What do you think?
Rate this book
丕賱賯丕乇卅
"毓賳丿 爻賯賵胤賴 賲賳 卮丿丞 丕賱廿毓賷丕亍 賮賶 胤乇賷賯 毓賵丿鬲賴 賲賳 丕賱賲丿乇爻丞 廿賱賶 丕賱亘賷鬲貙 賱賲 賷賰賳 賲丕賷賰賱 亘賷乇噩 丕賱亘丕賱睾 賲賳 丕賱毓賲乇 囟毓賮 毓賲乇賴 賷丿乇賶 兀賳賴 爻賷賯毓 賮賶 睾乇丕賲 賴丕賳丕 丕賱爻賷丿丞 丕賱鬲賶 兀賳賯匕鬲賴 賵鬲亘賱睾 賲賳 丕賱毓賲乇 囟毓賮 毓賲乇賴貙 賵亘毓丿 毓賱丕賯丞 賱賲 鬲爻鬲賲乇 胤賵賷賱賸丕 鬲禺鬲賮賶 賴丕賳丕 丿賵賳 爻亘亘貙 賵毓賳丿賲丕 賷氐亘丨 賲丕賷賰賱 胤丕賱亘賸丕 賮賶 賰賱賷丞 丕賱丨賯賵賯貙 賷乇丕賴丕 孬丕賳賷賸丕 賲鬲賴賲丞 賮賶 噩乇賷賲丞 卮賳毓丕亍貙 賱賰賳 賲丕賷賰賱 賷丿乇賰 賮賶 兀孬賳丕亍 丕賱賲丨丕賰賲丞 兀賳 賴丕賳丕 鬲禺賮賶 爻乇賸丕 賴賵 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賴丕 兀卮丿 毓丕乇賸丕 賲賳 噩乇賷賲鬲賴丕."
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
3,312 people are currently reading
88.5k people want to read
About the author
Bernhard Schlink
77听books2,130听followersBernhard Schlink is a German lawyer, academic, and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Reader, which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. He won the 2014 Park Kyong-ni Prize.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 13,920 reviews
January 19, 2021
What About the Children?
The Reader is a profound exposition of the 'second generation' issues concerning moral guilt for the Holocaust. But it is, I think, also relevant more generally to the way in which human beings get ensnared incrementally into the evils of their society. We are all inevitably involved in this larger problem. And, like the SS guards at a Nazi death camp, we are unaware of the moral peril of our situation, and unwilling to remove ourselves from that situation even when its harmful effects are obvious.
To be more personal and concrete: At the moment I have three acquaintances, each of whom has had a reasonably successful corporate career - one as an investment manager in the City, the second as a senior executive of an international sporting organisation, and the third as a partner of a global accounting firm. All three are, however, deeply dissatisfied with their lives.
Their marriages, they all feel, are on the edge of breakdown. One has had a psychological breakdown and is now institutionalised. Another has been made redundant and, despite a large payout, sees nothing but existential gloom for the rest of his days. The last is disgusted with the complete indifference of both his colleagues and clients to the visible harm their firms are inflicting on the world. All of them, it shouldn't be necessary to emphasise, 'volunteered' for the careers and styles of living they now suffer from.
A central question posed to The Reader's defendant in her trial for causing the death of Jewish prisoners trapped in a burning church is, "Why didn't you unlock the door?" I posed essentially the same question to my three acquaintances: "The situation you now find yourself in did not occur overnight." I gently suggested, "Therefore as you perceived what was happening to your mind, to your family, to the quality of your life, to national culture, why didn't you stop?" In principle, stopping is even less difficult than unlocking a door.
The reasons given for not stopping were almost identical in all three cases: "I can't afford to." The financial denotation of 'afford', however, wasn't the main point. Guilt in not providing what their families needed was important. Financial compensation had become just that - compensation for the companionship of marriage and family that had been denied. This was associated with a fear of the disappointment or disapproval by their friends and family. Success is naturally a social matter defined for us by those we know well. But upon pushing a bit harder, it was also clear that the common strand among them was that each believed he had somehow let himself down by not realising the full potential he believed he had in him.
This psychic driver of "being the best you can" struck loud bells in my own experience. It also reminded me of the remarkable book by Karen Ho, a social researcher from Princeton. Her ethnographic study of the life and culture of Wall Street, Liquidated, is as insightful as it is troublesome to anyone who asks themselves why indeed they have not simply unlocked the door to an alternative life. As she discovered in her employment in an investment bank, the culture of professional firms like Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company is grounded in a simple, direct message: "You are here (or want to be here in the case of applicants) because you are the best and want to be among the best." Call it the Culture of Presumptive Excellence (CPE) for short.
CPE is what stimulates people to work consistently impossible hours, in places distant from home, with no respite. It also justifies the treatment of subordinates as corporate fodder, hiring and firing with panache, and insisting on single-minded loyalty as one moves up the ranks. Standards of excellence, after all, do not maintain themselves. In my experience, CPE, not compensation, or excitement, or 'perks', is the motive force of not just Wall Street but of the entire global corporate world. Escaping that world is no easier than escaping the totalitarian society of Nazi Germany. The identity and the obligations of 'being the best' is a very powerful lock indeed, without any obvious key.
Of course CPE is not merely a corporate problem; it is a societal problem. It is a problem of the perceived order. Schlink's war-trial defendant, Hanna, did not unlock the doors of the church to let the prisoners out, not because she is evil or because she was following orders. She was afraid, she says, of the disorder that would have ensued: prisoners running amok without the proper supervision to get them back in marching line.
It is this same disorder that my three acquaintances seem to fear most. The problem with being 'the best' is that the criterion for being best has to be set by someone with authority. The self-identity of the best depends on this. To reject this classification and the criteria that define it, one also must reject the authority that sanctioned it. This authority is so diffuse throughout society, that to reject it means to reject the entire society. The loss of both identity and context for establishing a new identity is the ultimate disorder, chaos.
Jean Korelitz, for example, herself a former admissions officer for Princeton, shows how pervasive the CPE is in the steps before entering the corporate world in her novel, Admission. Princeton's 'pitch' to applicants is exactly the same as that of the Wall Street firms to its applicants: "As the best, you will want to stay among the best, so apply to Princeton." The stage before this, entry into prep school, is also fictionalised from experience, in turn, by Louis Auchincloss, particularly in his novel, The Rector of Justin. The message doesn't vary: "We are the best and will help you stay among the best."
The destruction of personalities, families, and culture by CPE is systematic. And it is systematically defended even by those whom it excludes. The effects of CPE extend beyond those who are certifiably, as it were, the best to those who aspire to become part of the elite. Deficiencies are masked by the aspiration itself, which is merely the acceptance of the defining authority.
In The Reader, Hanna is able to hide her secret shame by joining the SS, an elite corps. I can say with a moral certainty that all three of my acquaintances have what are, to them, equivalent to Hanna's secret deficiencies. Fear of exposure is therefore a powerful motivation to keep the system going, to promote its stable orderliness even when it is so evidently destructive.
Schlink's narrator, Michael Berg, knows that Hanna could not have committed the crimes she is accused of because of the secret she is unwilling to reveal. She may be guilty but not as guilty as she appears, or of what she is charged with. What duty does he have to unlock the door with which she has imprisoned herself? To speak up, either to her or the court, would expose her to profound shame, greater shame even than that of being found guilty of war crimes perhaps. And if he does decide to speak up, how should he do it - to her? To her lawyer? To the judge? I feel the same dilemmas in advising my acquaintances, knowing that any mis-step could provoke yet more consternation as well as a pointed lack of gratitude for my solicited but still impertinent advice.
Berg's father, a philosopher, advises a simple ethical rule: don't try to second guess the criterion of the good that an individual has established for himself. This is useless advice. It simply anoints conformity as the ethical norm. Conformity is the opposite of resistance, a capacity for which is essential to avoid personal co-optation, to either totalitarianism or corporatism. Resistance which can take many forms. All of them dangerous because they challenge order and the power behind order. And all demand apparently un-virtuous behaviour. How can one advise such a course to anyone one cares about? Ultimately Berg fails to act at all.
I find myself in Berg's position. I feel any advice I can give is vapid. To suggest resistance against a corporate culture that is so pervasive and so domineering is madness. I can only ask the question "Best is the superlative for what?" But I can't answer the question. I am as trapped as anyone else. Will the children of my acquaintances, or my own, look at the lives of their parents with the same dismay as the so-called second generation of German children perceived their parents after 1945?
Schlink's story ends in tragic sadness and unresolved guilt. Perhaps no other ending is possible.
The Reader is a profound exposition of the 'second generation' issues concerning moral guilt for the Holocaust. But it is, I think, also relevant more generally to the way in which human beings get ensnared incrementally into the evils of their society. We are all inevitably involved in this larger problem. And, like the SS guards at a Nazi death camp, we are unaware of the moral peril of our situation, and unwilling to remove ourselves from that situation even when its harmful effects are obvious.
To be more personal and concrete: At the moment I have three acquaintances, each of whom has had a reasonably successful corporate career - one as an investment manager in the City, the second as a senior executive of an international sporting organisation, and the third as a partner of a global accounting firm. All three are, however, deeply dissatisfied with their lives.
Their marriages, they all feel, are on the edge of breakdown. One has had a psychological breakdown and is now institutionalised. Another has been made redundant and, despite a large payout, sees nothing but existential gloom for the rest of his days. The last is disgusted with the complete indifference of both his colleagues and clients to the visible harm their firms are inflicting on the world. All of them, it shouldn't be necessary to emphasise, 'volunteered' for the careers and styles of living they now suffer from.
A central question posed to The Reader's defendant in her trial for causing the death of Jewish prisoners trapped in a burning church is, "Why didn't you unlock the door?" I posed essentially the same question to my three acquaintances: "The situation you now find yourself in did not occur overnight." I gently suggested, "Therefore as you perceived what was happening to your mind, to your family, to the quality of your life, to national culture, why didn't you stop?" In principle, stopping is even less difficult than unlocking a door.
The reasons given for not stopping were almost identical in all three cases: "I can't afford to." The financial denotation of 'afford', however, wasn't the main point. Guilt in not providing what their families needed was important. Financial compensation had become just that - compensation for the companionship of marriage and family that had been denied. This was associated with a fear of the disappointment or disapproval by their friends and family. Success is naturally a social matter defined for us by those we know well. But upon pushing a bit harder, it was also clear that the common strand among them was that each believed he had somehow let himself down by not realising the full potential he believed he had in him.
This psychic driver of "being the best you can" struck loud bells in my own experience. It also reminded me of the remarkable book by Karen Ho, a social researcher from Princeton. Her ethnographic study of the life and culture of Wall Street, Liquidated, is as insightful as it is troublesome to anyone who asks themselves why indeed they have not simply unlocked the door to an alternative life. As she discovered in her employment in an investment bank, the culture of professional firms like Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company is grounded in a simple, direct message: "You are here (or want to be here in the case of applicants) because you are the best and want to be among the best." Call it the Culture of Presumptive Excellence (CPE) for short.
CPE is what stimulates people to work consistently impossible hours, in places distant from home, with no respite. It also justifies the treatment of subordinates as corporate fodder, hiring and firing with panache, and insisting on single-minded loyalty as one moves up the ranks. Standards of excellence, after all, do not maintain themselves. In my experience, CPE, not compensation, or excitement, or 'perks', is the motive force of not just Wall Street but of the entire global corporate world. Escaping that world is no easier than escaping the totalitarian society of Nazi Germany. The identity and the obligations of 'being the best' is a very powerful lock indeed, without any obvious key.
Of course CPE is not merely a corporate problem; it is a societal problem. It is a problem of the perceived order. Schlink's war-trial defendant, Hanna, did not unlock the doors of the church to let the prisoners out, not because she is evil or because she was following orders. She was afraid, she says, of the disorder that would have ensued: prisoners running amok without the proper supervision to get them back in marching line.
It is this same disorder that my three acquaintances seem to fear most. The problem with being 'the best' is that the criterion for being best has to be set by someone with authority. The self-identity of the best depends on this. To reject this classification and the criteria that define it, one also must reject the authority that sanctioned it. This authority is so diffuse throughout society, that to reject it means to reject the entire society. The loss of both identity and context for establishing a new identity is the ultimate disorder, chaos.
Jean Korelitz, for example, herself a former admissions officer for Princeton, shows how pervasive the CPE is in the steps before entering the corporate world in her novel, Admission. Princeton's 'pitch' to applicants is exactly the same as that of the Wall Street firms to its applicants: "As the best, you will want to stay among the best, so apply to Princeton." The stage before this, entry into prep school, is also fictionalised from experience, in turn, by Louis Auchincloss, particularly in his novel, The Rector of Justin. The message doesn't vary: "We are the best and will help you stay among the best."
The destruction of personalities, families, and culture by CPE is systematic. And it is systematically defended even by those whom it excludes. The effects of CPE extend beyond those who are certifiably, as it were, the best to those who aspire to become part of the elite. Deficiencies are masked by the aspiration itself, which is merely the acceptance of the defining authority.
