Stephanie Jane reviewed The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
A thoughtful novel
4 stars
The Reader was my 1990s read for the Goodreads / Bookcrossing Decade Challenge. I saw the film version of The Reader at our then-local art house cinema when it came out and remembered the main revelation that would be made during the story. However, I found that this actually increased the poignancy of the earlier writing as I could completely understand some of the layers of meaning. I think the film did follow the book closely.
The Reader starts with a fifteen year old boy recovering from a long serious illness and emerging from his isolation to meet and become the lover of a older woman. The relationship is delicately portrayed and I liked the creation of each character, even though I never actually came to like either Michael or Hanna as people. I felt as though I was always kept at arm's length though did become fully immersed in …
The Reader was my 1990s read for the Goodreads / Bookcrossing Decade Challenge. I saw the film version of The Reader at our then-local art house cinema when it came out and remembered the main revelation that would be made during the story. However, I found that this actually increased the poignancy of the earlier writing as I could completely understand some of the layers of meaning. I think the film did follow the book closely.
The Reader starts with a fifteen year old boy recovering from a long serious illness and emerging from his isolation to meet and become the lover of a older woman. The relationship is delicately portrayed and I liked the creation of each character, even though I never actually came to like either Michael or Hanna as people. I felt as though I was always kept at arm's length though did become fully immersed in their story despite this distancing.
Having witnessed their relationship, we then re-meet Hanna a few years later. Michael is studying law and Hanna is a defendant in a trial he observes. His attempts to analyse his reaction to her both as a past lover and as a war criminal are interesting, as is Schlink's discussion of the culpability of the whole German nation immediately post-war. This is a very thoughtful book, an approach which sometimes overwhelms the central story at its heart, but for good reason. Hanna's simplicity during her trial - what should I have done? - poses a fascinating dilemma to the eponymous Reader as he listens to proceedings, and also to the readers of the novel itself.
