' moment a few weeks ago--i turned up 'the friday night knitting club' and 'the joy luck club', both of which were great!
i read 'the reader' a few months back...but couldn't bring myself to see the movie. i thought the book was stark but powerful.
This is a non-fiction book, a memoir, in fact, but it's really staying with me. (And I usually stick with fiction.) It's all about the author's struggle with mental illness, and his coming to terms with it and to regard it as a gift from God, nearly. It's "bipolar bare" -- so fantastic that it needs to be made into a movie.
Next up for me, something completely different -- a PD James novel. I like to mix it up...
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