In The Reader, Hanna is able to hide her secret shame by joining the SS, an elite corps. I can say with a moral certainty that all three of my acquaintances have what are, to them, equivalent to Hanna's secret deficiencies. Fear of exposure is therefore a powerful motivation to keep the system going, to promote its stable orderliness even when it is so evidently destructive.
Schlink's narrator, Michael Berg, knows that Hanna could not have committed the crimes she is accused of because of the secret she is unwilling to reveal. She may be guilty but not as guilty as she appears, or of what she is charged with. What duty does he have to unlock the door with which she has imprisoned herself? To speak up, either to her or the court, would expose her to profound shame, greater shame even than that of being found guilty of war crimes perhaps. And if he does decide to speak up, how should he do it - to her? To her lawyer? To the judge? I feel the same dilemmas in advising my acquaintances, knowing that any mis-step could provoke yet more consternation as well as a pointed lack of gratitude for my solicited but still impertinent advice.
Berg's father, a philosopher, advises a simple ethical rule: don't try to second guess the criterion of the good that an individual has established for himself. This is useless advice. It simply anoints conformity as the ethical norm. Conformity is the opposite of resistance, a capacity for which is essential to avoid personal co-optation, to either totalitarianism or corporatism. Resistance which can take many forms. All of them dangerous because they challenge order and the power behind order. And all demand apparently un-virtuous behaviour. How can one advise such a course to anyone one cares about? Ultimately Berg fails to act at all.
I find myself in Berg's position. I feel any advice I can give is vapid. To suggest resistance against a corporate culture that is so pervasive and so domineering is madness. I can only ask the question "Best is the superlative for what?" But I can't answer the question. I am as trapped as anyone else. Will the children of my acquaintances, or my own, look at the lives of their parents with the same dismay as the so-called second generation of German children perceived their parents after 1945?
Schlink's story ends in tragic sadness and unresolved guilt. Perhaps no other ending is possible.
February 26, 2024
If ever there was a book to go into blind, it would be this one. I鈥檝e never felt so morally conflicted while reading. Much like the award-winning film, it鈥檚 thought-provoking in a way I鈥檝e never quite experienced. I found it hard to put down.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no need to talk, because the truth of what one says lies in what one does.鈥�
The Reader is told in three parts, across many years. Set in post-war Germany, 15-year-old Michael Berg is suffering from hepatitis, and becomes sick outside the building of 36-year-old Hanna Schmitz. She comforts him and walks him home. Later, once feeling better, he goes to thank her. An affair then commences that will ultimately shape his life.
Themes and subject matter here won鈥檛 be for everyone. It鈥檚 not afraid to be controversial. The short chapters moved quickly and I found myself immediately captivated. The tension between Michael and Hanna was palpable. Their interactions soon revolve around Michael reading to her. This activity is pivotal to the plot and later takes on different meanings. They don鈥檛 even learn each other鈥檚 names until their sixth or seventh meeting, with Hannah referring to Michael as 鈥楰id鈥� throughout 鈥� reinforcing the taboo nature of their 鈥渞elationship.鈥�
鈥淲hy does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed darker truths?鈥�
As Michael tells his story, you gain an intimate understanding of what he鈥檚 thinking and feeling 鈥� perhaps even more than the film. The book explores many themes. I found the ideas of 鈥榥umbness鈥� and 鈥榙etachment鈥� among the most fascinating. It was also interesting to see how this relationship impacted Michael, altering the entire course of his life and personality in various ways.
Without giving spoilers, the court room scenes and revelations were harrowing. The Holocaust will always be heartbreaking to read 鈥� in any context. It was portrayed here in ways I hadn鈥檛 read before, which added to the poignancy and its ability to make me reflect, become lost in thought.
Despite its short length, I felt things got too philosophical towards the end 鈥� though this didn鈥檛 detract much. The prose itself is quite simple, yet still packs a punch. The Reader is a book that will stimulate emotions 鈥� one way or another. The final scenes are good examples of this.
If you鈥檙e after a quick, yet powerful and thought-provoking read, then The Reader might be for you. It鈥檚 a haunting story that will undoubtedly linger once you鈥檝e closed the book. The film is just as good.
鈥淪he stopped at the window, looked out into the darkness, at the reflection of the bookshelves, and at her own.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 no need to talk, because the truth of what one says lies in what one does.鈥�
The Reader is told in three parts, across many years. Set in post-war Germany, 15-year-old Michael Berg is suffering from hepatitis, and becomes sick outside the building of 36-year-old Hanna Schmitz. She comforts him and walks him home. Later, once feeling better, he goes to thank her. An affair then commences that will ultimately shape his life.
Themes and subject matter here won鈥檛 be for everyone. It鈥檚 not afraid to be controversial. The short chapters moved quickly and I found myself immediately captivated. The tension between Michael and Hanna was palpable. Their interactions soon revolve around Michael reading to her. This activity is pivotal to the plot and later takes on different meanings. They don鈥檛 even learn each other鈥檚 names until their sixth or seventh meeting, with Hannah referring to Michael as 鈥楰id鈥� throughout 鈥� reinforcing the taboo nature of their 鈥渞elationship.鈥�
鈥淲hy does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed darker truths?鈥�
As Michael tells his story, you gain an intimate understanding of what he鈥檚 thinking and feeling 鈥� perhaps even more than the film. The book explores many themes. I found the ideas of 鈥榥umbness鈥� and 鈥榙etachment鈥� among the most fascinating. It was also interesting to see how this relationship impacted Michael, altering the entire course of his life and personality in various ways.
Without giving spoilers, the court room scenes and revelations were harrowing. The Holocaust will always be heartbreaking to read 鈥� in any context. It was portrayed here in ways I hadn鈥檛 read before, which added to the poignancy and its ability to make me reflect, become lost in thought.
Despite its short length, I felt things got too philosophical towards the end 鈥� though this didn鈥檛 detract much. The prose itself is quite simple, yet still packs a punch. The Reader is a book that will stimulate emotions 鈥� one way or another. The final scenes are good examples of this.
If you鈥檙e after a quick, yet powerful and thought-provoking read, then The Reader might be for you. It鈥檚 a haunting story that will undoubtedly linger once you鈥檝e closed the book. The film is just as good.
鈥淪he stopped at the window, looked out into the darkness, at the reflection of the bookshelves, and at her own.鈥�
July 18, 2018
booring. is that a review?? this was just very flat to me. i wasn't offended by the subject matter - i could care less about the "scandalous" elements. but the writing was so clinical and thin. at one point, i blamed the translation, but c'mon - its not that hard to translate german to english (i can't do it, of course, but it's supposed to be one of the easiest translations) i have nothing helpful to say about this except i was bored bored bored. the characters were unappealing, the "twists" were ho-hum, and i thought it very dry .i don't know what oprah was thinking...
December 9, 2024
丕賱賯丕乇卅 ...丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲乇噩賲鬲 廿賱賷 伲侑 賱睾丞 賵 鬲毓鬲亘乇 兀賵賱 乇賵丕賷丞 兀賱賲丕賳賷丞 鬲氐賱 廿賱賷 賯丕卅賲丞 丕賱賰鬲亘 丕賱兀賰孬乇 賲亘賷毓丕賸 賮賷 氐丨賷賮丞 丕賱賳賷賵賷賵乇賰 鬲丕賷賲夭..
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賮賷 噩夭卅賴丕 丕賱兀賵賱 亘鬲丨賰賷 毓賳 賲丕賷賰賱 丕賱賲乇丕賴賯 丕賱賱賷 毓賳丿賴 佟佶 爻賳丞 賵 兀賯丕賲 毓賱丕賯丞 噩賳爻賷丞 賲毓 賴丕賳丕 丕賱爻賷丿丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲亘賱睾 賲賳 丕賱毓賲乇 伲佴 毓丕賲丕賸 ..賲毓 鬲賯丿賲賴 賮賷 丕賱毓賲乇 賵鬲胤賵乇 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 亘賳卮賵賮 廿夭丕賷 兀孬乇鬲 賴匕賴 丕賱毓賱丕賯丞 毓賱賷 丨賷丕鬲賴 賵毓賱賷 賲卮丕毓乇賴 鬲噩丕賴 丕賱丌禺乇賷賳...
兀賲丕 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱鬲丕賳賷-賵賴賵 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱賱賷 兀毓鬲賯丿 兀毓胤賷 卮賴乇丞 賱賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞- 丕賱賱賷 亘賷鬲賰賱賲 賮賷賴 毓賳 丕賱賴賵賱賵賰賵爻鬲 賵 丕賱賲丨丕賰賲丕鬲 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賲鬲 亘毓丿 爻賯賵胤 丕賱乇丕賷禺 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賵賴鬲賱乇 ..丕賱噩夭亍 丿丞 賲亘賳賷 毓賱賷 賮賰乇丞 丕賱毓丕乇 賵丕賱匕賳亘 丕賱匕賷 賷卮毓乇 亘賴 丕賱噩賷賱 丕賱鬲丕賳賷 毓賱賷 丕賱噩賷賱 丕賱爻丕亘賯 丕賱匕賷 毓丕賷卮 賮鬲乇丞 賴鬲賱乇 賵 廿丨爻丕爻賴賲 廿賳賴 賰丕賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 賷乇賮囟賵丕 賲丕 賰丕賳 賷丨丿孬 兀賵 賷丨丕賵賱賵丕 賮賷 賲爻丕毓丿丞 丕賱賲毓鬲賯賱賷賳 亘兀賷 胤乇賷賯丞...
亘丿賵賳 丨乇賯 賱賱兀丨丿丕孬 兀賵 丿禺賵賱 賮賷 鬲賮丕氐賷賱 亘爻 胤亘毓丕賸 賮賷 乇亘胤 賲亘丕卮乇 亘賷賳 丕賱噩夭卅賷賳 賵 賷兀鬲賷 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱鬲丕賱鬲 賵丕賱兀禺賷乇 賱賷囟毓 賳賴丕賷丞 賲丐賱賲丞 賱賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賵賴賵 賮賷 乇兀賷賷 賰丕賳 兀丨賱賷 噩夭亍 賮賷賴賲..
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賲賰鬲賵亘丞 亘爻賱丕爻丞 賵丨鬲賱丕賯賷 賳賮爻賰 賲卮 賯丕丿乇 鬲亘胤賱 賯乇丕亍丞 毓賱賷 丕賱乇睾賲 廿賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 廿賱賷 丨丿 賲丕 毓丕丿賷丞...
卮禺氐賷丞 賴丕賳丕 -賵賴賷 卮禺氐賷丞 乇卅賷爻賷丞 賮賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 -賱賲 鬲乇爻賲 亘毓賳丕賷丞.. 賲賯丿乇鬲卮 兀賮賴賲賴丕 兀賵賷 賵賱丕 兀鬲毓丕胤賮 賲毓丕賴丕 廿賱丕 賮賷 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱兀禺賷乇 ..
鬲乇噩賲丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 -賮賷 乇兀賷賷 -賰丕賳鬲 爻賷卅丞..兀賮賯丿鬲 丕賱毓賲賱 丕賱賰孬賷乇 丕賱氐乇丕丨丞 賱丿乇噩丞 廿賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 賲賱賲爻鬲賳賷卮 兀賵賷 賵賲丨爻賷鬲卮 廿賳賴丕 乇賵丕賷丞 丿丕賮賷丞 賰丿丞 賵賲毓乇賮卮 賴賱 丿賴 亘爻亘亘 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 丕賱睾賷乇 賲賵賮賯丞 賵賱丕 賴賷 丿賷 胤乇賷賯丞 丕賱賰丕鬲亘..
乇賵丕賷丞 噩賲賷賱丞 毓賱賷 丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 賰賱 卮卅 賵丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賱賷賴丕 賮賷賱賲 賲賳 亘胤賵賱丞 賰賷鬲 賵賳爻賱鬲 賵兀禺丿鬲 毓賱賷賴 兀賵爻賰丕乇 賵兀馗賳 廿賳 丕賱賮賷賱賲 丨賷賰賵賳 兀丨賱賷 亘賰鬲賷乇 賲賳 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞..
鬲賯賷賷賲賷 賱賱賰鬲丕亘 伲 賳噩賵賲 賵丨鬲丞 :)
賵亘賲丕 廿賳 丕賱丨鬲丞 丿賷 氐睾賷乇丞 賵 賲卮 賰亘賷乇丞 兀賵賷 賷毓賳賷 貙賮丨賷賮囟賱 丕賱鬲賯賷賷賲 丕賱賳賴丕卅賷 毓賳丿 伲 賳噩賵賲 賮賯胤 賱丕 睾賷乇:)
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賮賷 噩夭卅賴丕 丕賱兀賵賱 亘鬲丨賰賷 毓賳 賲丕賷賰賱 丕賱賲乇丕賴賯 丕賱賱賷 毓賳丿賴 佟佶 爻賳丞 賵 兀賯丕賲 毓賱丕賯丞 噩賳爻賷丞 賲毓 賴丕賳丕 丕賱爻賷丿丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲亘賱睾 賲賳 丕賱毓賲乇 伲佴 毓丕賲丕賸 ..賲毓 鬲賯丿賲賴 賮賷 丕賱毓賲乇 賵鬲胤賵乇 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 亘賳卮賵賮 廿夭丕賷 兀孬乇鬲 賴匕賴 丕賱毓賱丕賯丞 毓賱賷 丨賷丕鬲賴 賵毓賱賷 賲卮丕毓乇賴 鬲噩丕賴 丕賱丌禺乇賷賳...
