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?"
The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue, and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre- and postwar generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence. --R. Ellis
There are so many subjects worthy of discussion to be found in "The Reader". The first part of this story tells of a sexual awakening for 15-year-old Michael when he becomes involved with an older woman. The relationship deepens as Michael begins reading to her after each encounter and she encourages him to focus on his studies. Then suddenly and mysteriously, she disappears. In the second half, Michael is now a law student, and he happens to sit in on a trial, involving none other than his ex-lover. It seems she's had a secret - she worked in a Nazi concentration camp. Oh yes, and she's illiterate too. The rest of the book deals with Michael grappling with this new-found knowledge. He struggles with his ever-changing feelings regarding his country and how the war changed the people he knows in his life. Beautifully-written.
writes,
This is one of the most profound novels I've read in years. A complex and stunning work that leaves one deeply moved by it's incredible way of presenting questions regarding moral responsibility, guilt, and the nature of love. Schlink is a German writer who grew up confronted by these issues and he is one of the truly gifted novelists of our time. I could not put this book down and found it haunting, richly drawn, and brilliantly written.
writes,
This was an interesting book, although there were parts of it, dealing with the trial, that went on and on to the point where I thought I wouldn't be able to finish the book - but I am glad I perservered. This is more or less a "coming-of-age" book in which 15 year old Michael Berg, finds himself in love with a woman twice his age. Although I have to admit, since I have a child that age, I had a hard time with the age difference at first, but it got to the point where I was so wrapped up with the characters the eventually I forgot all about the age difference. This is a book about your first love, and how those memories linger through your life time. The book was very touching and as you read about the couple, how their relationship suddenly and mysteriously ended, and how eventually they rediscover again. It is about the realization that sometimes you fall in love with someone that you know absolutely nothing about...and that people aren't always who they appear to be. Be sure to have a box of tissues close by.
I wanted to give this 3 1/2 stars...........
