The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
Published in 1999. 224 pages.
Amazon link
Released as a movie January, 2009
Movie links HERE and HERE
Genre: Fiction/Literature
My Overall Score: 4/5
What its about (taken from amazon.com): 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.
The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. 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.
What I thought: At first, this book was a bit strange. Even though I read the back and knew what it was about, when the love affair became reality, it still shocked me. But as the story progressed, it did suck me in and the storyline was both touching and thought-provoking. It was a bit dark at parts, which was necessary to get the point across. Decent book. I would like to see the movie now!
Why I read it & where I got it: I got this book at the Ocean City Library Book Sale for 25 cents last year. It has been sitting on my bookshelf since then and when I was looking for a shorter book to read, this one caught my eye.
Date finished: February 22, 2009
Currently reading: The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
1 comment:
I wonder if you got that when we went together. I still have my books to read from then! I guess you're not a spoiler kind of girl. I need to know what the unspeakable crime is now! Anything with Nazi Germany is hard for me to enjoy reading let alone watching. Thanks for sparking my interest though. I might have to ask you for the cliff notes!
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