兀賲丕 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱鬲丕賳賷-賵賴賵 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱賱賷 兀毓鬲賯丿 兀毓胤賷 卮賴乇丞 賱賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞- 丕賱賱賷 亘賷鬲賰賱賲 賮賷賴 毓賳 丕賱賴賵賱賵賰賵爻鬲 賵 丕賱賲丨丕賰賲丕鬲 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賲鬲 亘毓丿 爻賯賵胤 丕賱乇丕賷禺 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賵賴鬲賱乇 ..丕賱噩夭亍 丿丞 賲亘賳賷 毓賱賷 賮賰乇丞 丕賱毓丕乇 賵丕賱匕賳亘 丕賱匕賷 賷卮毓乇 亘賴 丕賱噩賷賱 丕賱鬲丕賳賷 毓賱賷 丕賱噩賷賱 丕賱爻丕亘賯 丕賱匕賷 毓丕賷卮 賮鬲乇丞 賴鬲賱乇 賵 廿丨爻丕爻賴賲 廿賳賴 賰丕賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 賷乇賮囟賵丕 賲丕 賰丕賳 賷丨丿孬 兀賵 賷丨丕賵賱賵丕 賮賷 賲爻丕毓丿丞 丕賱賲毓鬲賯賱賷賳 亘兀賷 胤乇賷賯丞...
亘丿賵賳 丨乇賯 賱賱兀丨丿丕孬 兀賵 丿禺賵賱 賮賷 鬲賮丕氐賷賱 亘爻 胤亘毓丕賸 賮賷 乇亘胤 賲亘丕卮乇 亘賷賳 丕賱噩夭卅賷賳 賵 賷兀鬲賷 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱鬲丕賱鬲 賵丕賱兀禺賷乇 賱賷囟毓 賳賴丕賷丞 賲丐賱賲丞 賱賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賵賴賵 賮賷 乇兀賷賷 賰丕賳 兀丨賱賷 噩夭亍 賮賷賴賲..
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賲賰鬲賵亘丞 亘爻賱丕爻丞 賵丨鬲賱丕賯賷 賳賮爻賰 賲卮 賯丕丿乇 鬲亘胤賱 賯乇丕亍丞 毓賱賷 丕賱乇睾賲 廿賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 廿賱賷 丨丿 賲丕 毓丕丿賷丞...
卮禺氐賷丞 賴丕賳丕 -賵賴賷 卮禺氐賷丞 乇卅賷爻賷丞 賮賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 -賱賲 鬲乇爻賲 亘毓賳丕賷丞.. 賲賯丿乇鬲卮 兀賮賴賲賴丕 兀賵賷 賵賱丕 兀鬲毓丕胤賮 賲毓丕賴丕 廿賱丕 賮賷 丕賱噩夭亍 丕賱兀禺賷乇 ..
鬲乇噩賲丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 -賮賷 乇兀賷賷 -賰丕賳鬲 爻賷卅丞..兀賮賯丿鬲 丕賱毓賲賱 丕賱賰孬賷乇 丕賱氐乇丕丨丞 賱丿乇噩丞 廿賳 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 賲賱賲爻鬲賳賷卮 兀賵賷 賵賲丨爻賷鬲卮 廿賳賴丕 乇賵丕賷丞 丿丕賮賷丞 賰丿丞 賵賲毓乇賮卮 賴賱 丿賴 亘爻亘亘 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 丕賱睾賷乇 賲賵賮賯丞 賵賱丕 賴賷 丿賷 胤乇賷賯丞 丕賱賰丕鬲亘..
乇賵丕賷丞 噩賲賷賱丞 毓賱賷 丕賱乇睾賲 賲賳 賰賱 卮卅 賵丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賱賷賴丕 賮賷賱賲 賲賳 亘胤賵賱丞 賰賷鬲 賵賳爻賱鬲 賵兀禺丿鬲 毓賱賷賴 兀賵爻賰丕乇 賵兀馗賳 廿賳 丕賱賮賷賱賲 丨賷賰賵賳 兀丨賱賷 亘賰鬲賷乇 賲賳 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞..
鬲賯賷賷賲賷 賱賱賰鬲丕亘 伲 賳噩賵賲 賵丨鬲丞 :)
賵亘賲丕 廿賳 丕賱丨鬲丞 丿賷 氐睾賷乇丞 賵 賲卮 賰亘賷乇丞 兀賵賷 賷毓賳賷 貙賮丨賷賮囟賱 丕賱鬲賯賷賷賲 丕賱賳賴丕卅賷 毓賳丿 伲 賳噩賵賲 賮賯胤 賱丕 睾賷乇:)
September 20, 2021
Der Vorleser = The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
The Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995.
The story is told in three parts by the main character, Michael Berg. Each part takes place in a different time period in the past.
Spoiler Alert
Part I begins in a West German city in 1958. After 15-year-old Michael becomes ill on his way home, 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna Schmitz notices him, cleans him up, and sees him safely home. He spends the next three months absent from school battling hepatitis. ...
Part 2, Six years later, while attending law school, Michael is part of a group of students observing a war crimes trial. A group of middle-aged women who had served as SS guards at a satellite of Auschwitz in occupied Poland are being tried for allowing 300 Jewish women under their ostensible "protection" to die in a fire locked in a church that had been bombed during the evacuation of the camp. The incident was chronicled in a book written by one of the few survivors, who emigrated to the United States after the war; she is the main prosecution witness at the trial. ...
Part 3, Years have passed, Michael is divorced and has a daughter from his brief marriage. He is trying to come to terms with his feelings for Hanna, and begins taping readings of books and sending them to her without any correspondence while she is in prison.
Hanna begins to teach herself to read, and then write in a childlike way, by borrowing the books from the prison library and following the tapes along in the text.
She writes to Michael, but he cannot bring himself to reply. After 18 years, Hanna is about to be released, so he agrees (after hesitation) to find her a place to stay and employment, visiting her in prison.
On the day of her release in 1983, she commits suicide and Michael is heartbroken. Michael learns from the warden that she had been reading books by many prominent Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and histories of the camps.
The warden, in her anger towards Michael for communicating with Hanna only by audio tapes, expresses Hanna's disappointment. Hanna left him an assignment: give all her money to the survivor of the church fire.
毓賳賵丕賳賴丕蹖 趩丕倬 卮丿賴 丿乇 丕蹖乇丕賳: 芦亘乇丕賷賲 賰鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳禄貨 芦讴鬲丕亘禺賵丕賳禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 亘乇賳賴丕乇丿 卮賱蹖賳讴貨 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮 乇賵夭 賳賵夭丿賴賲 賲丕賴 賮賵乇蹖賴 爻丕賱2004賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 亘乇丕賷賲 賰鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 亘乇賳賴丕乇丿 卮賱蹖賳讴貨 賲鬲乇噩賲 亘賴賲賳丿禺鬲 丕賵蹖爻蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 賮乇夭丕賳貙 1381貨 丿乇 爻蹖夭丿賴 賵 239氐貨 卮丕亘讴9643211703貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 亘丕 毓賳賵丕賳 讴鬲丕亘禺賵丕賳貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 鬲丕乇蹖禺 丕蹖乇丕賳貙 1388貙 丿乇 204氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789646082755貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丌賱賲丕賳 - 爻丿賴 20賲
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇 爻丕賱 1958賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 丿乇 丌賱賲丕賳 丌睾丕夭 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄貙 賳賵噩賵丕賳 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴貙 亘胤賵乇 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖貙 亘丕 夭賳蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 芦賴丕賳丕禄貙 丌卮賳丕 賵 亘賴 丕賵 毓賱丕賯賲賳丿 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 賴乇 亘丕乇 讴賴 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 賳夭丿 丕賵 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丕賵 乇丕 賵丕丿丕乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 鬲丕 亘乇丕蹖卮 亘丕 氐丿丕蹖 亘賱賳丿 讴鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳丿貨 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 乇賵夭蹖 賲鬲賵噩賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 讴賴 芦賴丕賳丕禄 亘丿賵賳 丌賳讴賴 賳卮丕賳蹖 丕夭 禺賵丿 亘乇噩丕蹖 亘诏匕丕乇丿貙 卮賴乇 乇丕 鬲乇讴 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 賲蹖鈥屭柏必� 賵 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 亘夭乇诏 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 丕賵 丿乇 乇卮鬲賴 鈥屰� 丨賯賵賯 鬲丨氐蹖賱 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 乇賵夭蹖貙 丿乇 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿丕丿诏丕賴鈥� 賴丕蹖蹖 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 賲噩丕夭丕鬲 噩賳丕蹖鬲讴丕乇丕賳 噩賳诏 噩賴丕賳蹖 丿賵賲 亘乇倬丕 鈥屫簇囏� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 丿乇 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 賲鬲賴賲丕賳 賯乇丕乇 诏乇賮鬲賴貙 賵 卮賵丕賴丿 亘乇 丕蹖賳 丿賱丕賱鬲 丿丕乇賳丿貙 讴賴 丕賵 丿乇 夭賲丕賳 噩賳诏貙 賳诏賴亘丕賳 夭賳丿丕賳蹖丕賳蹖 亘賵丿賴 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘賴 卮讴賱 賵丨卮蹖丕賳賴 鈥屫й� 賯鬲賱鈥屫关з� 卮丿賴 鈥屫з嗀� 鈥ω� 亘丕 丕賯鬲亘丕爻 丕夭 丕蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賮蹖賱賲蹖 賳蹖夭 亘賴 賴賲蹖賳 賳丕賲 爻丕禺鬲賴 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 18/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 28/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
The Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995.
The story is told in three parts by the main character, Michael Berg. Each part takes place in a different time period in the past.
Spoiler Alert
Part I begins in a West German city in 1958. After 15-year-old Michael becomes ill on his way home, 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna Schmitz notices him, cleans him up, and sees him safely home. He spends the next three months absent from school battling hepatitis. ...
Part 2, Six years later, while attending law school, Michael is part of a group of students observing a war crimes trial. A group of middle-aged women who had served as SS guards at a satellite of Auschwitz in occupied Poland are being tried for allowing 300 Jewish women under their ostensible "protection" to die in a fire locked in a church that had been bombed during the evacuation of the camp. The incident was chronicled in a book written by one of the few survivors, who emigrated to the United States after the war; she is the main prosecution witness at the trial. ...
Part 3, Years have passed, Michael is divorced and has a daughter from his brief marriage. He is trying to come to terms with his feelings for Hanna, and begins taping readings of books and sending them to her without any correspondence while she is in prison.
Hanna begins to teach herself to read, and then write in a childlike way, by borrowing the books from the prison library and following the tapes along in the text.
She writes to Michael, but he cannot bring himself to reply. After 18 years, Hanna is about to be released, so he agrees (after hesitation) to find her a place to stay and employment, visiting her in prison.
On the day of her release in 1983, she commits suicide and Michael is heartbroken. Michael learns from the warden that she had been reading books by many prominent Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and histories of the camps.
The warden, in her anger towards Michael for communicating with Hanna only by audio tapes, expresses Hanna's disappointment. Hanna left him an assignment: give all her money to the survivor of the church fire.
毓賳賵丕賳賴丕蹖 趩丕倬 卮丿賴 丿乇 丕蹖乇丕賳: 芦亘乇丕賷賲 賰鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳禄貨 芦讴鬲丕亘禺賵丕賳禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 亘乇賳賴丕乇丿 卮賱蹖賳讴貨 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮 乇賵夭 賳賵夭丿賴賲 賲丕賴 賮賵乇蹖賴 爻丕賱2004賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 亘乇丕賷賲 賰鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 亘乇賳賴丕乇丿 卮賱蹖賳讴貨 賲鬲乇噩賲 亘賴賲賳丿禺鬲 丕賵蹖爻蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 賮乇夭丕賳貙 1381貨 丿乇 爻蹖夭丿賴 賵 239氐貨 卮丕亘讴9643211703貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 亘丕 毓賳賵丕賳 讴鬲丕亘禺賵丕賳貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 鬲丕乇蹖禺 丕蹖乇丕賳貙 1388貙 丿乇 204氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789646082755貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丌賱賲丕賳 - 爻丿賴 20賲
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇 爻丕賱 1958賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 丿乇 丌賱賲丕賳 丌睾丕夭 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄貙 賳賵噩賵丕賳 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴貙 亘胤賵乇 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖貙 亘丕 夭賳蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 芦賴丕賳丕禄貙 丌卮賳丕 賵 亘賴 丕賵 毓賱丕賯賲賳丿 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 賴乇 亘丕乇 讴賴 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 賳夭丿 丕賵 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丕賵 乇丕 賵丕丿丕乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 鬲丕 亘乇丕蹖卮 亘丕 氐丿丕蹖 亘賱賳丿 讴鬲丕亘 亘禺賵丕賳丿貨 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 乇賵夭蹖 賲鬲賵噩賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 讴賴 芦賴丕賳丕禄 亘丿賵賳 丌賳讴賴 賳卮丕賳蹖 丕夭 禺賵丿 亘乇噩丕蹖 亘诏匕丕乇丿貙 卮賴乇 乇丕 鬲乇讴 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 賲蹖鈥屭柏必� 賵 芦賲蹖卮丕卅蹖賱禄 亘夭乇诏 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 丕賵 丿乇 乇卮鬲賴 鈥屰� 丨賯賵賯 鬲丨氐蹖賱 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 賵 乇賵夭蹖貙 丿乇 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿丕丿诏丕賴鈥� 賴丕蹖蹖 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 賲噩丕夭丕鬲 噩賳丕蹖鬲讴丕乇丕賳 噩賳诏 噩賴丕賳蹖 丿賵賲 亘乇倬丕 鈥屫簇囏� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 芦賴丕賳丕禄 丿乇 噩丕蹖诏丕賴 賲鬲賴賲丕賳 賯乇丕乇 诏乇賮鬲賴貙 賵 卮賵丕賴丿 亘乇 丕蹖賳 丿賱丕賱鬲 丿丕乇賳丿貙 讴賴 丕賵 丿乇 夭賲丕賳 噩賳诏貙 賳诏賴亘丕賳 夭賳丿丕賳蹖丕賳蹖 亘賵丿賴 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘賴 卮讴賱 賵丨卮蹖丕賳賴 鈥屫й� 賯鬲賱鈥屫关з� 卮丿賴 鈥屫з嗀� 鈥ω� 亘丕 丕賯鬲亘丕爻 丕夭 丕蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賮蹖賱賲蹖 賳蹖夭 亘賴 賴賲蹖賳 賳丕賲 爻丕禺鬲賴 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 18/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 28/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
September 2, 2012
I'm not really sure why this book is considered one of the best books of all time and managed to make into the big 1001 list. Most of the time, even if I don't like a book, I tend to understand why someone else picked it. In this case, I'm rather clueless. Is it, perhaps, that people see in it some message about humanity when Hanna won't purchase her freedom with the secret she has kept hidden for years? Is it the vivid sexual tale of a teenage boy with an older woman? Are we supposed to be shocked by it?
The novel starts with a romance when fifteen year old Michael finds himself ill on the way home from school and is taken in by a woman twice his age. They begin an affair which is described by numerous critics as "erotic". This was the first hurdle my enjoyment came up against. When I was fifteen with raging hormones and an extremely good-looking history teacher, I would probably have been able to appreciate the eroticism of such an opportunity - to have an illicit affair with someone much older and experienced. But that's just a bunch of teenage fantasies that would never have become realities. Now, it creeps me out. I couldn't see it as a love story, I saw it as being about an adult who takes advantage of a child (all very ironic when I think about , but I guess I grew up somewhat).
It has been suggested that we are expected to draw parallels between Hanna's secret and the behaviour of most German people during the second world war, that is why Schlink deliberately set the novel in this fragile post-war period. But I'm really not a fan of stories that are one big metaphor for something else... or no, maybe it isn't so much that I don't like that, but more that it has to be done in a manner which I find appealing and it has to be obvious. I refuse to believe in metaphors that have been proposed by some random critic and then jumped on by everyone else. I'm trying not to give away Hanna's secret in case there are people who haven't worked it out straight away, but I wasn't buying into this metaphor.
This combined with the author's sparse tone quickly distanced me from the novel. I just prefer interesting and complex characters, an engaging plot, relationships I care about... I prefer all this over metaphor. In the end, metaphor is subjective and if I can't see it myself without someone else suggesting it to me then I believe either the author failed to make their metaphorical point clearly enough or the metaphor itself doesn't exist.
The novel starts with a romance when fifteen year old Michael finds himself ill on the way home from school and is taken in by a woman twice his age. They begin an affair which is described by numerous critics as "erotic". This was the first hurdle my enjoyment came up against. When I was fifteen with raging hormones and an extremely good-looking history teacher, I would probably have been able to appreciate the eroticism of such an opportunity - to have an illicit affair with someone much older and experienced. But that's just a bunch of teenage fantasies that would never have become realities. Now, it creeps me out. I couldn't see it as a love story, I saw it as being about an adult who takes advantage of a child (all very ironic when I think about , but I guess I grew up somewhat).
It has been suggested that we are expected to draw parallels between Hanna's secret and the behaviour of most German people during the second world war, that is why Schlink deliberately set the novel in this fragile post-war period. But I'm really not a fan of stories that are one big metaphor for something else... or no, maybe it isn't so much that I don't like that, but more that it has to be done in a manner which I find appealing and it has to be obvious. I refuse to believe in metaphors that have been proposed by some random critic and then jumped on by everyone else. I'm trying not to give away Hanna's secret in case there are people who haven't worked it out straight away, but I wasn't buying into this metaphor.
This combined with the author's sparse tone quickly distanced me from the novel. I just prefer interesting and complex characters, an engaging plot, relationships I care about... I prefer all this over metaphor. In the end, metaphor is subjective and if I can't see it myself without someone else suggesting it to me then I believe either the author failed to make their metaphorical point clearly enough or the metaphor itself doesn't exist.
October 31, 2022
On my last-minute whim,
I grabbed,
a story of an erotic love affair between
a 15-year-old German boy, Michael Berg,
and 35-year-old, Hanna Schmitz!
Suffering from hepatitis and Hanna nurturing him,
In due course both develop passionate feelings for each other.
They keep their relationship under wraps.
Eventually, as Michael matures, the relationship starts dwindling,
Hanna disappears into thin air!
Destiny bestows a second encounter between the two,
but in vexatious circumstances.
with numerous deaths charged against her during the bombing!
What follows is all circled around discovering whether Hanna is guilty and be incarcerated,
or is innocent (avoiding spoilers)?
The biggest remnant-
My Views-
Originally published in German, I found the English translation to be weak, thin, sporadic, and sparse, and it couldn鈥檛 endow an awe-inspiring feeling to me! I just couldn鈥檛 stay riveted, irrespective of the compelling plot premise. 鈽�
Not to mention, the novel got numerous accolades and raving terrific reviews, but this may sound like an outlier.
I was attracted due to the premise around WWII (the holocaust era) and an unwonted love story weaving in the backdrop, between two individuals from totally different backgrounds and a stark age difference.
But honestly, I remained neutral. It didn鈥檛 arouse any feelings in me, I couldn鈥檛 marry the characters, and found them scattered and weak! The biggest takeaway for me was the fact literacy is a massive accomplishment, and can never be compromised!
The entire narration is from Michael鈥檚 point of view, and I am sure the original German text must have done justice to the brilliant plot premise, and so acquired raving positive reviews.
But the English translation just faltered for me, and made my reading experience insipid and banal! I just couldn鈥檛 wed the plot, due to the sporadicity.
Without any further belaboring, I close the review, by giving a respectful 3 stars!
NB- Resonating with writing style/translation is a subjective topic, and request people not to take the rating universally. It is strictly my point-of-view, and request readers to explore this short book, with a marvelous plot-line! :) It is my behove, to be honest with my views and rating, and try to do the same with all my reviews.
I grabbed,
a story of an erotic love affair between
a 15-year-old German boy, Michael Berg,
and 35-year-old, Hanna Schmitz!
Suffering from hepatitis and Hanna nurturing him,
In due course both develop passionate feelings for each other.
They keep their relationship under wraps.
Eventually, as Michael matures, the relationship starts dwindling,
Hanna disappears into thin air!
Destiny bestows a second encounter between the two,
but in vexatious circumstances.
with numerous deaths charged against her during the bombing!
What follows is all circled around discovering whether Hanna is guilty and be incarcerated,
or is innocent (avoiding spoilers)?
The biggest remnant-
My Views-
Originally published in German, I found the English translation to be weak, thin, sporadic, and sparse, and it couldn鈥檛 endow an awe-inspiring feeling to me! I just couldn鈥檛 stay riveted, irrespective of the compelling plot premise. 鈽�
Not to mention, the novel got numerous accolades and raving terrific reviews, but this may sound like an outlier.
I was attracted due to the premise around WWII (the holocaust era) and an unwonted love story weaving in the backdrop, between two individuals from totally different backgrounds and a stark age difference.
But honestly, I remained neutral. It didn鈥檛 arouse any feelings in me, I couldn鈥檛 marry the characters, and found them scattered and weak! The biggest takeaway for me was the fact literacy is a massive accomplishment, and can never be compromised!
The entire narration is from Michael鈥檚 point of view, and I am sure the original German text must have done justice to the brilliant plot premise, and so acquired raving positive reviews.
But the English translation just faltered for me, and made my reading experience insipid and banal! I just couldn鈥檛 wed the plot, due to the sporadicity.
Without any further belaboring, I close the review, by giving a respectful 3 stars!
NB- Resonating with writing style/translation is a subjective topic, and request people not to take the rating universally. It is strictly my point-of-view, and request readers to explore this short book, with a marvelous plot-line! :) It is my behove, to be honest with my views and rating, and try to do the same with all my reviews.
February 1, 2009
I have the feeling there's more than one way of looking at this book. On one hand it can be viewed as a bildungsroman, it follows Michael Berg since the age of 15 till full maturity. On the other hand, it's the post-war German generation coming to terms with their past, the Nazi crimes and their parents' guilt. Guilt, actually, is a recurring theme in the novel: Hanna is guilty of war crimes, Michael is guilty for betrayal (plus he feels guilty for having loved Hanna and asks himself if that makes him a criminal as well), Michael's father for not being enough of a father.
The question you get stuck with, after reading, is Hanna's question addressed to the judge: "What would you have done?"
The question I am stuck with is: What would have happened if the truth had been told?
On a bohemian level, the novel is about love for books and reading, so that's a plus for bookworms :)
The question you get stuck with, after reading, is Hanna's question addressed to the judge: "What would you have done?"
The question I am stuck with is: What would have happened if the truth had been told?
On a bohemian level, the novel is about love for books and reading, so that's a plus for bookworms :)
January 5, 2009
There are some books you know will stay with you forever, and Bernhard Schlink's The Reader is definitely one of them. It has been highly critically acclaimed, winning the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, and it deserves all the praise it has received.
The Holocaust is a difficult, though much covered, subject matter, and this novel has a sure touch and an appealing lack of judgment with it. The story begins in the world of almost-childhood of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, recovering from a summer of hepatitis, begins a relationship with Hanna, a much older woman he meets by chance. The first part of the novel, untouched by the shadow of the recent war or Germany's disturbed and dangerous past, deals with Michael and Hanna's burgeoning relationship, and the little fears and worries that can make up one big problem. Eventually, as we know it must, their relationship ends and Hanna moves away.
When the book moves on to the second part, the tone has changed considerably. Michael, now a law student, attends the trial of female Nazi war criminals. To his shock, one of them is Hanna, who had been a camp guard at Auschwitz. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for you, but the Holocaust is seriously considered in the light of philosophy and moral responsibility. There is an attitude that one becomes numb to the horror of it all if too exposed to it, and this book does not go into ghastly detail, but rather examines even more painful details: who was to blame, how do we live with the suffering, how can one atone, and most of all, what is the next generation to do?
It also looks at what it means to love someone, how much we can accept of them and how blind we can be to those we love. Love, guilt and betrayal feature prominently in this novel.
In many ways Hanna was innocent, and yet it becomes apparent that she lived every day with terrible guilt; Michael was a victim of her actions, and yet he too is guilty by association. The reader of the title is Michael, who read to Hanna during the early part of the relationship; the reader is Hanna, alone in prison occupying herself by learning about the experiences of camp inmates. The reader is selected individuals in the camps who read aloud to Hanna, and may have died because of it. But most of all, the reader is ourselves; the title points the finger at us, because now we have the knowledge, what should we do with it? If all it takes for evil to prevail is for the good to remain silent, then how innocent are any of us? And how can we deal with the subsequent guilt? There are so many layers to this subtly complex novel that having just finished it, I have to start it again. The transforming power of words is negated by their ultimate futility, and actions in this novel speak deafeningly loud.
If we have a responsibility towards the past, to learn from it, and I believe we do, then this book will help us to go some way towards fulfilling it.
The Holocaust is a difficult, though much covered, subject matter, and this novel has a sure touch and an appealing lack of judgment with it. The story begins in the world of almost-childhood of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, recovering from a summer of hepatitis, begins a relationship with Hanna, a much older woman he meets by chance. The first part of the novel, untouched by the shadow of the recent war or Germany's disturbed and dangerous past, deals with Michael and Hanna's burgeoning relationship, and the little fears and worries that can make up one big problem. Eventually, as we know it must, their relationship ends and Hanna moves away.
When the book moves on to the second part, the tone has changed considerably. Michael, now a law student, attends the trial of female Nazi war criminals. To his shock, one of them is Hanna, who had been a camp guard at Auschwitz. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for you, but the Holocaust is seriously considered in the light of philosophy and moral responsibility. There is an attitude that one becomes numb to the horror of it all if too exposed to it, and this book does not go into ghastly detail, but rather examines even more painful details: who was to blame, how do we live with the suffering, how can one atone, and most of all, what is the next generation to do?
It also looks at what it means to love someone, how much we can accept of them and how blind we can be to those we love. Love, guilt and betrayal feature prominently in this novel.
In many ways Hanna was innocent, and yet it becomes apparent that she lived every day with terrible guilt; Michael was a victim of her actions, and yet he too is guilty by association. The reader of the title is Michael, who read to Hanna during the early part of the relationship; the reader is Hanna, alone in prison occupying herself by learning about the experiences of camp inmates. The reader is selected individuals in the camps who read aloud to Hanna, and may have died because of it. But most of all, the reader is ourselves; the title points the finger at us, because now we have the knowledge, what should we do with it? If all it takes for evil to prevail is for the good to remain silent, then how innocent are any of us? And how can we deal with the subsequent guilt? There are so many layers to this subtly complex novel that having just finished it, I have to start it again. The transforming power of words is negated by their ultimate futility, and actions in this novel speak deafeningly loud.
If we have a responsibility towards the past, to learn from it, and I believe we do, then this book will help us to go some way towards fulfilling it.
January 22, 2016
This is the deep character development and type of writing that i've been craving. A book that made me think and ask so many questions. Sometimes I felt like I was struggling through really heavy writing, but the actual story itself and the moral questions that arise from its telling were really, really interesting and I surprised myself with how much I found myself contemplating this novel. Someone told me there's a movie with Kate Winslet and she is my actual wife so i'm gonna go track that down bye
October 15, 2018
This novel breaks so many taboos, it is hard to know where to start reflecting on it. And yet, its plot is not unrealistic or uncommon.
It is about a sexual relationship between a young man and an older woman.
It is about illiteracy and shame.
It is about crimes against humanity, committed out of helplessness and an egocentric wish to hide one's own weakness.
It is about the Holocaust weighing on the shoulders of post-1945 Germany's population.
It is about the past being reshaped in memory when further knowledge about a person adds a new layer to a relationship.
It is about the coexistence of complete indifference towards the lives of many human beings and compassion for one specific individual.
It is surprisingly not much about hatred, despite the topic.
It is about overcoming a disability.
It is about facing justice - or not.
It is painful to read. And yet hope hides in a corner.
If you can't read it yourself, find someone who is willing to read it to you. Or record it on tape. Literacy is a massive achievement and immensely important for human communication.
Read it!
It is about a sexual relationship between a young man and an older woman.
It is about illiteracy and shame.
It is about crimes against humanity, committed out of helplessness and an egocentric wish to hide one's own weakness.
It is about the Holocaust weighing on the shoulders of post-1945 Germany's population.
It is about the past being reshaped in memory when further knowledge about a person adds a new layer to a relationship.
It is about the coexistence of complete indifference towards the lives of many human beings and compassion for one specific individual.
It is surprisingly not much about hatred, despite the topic.
It is about overcoming a disability.
It is about facing justice - or not.
It is painful to read. And yet hope hides in a corner.
If you can't read it yourself, find someone who is willing to read it to you. Or record it on tape. Literacy is a massive achievement and immensely important for human communication.
Read it!
April 26, 2016
It's too simple to say I read any single book because I want to read it. There are dozens of reasons I'll pick up a particular title: I like the author; I like the subject matter; the book is an award winner; the book comes with many trusted recommendations; I was supposed to read the book in high school and I feel guilty because I played Goldeneye on my N64 instead. I will freely admit that I read War and Peace simply to say I read War and Peace. I'd take it to the cafeteria every day and let people see me with it. I was trying to project a certain image; unfortunately, the image I projected was a creepy loner way too interested in Russian melodrama.
I read The Reader because it had Nazis. And because it prominently featured a deviant sexual affair. Sold and sold.
I dared think that Bernhard Schlink's novel might be that rarest of things, these days: truly transgressive. I mean, sex and Nazis and a literary pedigree to boot. Where do I sign up?
This slim novel tells the story of an affair between 15 year-old Michael and the far-older Hanna, with whom he has an affair in West Germany in 1958. Hanna, a tram conductor, comes to Michael's aid when Michael falls ills. Later, Michael's mother forces Michael to go thank Hanna; after a laughably stupid seduction (the literary equivalent of that old porn standby, the copy repairman), the two are having an affair.
I guess this is shocking? Taboo busting? I don't know. I can't really muster much moral outrage at statutory rape when it is set against the recent background of the Holocaust. Moreover, the scenes between the two "lovers" (how I despise that phrase!) are written in such a mundane, clinical fashion, that I could only speculate that Schlink (or his translator) was a technical writer, taking time off from telling me the side effects of Ditropan. (In reality, Schlink is a judge, and I suppose the detached, just-the-facts-ness of The Reader could be compared to a legal brief).
The affair goes on for awhile. It doesn't generate much heat, since both the main characters are constructed out of cardboard, with macaroni faces and yarn for hair. The title is also explained - partially - because Michael must read aloud to Hanna before they Biblically unite. That sound you hear is my eyes rolling.
Eventually, Hanna disappears. Seven years later, Michael is a law student, and he attends a war crimes trial where - SHOCK! - Hanna is on trial. Turns out she was a concentration camp guard: think Mary Kay Letourneau crossed with Heinrich Himmler.
It's hard to screw up a novel about a Nazi pedophile, but it happens here.
There is always going to be tension when a fictional work of art (using that term loosely) is set against the backdrop of a recent tragedy. Until the last person who survived said tragedy is dead, any author daring to touch the subject is going to get dinged a little. We can all argue about the morality of such fictionalizations, but the point is moot. It's going to happen.
Schlink obviously knew the dangers going in, and tried to avoid them. In doing so, he wrote a book that is simply flat. There are two directions to take a story like this. First, there is over-the-top, Inglorious Basterds-style pulp. Just accept that your book is basically fan-fiction from the SS Experiment Camp line of movies, and wait for Cinemax to call with an offer. The second direction is to make a serious, searching novel about an ordinary person who survived the Holocaust, but as a cog in the machinery of death, rather than a survivor. Explore how that person lives each day wtih the things he or she has done. This kind of book would take a lot of psychological digging, and there aren't a lot of authors up to this task.
The Reader tries to do a little of both, and ends up a big, dull, intellecutally-insulting dud. As already noted, the love affair generates slightly less heat than the pairing of Liza Minnelli and David Gest. The decision to include a statutorily illegal relationship was obviously meant to garner attention, but it fails to shock, titilate, or even vaguely incite any interest.
The transition to the courtroom, and beyond, is even worse. Here, the author makes a half-hearted attempt to avoid moral relativism, and then falls right into that trap. In an epic bit of reductionism, Schlink manages to equate the tragedy of the Holocaust with - spoiler alert, I guess - adult illiteracy. If only that was a joke.
Schlink's idea of depth is to fill a couple of pages with facile hypothetical questions that he helpfully leaves unanswered. All the better; I doubt I would care about what answers he discovered.
While Part I of The Reader is a tepid affair between two paper dolls, and Part II reduces the Holocaust to one SS Guard's illiterate shame, Part III manages, stunningly, to get worse. The epilogue, which must be read to be believed, is so stilted, awkward, and glib that I almost felt bad for the characters/ciphers forced to utter the tortured dialogue.
I suppose I got what I deserved. It's like when you click on a hyperlink for naked celebrity photos and get a computer virus instead. (Or so I've been told...) I picked up this book thinking it might be trashy, and it turned out it was, but just not the kind of trash I enjoy.
I read The Reader because it had Nazis. And because it prominently featured a deviant sexual affair. Sold and sold.
I dared think that Bernhard Schlink's novel might be that rarest of things, these days: truly transgressive. I mean, sex and Nazis and a literary pedigree to boot. Where do I sign up?
This slim novel tells the story of an affair between 15 year-old Michael and the far-older Hanna, with whom he has an affair in West Germany in 1958. Hanna, a tram conductor, comes to Michael's aid when Michael falls ills. Later, Michael's mother forces Michael to go thank Hanna; after a laughably stupid seduction (the literary equivalent of that old porn standby, the copy repairman), the two are having an affair.
I guess this is shocking? Taboo busting? I don't know. I can't really muster much moral outrage at statutory rape when it is set against the recent background of the Holocaust. Moreover, the scenes between the two "lovers" (how I despise that phrase!) are written in such a mundane, clinical fashion, that I could only speculate that Schlink (or his translator) was a technical writer, taking time off from telling me the side effects of Ditropan. (In reality, Schlink is a judge, and I suppose the detached, just-the-facts-ness of The Reader could be compared to a legal brief).
The affair goes on for awhile. It doesn't generate much heat, since both the main characters are constructed out of cardboard, with macaroni faces and yarn for hair. The title is also explained - partially - because Michael must read aloud to Hanna before they Biblically unite. That sound you hear is my eyes rolling.
Eventually, Hanna disappears. Seven years later, Michael is a law student, and he attends a war crimes trial where - SHOCK! - Hanna is on trial. Turns out she was a concentration camp guard: think Mary Kay Letourneau crossed with Heinrich Himmler.
It's hard to screw up a novel about a Nazi pedophile, but it happens here.
There is always going to be tension when a fictional work of art (using that term loosely) is set against the backdrop of a recent tragedy. Until the last person who survived said tragedy is dead, any author daring to touch the subject is going to get dinged a little. We can all argue about the morality of such fictionalizations, but the point is moot. It's going to happen.
Schlink obviously knew the dangers going in, and tried to avoid them. In doing so, he wrote a book that is simply flat. There are two directions to take a story like this. First, there is over-the-top, Inglorious Basterds-style pulp. Just accept that your book is basically fan-fiction from the SS Experiment Camp line of movies, and wait for Cinemax to call with an offer. The second direction is to make a serious, searching novel about an ordinary person who survived the Holocaust, but as a cog in the machinery of death, rather than a survivor. Explore how that person lives each day wtih the things he or she has done. This kind of book would take a lot of psychological digging, and there aren't a lot of authors up to this task.
The Reader tries to do a little of both, and ends up a big, dull, intellecutally-insulting dud. As already noted, the love affair generates slightly less heat than the pairing of Liza Minnelli and David Gest. The decision to include a statutorily illegal relationship was obviously meant to garner attention, but it fails to shock, titilate, or even vaguely incite any interest.
The transition to the courtroom, and beyond, is even worse. Here, the author makes a half-hearted attempt to avoid moral relativism, and then falls right into that trap. In an epic bit of reductionism, Schlink manages to equate the tragedy of the Holocaust with - spoiler alert, I guess - adult illiteracy. If only that was a joke.
Schlink's idea of depth is to fill a couple of pages with facile hypothetical questions that he helpfully leaves unanswered. All the better; I doubt I would care about what answers he discovered.
While Part I of The Reader is a tepid affair between two paper dolls, and Part II reduces the Holocaust to one SS Guard's illiterate shame, Part III manages, stunningly, to get worse. The epilogue, which must be read to be believed, is so stilted, awkward, and glib that I almost felt bad for the characters/ciphers forced to utter the tortured dialogue.
I suppose I got what I deserved. It's like when you click on a hyperlink for naked celebrity photos and get a computer virus instead. (Or so I've been told...) I picked up this book thinking it might be trashy, and it turned out it was, but just not the kind of trash I enjoy.
September 18, 2018
The biggest problem I had with this book was the fact that it made me feel...nothing.
I didn't feel connected to the characters or to any part of the plot. This is quite a bummer, as it deals with a pretty heavy topic.
I feel like the author intended to write the story this way though, because the writing style in general has a certain type of "coldness" to it, and the true feelings of a character are never really explored. Some people might not be bothered by this, but I personally simply prefer feeling close and connected to the characters of a story.
This doesn't make the entire book bad though. It certainly was interesting, and is skillful with how he uses words. He describes mundane activities in a wonderful and fascinating way, and this makes me understand 100% why so many schools choose this novel as part of their required reading material.
I also appreciated how he always got straight to the point, instead of writing unnecessary details to prolong the plot points we all already know are coming.
I also couldn't help but feel disgusted at the things taking place in the first part of the book, and I wish the problematic aspects were explored further, instead of just brushing upon the issue later on.
Overall, this was a good book to read inbetween, but nothing life changing or special.
I didn't feel connected to the characters or to any part of the plot. This is quite a bummer, as it deals with a pretty heavy topic.
I feel like the author intended to write the story this way though, because the writing style in general has a certain type of "coldness" to it, and the true feelings of a character are never really explored. Some people might not be bothered by this, but I personally simply prefer feeling close and connected to the characters of a story.
This doesn't make the entire book bad though. It certainly was interesting, and is skillful with how he uses words. He describes mundane activities in a wonderful and fascinating way, and this makes me understand 100% why so many schools choose this novel as part of their required reading material.
I also appreciated how he always got straight to the point, instead of writing unnecessary details to prolong the plot points we all already know are coming.
I also couldn't help but feel disgusted at the things taking place in the first part of the book, and I wish the problematic aspects were explored further, instead of just brushing upon the issue later on.
Overall, this was a good book to read inbetween, but nothing life changing or special.
February 5, 2017
" " I ... I mean ... so what would you have done? "
Hanna meant it as a serious question. She did not know what she should or could have done differently, and therefore wanted to hear from the judge, who seemed to know everything, what he would have done. "
This same question is posed in other situations throughout this book.
Should Michael, being the only other person to know Hanna's secret, have exposed this secret in order to help her during the trial?
Should Michael have been more understanding toward Hanna, after the trial?
Should the average German citizen feel shame for not doing more to avert the Holocaust?
How should today's German citizen feel towards their ancestors that had to endure World War II?
As 'that guard', what should Hanna have done?
You be the judge...........
Hanna meant it as a serious question. She did not know what she should or could have done differently, and therefore wanted to hear from the judge, who seemed to know everything, what he would have done. "
This same question is posed in other situations throughout this book.
Should Michael, being the only other person to know Hanna's secret, have exposed this secret in order to help her during the trial?
Should Michael have been more understanding toward Hanna, after the trial?
Should the average German citizen feel shame for not doing more to avert the Holocaust?
How should today's German citizen feel towards their ancestors that had to endure World War II?
As 'that guard', what should Hanna have done?
You be the judge...........
March 23, 2017
Great book.Wonderful piece and remotely expressed Words flowing like water in oceans.
I'd Miss someone with that book.
As the Young Lady entangled with teen.
Which flows the flawless love between them even when she got life imprisonment, She was turned to old. And Teen was turned to Man.
Time had changed, but their love sustained as he gave her recordings of stories.
Lovely Book.
Also, Watch movie based on this novel, My one of favourite actress, the drama Queen Kate Winslet's performance was surreal .
I'd Miss someone with that book.
As the Young Lady entangled with teen.
Which flows the flawless love between them even when she got life imprisonment, She was turned to old. And Teen was turned to Man.
Time had changed, but their love sustained as he gave her recordings of stories.
Lovely Book.
Also, Watch movie based on this novel, My one of favourite actress, the drama Queen Kate Winslet's performance was surreal .
June 15, 2018
The book is clearly structured. Also the choice of words is at a normal level and therefore also suitable for beginners in classical, great literature.
January 15, 2022
Goash! What a plot! What delivery! This is the perfect case for show don't tell done in just the way that even when we get told something, we see it.
A lot of painfully salient topics raised in here. Gross ones, of course. Horrible ones. Stanley Milgram would've been so effing proud...
Review to follow.
Q:
Maybe I did write our story to be free of it, even if I never can be. (c)
Q:
Hanna became absorbed in the unfolding of the book. But it was different this time; she withheld her own opinions; she didn't make Natasha, Andrei, and Pierre part of her world, as she had Luise and Emilia, but entered their world the way one sets out on a long and dazzling journey, or enters a castle which one is allowed to visit, even stay in until one feels at home, but without ever really shedding one's inhibitions. All the things I had read to her before were already familiar to me. War and Peace was new for me, too. We took the long journey together. (c)
Q:
The fact that I came later than the others or left earlier, depending on Hanna' s schedule, didn't hurt my reputation, but made me interesting. I knew that. I also knew that I wasn't missing anything, and yet I often had the feeling that absolutely everything could be happening while I wasn't there. There was a long stretch when I did not dare ask myself whether I would rather be at the swimming pool or with Hanna. (褋)
Q:
Then I began to betray her. (c)
Q:
I know that disavowal is an unusual form of betrayal. From the outside it is impossible to tell if you are disowning someone or simply exercising discretion, being considerate, avoiding embarrassments and sources of irritation. But you, who are doing the disowning, you know what you're doing. And disavowal pulls the underpinnings away from a relationship just as surely as other more flamboyant types of betrayal. (c)
Q:
At first I told myself that I wasn't yet close enough to my friends to tell them about Hanna. Then I didn't find the right opportunity, the right moment, the right words. And finally it was too late to tell them about Hanna, to present her along with all my other youthful secrets. I told myself that talking about her so belatedly would misrepresent things, make it seem as if I had kept silent about Hanna for so long because our relationship wasn't right and I felt guilty about it. But no matter what I pretended to myself, I knew that I was betraying Hanna when I acted as if I was letting my
friends in on everything important in my life but said nothing about Hanna. (c)
Q:
"There's another reason I arrive later or leave earlier."
"Do you not want to talk about it, or is it that you want to but you don't know how?" (c)
Q:
We did not have a world that we shared; she gave me the space in her life that she wanted me to have. I had to be content with that. Wanting more, even wanting to know more, was presumption on my part. (c)
Q:
But I knew it was her. She stood and looked 鈥� and it was too late. (c)
Q:
Everything was easy; nothing weighed heavily. Perhaps that is why my bundle of memories is so small. Or do I keep it small? I also wonder if my memory of happiness is even true. If I think about it more, plenty of embarrassing and painful situations come to mind, and I know that even if I had said goodbye to my memory of Hanna, (c)
Q:
I had not overcome it. Never to let myself be humiliated or humiliate myself after Hanna, never to take guilt upon myself or feel guilty, never again to love anyone whom it would hurt to lose 鈥� I didn't formulate any of this as I thought back then, but I know that's how I felt. I adopted a posture of arrogant superiority. I behaved as if nothing could touch or shake or confuse me. I got involved in nothing, and I remember a teacher who saw through this and spoke to me about it; I was arrogantly dismissive. ...
I also remember that the smallest gesture of affection would bring a lump to my throat, whether it was directed at me or at someone else. Sometimes all it took was a scene in a movie. This juxtaposition of callousness and extreme sensitivity seemed suspicious even to me. (c)
Q:
The more horrible the events about which we read and heard, the more certain we became of our responsibility to enlighten and accuse. Even when the facts took our breath away, we held them up
triumphantly. Look at this! (c)
Q:
She had no sense of context, of the rules of the game, of the formulas by which her statements and those of the others were toted up into guilt and innocence, conviction and acquittal. To compensate for her defective grasp of the situation, her lawyer would have had to have more experience and self-confidence, or simply to have been better. (c)
Q:
She was not pursuing her own interests, but fighting for her own
truth, her own justice. Because she always had to dissimulate somewhat, and could never be
completely candid, it was a pitiful truth and a pitiful justice, but it was hers, and the struggle
for it was her struggle.
She must have been completely exhausted. Her struggle was not limited to the trial. She was
struggling, as she always had struggled, not to show what she could do but to hide what she
couldn't do. A life made up of advances that were actually frantic retreats and victories that
were concealed defeats. (c)
Q:
I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one's way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one's inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living. Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and
write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation. (c)
Q:
I was proud of her. At the same time, I was sorry for her, sorry for her delayed and failed life, sorry for the delays and failures of life in general. I thought that if the right time gets missed, if one has refused or been refused something for too long, it's too late, even if it is finally tackled with energy and received with joy. Or is there no such thing as "too late"? Is there only "late," and is "late" always better than "never"? I don't know. (c)
Q:
I still said nothing. I could not have spoken; all I could have done was to stammer and weep. (c)
Q:
She didn't seem unhappy or dissatisfied. In fact it was as though the retreat to the convent was no longer enough, as though life in the convent was still too sociable and talkative, and she had to retreat even further, into a lonely cell safe from all eyes, where looks, clothing, and smell meant nothing. No, it would be wrong to say that she had given up. She redefined her place in a way that was right for her, but no longer impressed the other women. ...
Can the world become so unbearable to someone after years of loneliness? (c)
Q:
if something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something today, or feel homesick, I feel the yearnings and
homesickness from back then. (c)
Q:
The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive. (c)
Q:
Whatever I had done or not done, whatever she had done or not to me 鈥� it was the path my life had taken. (c)
A lot of painfully salient topics raised in here. Gross ones, of course. Horrible ones. Stanley Milgram would've been so effing proud...
Review to follow.
Q:
Maybe I did write our story to be free of it, even if I never can be. (c)
Q:
Hanna became absorbed in the unfolding of the book. But it was different this time; she withheld her own opinions; she didn't make Natasha, Andrei, and Pierre part of her world, as she had Luise and Emilia, but entered their world the way one sets out on a long and dazzling journey, or enters a castle which one is allowed to visit, even stay in until one feels at home, but without ever really shedding one's inhibitions. All the things I had read to her before were already familiar to me. War and Peace was new for me, too. We took the long journey together. (c)
Q:
The fact that I came later than the others or left earlier, depending on Hanna' s schedule, didn't hurt my reputation, but made me interesting. I knew that. I also knew that I wasn't missing anything, and yet I often had the feeling that absolutely everything could be happening while I wasn't there. There was a long stretch when I did not dare ask myself whether I would rather be at the swimming pool or with Hanna. (褋)
Q:
Then I began to betray her. (c)
Q:
I know that disavowal is an unusual form of betrayal. From the outside it is impossible to tell if you are disowning someone or simply exercising discretion, being considerate, avoiding embarrassments and sources of irritation. But you, who are doing the disowning, you know what you're doing. And disavowal pulls the underpinnings away from a relationship just as surely as other more flamboyant types of betrayal. (c)
Q:
At first I told myself that I wasn't yet close enough to my friends to tell them about Hanna. Then I didn't find the right opportunity, the right moment, the right words. And finally it was too late to tell them about Hanna, to present her along with all my other youthful secrets. I told myself that talking about her so belatedly would misrepresent things, make it seem as if I had kept silent about Hanna for so long because our relationship wasn't right and I felt guilty about it. But no matter what I pretended to myself, I knew that I was betraying Hanna when I acted as if I was letting my
friends in on everything important in my life but said nothing about Hanna. (c)
Q:
"There's another reason I arrive later or leave earlier."
"Do you not want to talk about it, or is it that you want to but you don't know how?" (c)
Q:
We did not have a world that we shared; she gave me the space in her life that she wanted me to have. I had to be content with that. Wanting more, even wanting to know more, was presumption on my part. (c)
Q:
But I knew it was her. She stood and looked 鈥� and it was too late. (c)
Q:
Everything was easy; nothing weighed heavily. Perhaps that is why my bundle of memories is so small. Or do I keep it small? I also wonder if my memory of happiness is even true. If I think about it more, plenty of embarrassing and painful situations come to mind, and I know that even if I had said goodbye to my memory of Hanna, (c)
Q:
I had not overcome it. Never to let myself be humiliated or humiliate myself after Hanna, never to take guilt upon myself or feel guilty, never again to love anyone whom it would hurt to lose 鈥� I didn't formulate any of this as I thought back then, but I know that's how I felt. I adopted a posture of arrogant superiority. I behaved as if nothing could touch or shake or confuse me. I got involved in nothing, and I remember a teacher who saw through this and spoke to me about it; I was arrogantly dismissive. ...
I also remember that the smallest gesture of affection would bring a lump to my throat, whether it was directed at me or at someone else. Sometimes all it took was a scene in a movie. This juxtaposition of callousness and extreme sensitivity seemed suspicious even to me. (c)
Q:
The more horrible the events about which we read and heard, the more certain we became of our responsibility to enlighten and accuse. Even when the facts took our breath away, we held them up
triumphantly. Look at this! (c)
Q:
She had no sense of context, of the rules of the game, of the formulas by which her statements and those of the others were toted up into guilt and innocence, conviction and acquittal. To compensate for her defective grasp of the situation, her lawyer would have had to have more experience and self-confidence, or simply to have been better. (c)
Q:
She was not pursuing her own interests, but fighting for her own
truth, her own justice. Because she always had to dissimulate somewhat, and could never be
completely candid, it was a pitiful truth and a pitiful justice, but it was hers, and the struggle
for it was her struggle.
She must have been completely exhausted. Her struggle was not limited to the trial. She was
struggling, as she always had struggled, not to show what she could do but to hide what she
couldn't do. A life made up of advances that were actually frantic retreats and victories that
were concealed defeats. (c)
Q:
I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one's way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one's inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living. Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and
write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation. (c)
Q:
I was proud of her. At the same time, I was sorry for her, sorry for her delayed and failed life, sorry for the delays and failures of life in general. I thought that if the right time gets missed, if one has refused or been refused something for too long, it's too late, even if it is finally tackled with energy and received with joy. Or is there no such thing as "too late"? Is there only "late," and is "late" always better than "never"? I don't know. (c)
Q:
I still said nothing. I could not have spoken; all I could have done was to stammer and weep. (c)
Q:
She didn't seem unhappy or dissatisfied. In fact it was as though the retreat to the convent was no longer enough, as though life in the convent was still too sociable and talkative, and she had to retreat even further, into a lonely cell safe from all eyes, where looks, clothing, and smell meant nothing. No, it would be wrong to say that she had given up. She redefined her place in a way that was right for her, but no longer impressed the other women. ...
Can the world become so unbearable to someone after years of loneliness? (c)
Q:
if something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something today, or feel homesick, I feel the yearnings and
homesickness from back then. (c)
Q:
The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive. (c)
Q:
Whatever I had done or not done, whatever she had done or not to me 鈥� it was the path my life had taken. (c)
August 25, 2018
There have been many ways over the years in which literature has found a path to deal with the Holocaust and its consequences, but a book about the inability to be able to read might not seem the most obvious. Yet in terms of attracting a mass audience, something that Schlink has clearly done, this German novel with illiteracy at its heart published back in the mid-90's, has been a phenomenon amongst readers.
Bernhard Schlink's forth and easily most popular novel opens in post-war Germany when a teenage boy, Michael Berg (who also narrates), embarks on a love affair with a thirty-something woman, Hanna, who disappears, then years later turns up in the dock as a former concentration camp guard accused of the mass murder of Jewish women locked in a burning church. Michael, by now a law student observing the trial, realises that Hanna is a secret illiterate, a fact that has profoundly affected her actions in the past as well as fatally undermining her defence in court. Schlink says that writing about illiteracy "was there when I started to think about the book. I did a great deal of research into it, but I never had an objective beyond telling that story. I'm sure the things I think about and worry about in other contexts play into the stories I write. But I do not know how they do that, and I'm really uninterested in the epistemology of my writing." The theme certainly chimes, in terms of dramatically echoing the Third Reich's moral illiteracy, but the way the book has been enthusiastically taken up and used almost as documentary points to an impact that has far exceeded Schlink's immediate narrative ambitions.
The hapless Hanna, conscientiously unscrupulous in the performance of her labor-camp duties, committed crimes against humanity, obviously. But what of the young law student who denies her his word, his aid? The paralyzing shame, the psychic numbing, the moral failures of the lucky late-born are the novel's central focus. Nazi holdovers in postwar Germany are denounced only at the margins of the story, so to speak. But this oblique approach has its own power. In one quietly disturbing scene, Michael visits the nearest concentration camp, Struthof, in Alsace that had a sign on it indicating that it had been a gas chamber. But Schlink spares his readers the sickening details.
Literature is not only a bridge between the generations, sometimes it may get closer to the truth of recent history than benumbed eyewitness accounts. But this redemptive magic has its limits. Substituting great books for human contact is a cowardly dodge. At the novel's somber conclusion, Michael betrays Hanna yet again. On Hanna though, if one would call this more holocaust literature
than a legal thriller with sex in it, then criticism of the book, from people who treat it as Holocaust literature, are right to say that Schlink doesn't come to a proper judgment of Hanna. Schlink acknowledges that he has been criticised for not unambiguously condemning Hanna. Is this fair? I think his novel can be open to so many interpretations. Guess that's part of it's appeal.
All this aside, I just found the novel top to bottom rather bland. It brings up many questions, yes, and for the most part it at least held my curiosity. But seeing that it sold in huge numbers I expected much more. Maybe it's shortish length didn't help, it felt like not enough pages are actually given to alluding as to the true horrors of Hanna's crimes and the rest of it is simply the diatribe and musings of a teenage boy. Maybe I am missing the point? As books about the legacy of the holocaust go, there are much better ones out there than this. I will also say I much preferred the film over the book. With Kate Winslet giving a tour-de-force performance as Hanna.
Bernhard Schlink's forth and easily most popular novel opens in post-war Germany when a teenage boy, Michael Berg (who also narrates), embarks on a love affair with a thirty-something woman, Hanna, who disappears, then years later turns up in the dock as a former concentration camp guard accused of the mass murder of Jewish women locked in a burning church. Michael, by now a law student observing the trial, realises that Hanna is a secret illiterate, a fact that has profoundly affected her actions in the past as well as fatally undermining her defence in court. Schlink says that writing about illiteracy "was there when I started to think about the book. I did a great deal of research into it, but I never had an objective beyond telling that story. I'm sure the things I think about and worry about in other contexts play into the stories I write. But I do not know how they do that, and I'm really uninterested in the epistemology of my writing." The theme certainly chimes, in terms of dramatically echoing the Third Reich's moral illiteracy, but the way the book has been enthusiastically taken up and used almost as documentary points to an impact that has far exceeded Schlink's immediate narrative ambitions.
The hapless Hanna, conscientiously unscrupulous in the performance of her labor-camp duties, committed crimes against humanity, obviously. But what of the young law student who denies her his word, his aid? The paralyzing shame, the psychic numbing, the moral failures of the lucky late-born are the novel's central focus. Nazi holdovers in postwar Germany are denounced only at the margins of the story, so to speak. But this oblique approach has its own power. In one quietly disturbing scene, Michael visits the nearest concentration camp, Struthof, in Alsace that had a sign on it indicating that it had been a gas chamber. But Schlink spares his readers the sickening details.
Literature is not only a bridge between the generations, sometimes it may get closer to the truth of recent history than benumbed eyewitness accounts. But this redemptive magic has its limits. Substituting great books for human contact is a cowardly dodge. At the novel's somber conclusion, Michael betrays Hanna yet again. On Hanna though, if one would call this more holocaust literature
than a legal thriller with sex in it, then criticism of the book, from people who treat it as Holocaust literature, are right to say that Schlink doesn't come to a proper judgment of Hanna. Schlink acknowledges that he has been criticised for not unambiguously condemning Hanna. Is this fair? I think his novel can be open to so many interpretations. Guess that's part of it's appeal.
All this aside, I just found the novel top to bottom rather bland. It brings up many questions, yes, and for the most part it at least held my curiosity. But seeing that it sold in huge numbers I expected much more. Maybe it's shortish length didn't help, it felt like not enough pages are actually given to alluding as to the true horrors of Hanna's crimes and the rest of it is simply the diatribe and musings of a teenage boy. Maybe I am missing the point? As books about the legacy of the holocaust go, there are much better ones out there than this. I will also say I much preferred the film over the book. With Kate Winslet giving a tour-de-force performance as Hanna.
October 28, 2021
芦丕诏賴 鬲賵 噩丕蹖 賲賳 亘賵丿蹖 趩讴丕乇 賲蹖鈥屭┴必屫熉�
丕蹖賳 噩賲賱賴 鬲賳賴丕 丿賱蹖賱蹖賴 讴賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 蹖丕丿賲 賲蹖鈥屬呝堎嗁�
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 噩丕蹖蹖 卮乇賵毓 賲蹖卮賴 讴賴 賲丕蹖讴賱賽 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴 丿乇 禺蹖丕亘丕賳 賲乇蹖囟 賲蹖卮賴 賵 夭賳蹖 亘賴卮 讴賲讴 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁�. 亘毓丿賴丕 乇丕亘胤賴鈥屸€屫й� 亘蹖賳 丕蹖賳 丿賵 卮讴賱 賲蹖诏蹖乇賴 讴賴 亘毓囟蹖鈥屬囏� 丕爻賲卮 乇賵 毓卮賯 賲蹖鈥屭柏ж辟嗀� 賵賱蹖 亘賴 賳馗乇 賲賳 賮賯胤 丕乇賵鬲蹖讴賴鈥�. 夭賳 亘夭乇诏鈥屫臂� 讴賴 丕夭 倬爻乇 讴賲 爻賳蹖 爻賵丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 噩賳爻蹖 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁�. 丕賲丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕氐賱蹖 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 亘毓丿 丕夭 丕蹖賳 乇丕亘胤賴 丕鬲賮丕賯 賲蹖賵賮鬲賴貙 賵賯鬲蹖 賲丕蹖讴賱 乇丕噩毓 亘賴 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥屰� 賴丕賳丕 賲蹖鈥屬佡囐呝�
賯賱賲 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 賲毓賳丕蹖 賵丕賯毓蹖 讴賱賲賴 禺卮讴 賵 蹖讴賳賵丕禺鬲賴. 賴蹖趩讴丿丕賲 丕夭 讴丕乇丕讴鬲乇賴丕 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳 噩丕賳 賳诏乇賮鬲賳丿 賵 丕賴賲蹖鬲 倬蹖丿丕 賳讴乇丿賳丿. 夭賲丕賳 丿乇 讴鬲丕亘 爻乇蹖毓 噩賱賵 賲蹖鈥屫辟佖� 丕賲丕 賲賳 亘夭乇诏鈥屫簇� 倬爻乇 賵 倬蹖乇 卮丿賳 賴丕賳丕 乇賵 丨爻 賳賲蹖鈥屭┴必�. 丕夭 賴賲賴 亘丿鬲乇 賲讴丕賳蹖讴蹖 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賳 丕丨爻丕爻丕鬲 賵 氐丨賳賴鈥屬囏й� 丕乇賵鬲蹖讴 亘賵丿 讴賴 賲賳 乇賵 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵乇 賳诏賴 丿丕卮鬲
亘乇毓讴爻 讴鬲丕亘貙 丿乇 賮蹖賱賲 丕賯鬲亘丕爻蹖 鬲賲丕賲 丕蹖賳 囟毓賮鈥屬囏� 噩亘乇丕賳 卮丿賴 亘賵丿 賵 讴蹖鬲 賵蹖賳爻賱鬲 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕賳丕 乇賵 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳 夭賳丿賴 讴乇丿. 鬲賲丕賲 丕丨爻丕爻丕鬲貙 诏匕乇 夭賲丕賳 賵 鬲賱禺蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘賴 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 卮讴賱 鬲氐賵蹖乇 卮丿賴 賵 丕蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丕賳诏丕乇 夭賳丿賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿
丕賲丕 丿賱蹖賱蹖 讴賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 蹖讴 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 鬲亘丿蹖賱 卮丿賴 鬲丕亘賵 卮讴賳蹖賴. 丕賵賱 乇丕亘胤賴鈥屰� 賳丕賲鬲毓丕乇賮 賲丕蹖讴賱 賵 賴丕賳丕 賵 丕夭 丕賵賳 賲賴賲鈥屫� 賳诏丕賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 夭賲丕賳 丨爻丕爻賽 倬爻 丕夭 噩賳诏鈥� 噩賴丕賳蹖 丿賵賲 丿乇 丌賱賲丕賳. 夭賲丕賳蹖 讴賴 丌賱賲丕賳蹖鈥屬囏� 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 丌賳趩賴 丕賳噩丕賲 丿丕丿賴 亘賵丿賳丿 乇賵 亘賴 乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫簇嗀� 賵 丨鬲蹖 亘乇丕蹖 爻讴賵鬲卮賵賳 卮賲丕鬲鬲 賲蹖鈥屫簇嗀�. 夭賲丕賳蹖 讴賴 爻賵丕賱鈥屬囏й� 亘夭乇诏蹖 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 丿乇爻鬲 賵 睾賱胤 賲胤乇丨 卮丿. 趩胤賵乇 亘丕蹖丿 賳丕夭蹖鈥屬囏� 乇賵 賲丨丕讴賲賴 讴賳蹖賲責 讴爻蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丕賵賳 夭賲丕賳 丿乇 趩賴丕乇趩賵亘 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賲賱 讴乇丿賴 乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫堎嗃屬� 亘丕 賯賵丕賳蹖賳 丕賱丕賳 賲丨丕讴賲賴 讴賳蹖賲責
賮乇囟 讴賳蹖丿 賯丕賳賵賳 丕賱丕賳 讴卮鬲賳 賮乇丿蹖 乇賵 賲噩丕夭 賲蹖鈥屫堎嗁� 賵 鬲賵 丿乇 噩丕蹖诏丕賴蹖 賯乇丕乇 丿丕乇蹖 讴賴 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇賵 亘讴賳蹖. 丕诏乇 賮乇丿丕 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賵囟 亘卮賴 賵 賴賲賴 亘賴 丕蹖賳 賳鬲蹖噩賴 亘乇爻賳丿 讴賴 丕賵賳 賯鬲賱 鬲賵噩蹖賴蹖 賳丿丕乇賴貙 丌蹖丕 鬲賵 賯丕鬲賱蹖 蹖丕 賮賯胤 丿乇 趩賴丕乇趩賵亘 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賲賱 讴乇丿蹖責 丌蹖丕 亘丕蹖丿 禺賵丿鬲 賲蹖鈥屬佡囐呟屫� 讴賴 丕蹖賳鈥屭┴ж� 丕卮鬲亘丕賴賴責 亘乇 趩賴 丕爻丕爻蹖責 丕蹖賳 爻賵丕賱丕鬲蹖賴 讴賴 賴乇亘丕乇 倬爻 丕夭 蹖讴 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 丕爻丕爻蹖 丿乇 賴乇 爻蹖爻鬲賲蹖 倬蹖卮 賲蹖丕丿 賵 丕氐賵賱丕賸 噩賵丕亘卮 乇賵 爻丕丿賴 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀�: 诏蹖賵鬲蹖賳貙 丕毓丿丕賲貙 丨亘爻 丕亘丿
丕賱丕賳 賵丕賯毓丕 丿丕乇賲 賮讴乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁� 讴賴 丕诏乇 賲賳 亘賵丿賲 趩讴丕乇 賲蹖鈥屭┴必呚�
: 讴鬲丕亘 賵 氐賵鬲蹖卮 乇賵 賴賲 丕蹖賳噩丕 诏匕丕卮鬲賲
郾鄞郯郯/鄯/鄄郯
丕蹖賳 噩賲賱賴 鬲賳賴丕 丿賱蹖賱蹖賴 讴賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 蹖丕丿賲 賲蹖鈥屬呝堎嗁�
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 噩丕蹖蹖 卮乇賵毓 賲蹖卮賴 讴賴 賲丕蹖讴賱賽 倬丕賳夭丿賴 爻丕賱賴 丿乇 禺蹖丕亘丕賳 賲乇蹖囟 賲蹖卮賴 賵 夭賳蹖 亘賴卮 讴賲讴 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁�. 亘毓丿賴丕 乇丕亘胤賴鈥屸€屫й� 亘蹖賳 丕蹖賳 丿賵 卮讴賱 賲蹖诏蹖乇賴 讴賴 亘毓囟蹖鈥屬囏� 丕爻賲卮 乇賵 毓卮賯 賲蹖鈥屭柏ж辟嗀� 賵賱蹖 亘賴 賳馗乇 賲賳 賮賯胤 丕乇賵鬲蹖讴賴鈥�. 夭賳 亘夭乇诏鈥屫臂� 讴賴 丕夭 倬爻乇 讴賲 爻賳蹖 爻賵丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 噩賳爻蹖 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁�. 丕賲丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕氐賱蹖 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 亘毓丿 丕夭 丕蹖賳 乇丕亘胤賴 丕鬲賮丕賯 賲蹖賵賮鬲賴貙 賵賯鬲蹖 賲丕蹖讴賱 乇丕噩毓 亘賴 诏匕卮鬲賴鈥屰� 賴丕賳丕 賲蹖鈥屬佡囐呝�
賯賱賲 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 賲毓賳丕蹖 賵丕賯毓蹖 讴賱賲賴 禺卮讴 賵 蹖讴賳賵丕禺鬲賴. 賴蹖趩讴丿丕賲 丕夭 讴丕乇丕讴鬲乇賴丕 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳 噩丕賳 賳诏乇賮鬲賳丿 賵 丕賴賲蹖鬲 倬蹖丿丕 賳讴乇丿賳丿. 夭賲丕賳 丿乇 讴鬲丕亘 爻乇蹖毓 噩賱賵 賲蹖鈥屫辟佖� 丕賲丕 賲賳 亘夭乇诏鈥屫簇� 倬爻乇 賵 倬蹖乇 卮丿賳 賴丕賳丕 乇賵 丨爻 賳賲蹖鈥屭┴必�. 丕夭 賴賲賴 亘丿鬲乇 賲讴丕賳蹖讴蹖 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賳 丕丨爻丕爻丕鬲 賵 氐丨賳賴鈥屬囏й� 丕乇賵鬲蹖讴 亘賵丿 讴賴 賲賳 乇賵 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵乇 賳诏賴 丿丕卮鬲
亘乇毓讴爻 讴鬲丕亘貙 丿乇 賮蹖賱賲 丕賯鬲亘丕爻蹖 鬲賲丕賲 丕蹖賳 囟毓賮鈥屬囏� 噩亘乇丕賳 卮丿賴 亘賵丿 賵 讴蹖鬲 賵蹖賳爻賱鬲 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賴丕賳丕 乇賵 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳 夭賳丿賴 讴乇丿. 鬲賲丕賲 丕丨爻丕爻丕鬲貙 诏匕乇 夭賲丕賳 賵 鬲賱禺蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘賴 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 卮讴賱 鬲氐賵蹖乇 卮丿賴 賵 丕蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘蹖鈥屫辟堌� 丕賳诏丕乇 夭賳丿賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿
丕賲丕 丿賱蹖賱蹖 讴賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 蹖讴 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 鬲亘丿蹖賱 卮丿賴 鬲丕亘賵 卮讴賳蹖賴. 丕賵賱 乇丕亘胤賴鈥屰� 賳丕賲鬲毓丕乇賮 賲丕蹖讴賱 賵 賴丕賳丕 賵 丕夭 丕賵賳 賲賴賲鈥屫� 賳诏丕賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 亘賴 夭賲丕賳 丨爻丕爻賽 倬爻 丕夭 噩賳诏鈥� 噩賴丕賳蹖 丿賵賲 丿乇 丌賱賲丕賳. 夭賲丕賳蹖 讴賴 丌賱賲丕賳蹖鈥屬囏� 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 丌賳趩賴 丕賳噩丕賲 丿丕丿賴 亘賵丿賳丿 乇賵 亘賴 乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫簇嗀� 賵 丨鬲蹖 亘乇丕蹖 爻讴賵鬲卮賵賳 卮賲丕鬲鬲 賲蹖鈥屫簇嗀�. 夭賲丕賳蹖 讴賴 爻賵丕賱鈥屬囏й� 亘夭乇诏蹖 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 丿乇爻鬲 賵 睾賱胤 賲胤乇丨 卮丿. 趩胤賵乇 亘丕蹖丿 賳丕夭蹖鈥屬囏� 乇賵 賲丨丕讴賲賴 讴賳蹖賲責 讴爻蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丕賵賳 夭賲丕賳 丿乇 趩賴丕乇趩賵亘 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賲賱 讴乇丿賴 乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫堎嗃屬� 亘丕 賯賵丕賳蹖賳 丕賱丕賳 賲丨丕讴賲賴 讴賳蹖賲責
賮乇囟 讴賳蹖丿 賯丕賳賵賳 丕賱丕賳 讴卮鬲賳 賮乇丿蹖 乇賵 賲噩丕夭 賲蹖鈥屫堎嗁� 賵 鬲賵 丿乇 噩丕蹖诏丕賴蹖 賯乇丕乇 丿丕乇蹖 讴賴 亘丕蹖丿 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇賵 亘讴賳蹖. 丕诏乇 賮乇丿丕 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賵囟 亘卮賴 賵 賴賲賴 亘賴 丕蹖賳 賳鬲蹖噩賴 亘乇爻賳丿 讴賴 丕賵賳 賯鬲賱 鬲賵噩蹖賴蹖 賳丿丕乇賴貙 丌蹖丕 鬲賵 賯丕鬲賱蹖 蹖丕 賮賯胤 丿乇 趩賴丕乇趩賵亘 賯丕賳賵賳 毓賲賱 讴乇丿蹖責 丌蹖丕 亘丕蹖丿 禺賵丿鬲 賲蹖鈥屬佡囐呟屫� 讴賴 丕蹖賳鈥屭┴ж� 丕卮鬲亘丕賴賴責 亘乇 趩賴 丕爻丕爻蹖責 丕蹖賳 爻賵丕賱丕鬲蹖賴 讴賴 賴乇亘丕乇 倬爻 丕夭 蹖讴 鬲睾蹖蹖乇 丕爻丕爻蹖 丿乇 賴乇 爻蹖爻鬲賲蹖 倬蹖卮 賲蹖丕丿 賵 丕氐賵賱丕賸 噩賵丕亘卮 乇賵 爻丕丿賴 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀�: 诏蹖賵鬲蹖賳貙 丕毓丿丕賲貙 丨亘爻 丕亘丿
丕賱丕賳 賵丕賯毓丕 丿丕乇賲 賮讴乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁� 讴賴 丕诏乇 賲賳 亘賵丿賲 趩讴丕乇 賲蹖鈥屭┴必呚�
: 讴鬲丕亘 賵 氐賵鬲蹖卮 乇賵 賴賲 丕蹖賳噩丕 诏匕丕卮鬲賲
郾鄞郯郯/鄯/鄄郯
October 7, 2023
賱賲丕匕丕 賰賱 賲丕 賰丕賳 賱胤賷賮丕購 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賳丕 賷鬲亘毓孬乇 賮噩兀丞 毓賳丿 丕爻鬲毓丕丿丞 丕賱賲丕囟賷貙 兀賱兀賳賴 鬲賵丕乇賶 禺賱賮 丨賯丕卅賯 賯丕鬲賲丞責
- "丕賱賯丕乇卅" 賱亘乇賳丕乇丿 卮賱賷賳賰貙 乇賵丕賷丞 賲亘賳賷丞 毓賱賶 乇丿賾丕鬲 丕賱賮毓賱貙 鬲丨賰賷 毓賳 賲乇丨賱丞 禺胤乇丞 賵丨爻丕爻丞 噩丿丕賸貙 鬲賱賰 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賱鬲 丕賳賴賷丕乇 丕賱乇丕賷禺 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賵爻賯賵胤 丕賱賳丕夭賷丞貙 賳馗乇丞 丕賱噩賷賱 丕賱孬丕賳賷 賱賱噩賷賱 丕賱爻丕亘賯貙 兀爻卅賱鬲賴 丕賱賰孬賷乇丞 毓賳 丕賱賲毓鬲賯賱丕鬲 賵丕賱賴賵賱賵賰賵爻鬲 賵丕賱鬲毓匕賷亘貙 丕爻卅賱丞 毓賳 丿賵乇賴賲 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱賲毓賲毓丞貙 毓賳 爻亘亘 乇囟丕賴賲 亘丕賱賯賷丕賲 亘丕賱鬲毓匕賷亘 丕賵 丕賱賲卮丕乇賰丞 賮賷賴 丕賵 睾囟賾 丕賱胤乇賮 毓賳賴 賰兀賳賴 睾賷乇 賲賵噩賵丿. 乇賵丕賷丞 賳賯丿賷丞 亘廿賲鬲賷丕夭 賷鬲禺賱賱賴丕 丕賱毓丿賷丿 賲賳 丕賱廿爻鬲胤乇丕丿丕鬲 丕賱賮賱爻賮賷丞 賵丕賱賮賰乇賷丞 亘兀爻賱賵亘賺 爻賱爻 賵賱睾丞賺 賵丕囟丨丞 賵賲賮賴賵賲丞.
丨賯賷賯丞 賲丕 賷賯賵賱賴 丕賱賵丕丨丿 鬲賰賲賳 賮賷賲丕 賷賮毓賱賴
- 丕亘鬲丿兀鬲 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 亘賯爻賲賴丕 丕賱兀賵賱 亘丨丕丿孬丞 亘爻賷胤丞 亘賷賳 孬賱丕孬賷賳賷丞 賵賲乇丕賴賯貙 鬲胤賵乇鬲 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賱賶 毓賱丕賯丞 噩賳爻賷丞 亘賷賳賴賲丕 賲亘賳賷丞 毓賱賶 丕賱乇睾亘丞 丕賱賲鬲亘丕丿賱丞 賵兀氐亘丨鬲 賱丕丨賯丕賸 鬲毓賱賾賯丕賸 賵丨亘丕賸 丨爻亘 氐賷乇賵乇丞 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賱賱丕丨賯丞 賵鬲兀孬賷乇賴丕 賮賷 丕賱卮禺氐賷丕鬲貙 鬲賲賷賾夭 賴匕丕 丕賱賯爻賲 亘賵氐賮 丕賱鬲毓賱賾賯 賵丕賱廿賳賰爻丕乇丕鬲 賵丕賱兀丨賵丕賱 丕賱賳賮爻賷丞 賱賱乇丕賵賷. 丕賱賯爻賲 丕賱孬丕賳賷 丕鬲賶 亘毓丿 爻賳賵丕鬲 丕禺鬲賮丕亍 丕賱賲乇兀丞 賮賷 賲丨丕賰賲丞 賱賲噩賲賵毓丞 鬲丕亘毓丞 賱賱兀賲賳 丕賱賳丕夭賷 丨賷孬 賰丕賳鬲 丕賱賲乇兀丞 賮賷 賯賮氐 丕賱廿鬲賴丕賲 賵丕賱乇丕賵賷 賮賷 "爻賷賲賷賳丕乇" 賯丕賳賵賳賷 (丕賵 丨賯賵賯賷) 賷鬲丕亘毓 丕賱噩賱爻丕鬲貙 賴匕丕 丕賱賯爻賲 賰丕賳 賮賷賴 丕賱賰孬賷乇 賲賳 丕賱兀爻卅賱丞 丨賵賱 丕賱匕丕鬲 賵丕賱禺賷丕賳丞 賵丕賱賯丕賳賵賳貙 賵丕賱賳賯丿 賱賱卮禺氐賷丞 丕賱兀賱賲丕賳賷丞 丕賱噩丕賲丿丞貙 丕賱匕賳亘貙 丕賱毓丕乇貙 賵亘毓囟 丕賱兀賮賰丕乇 丕賱賮賱爻賮賷丞 毓賳 丕賱禺賷乇 賵丕賱卮乇 賵丕賱禺賷丕乇丕鬲 丕賱賲賲賰賳丞. 丕賱賯爻賲 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賵賴賵 賮鬲乇丞 爻噩賳 丕賱賲乇兀丞 丕鬲賶 賱賷鬲賲賲 賲丕 爻亘賯 賵賷毓胤賷賴 賲毓賳賶賸貙 丕賱锟斤拷賴丕賷丞 賰丕賳鬲 賲賳胤賯賷丞 噩丿丕賸 賮賯丿 兀丿賾鬲 丕賱賲乇兀丞 賰賮丕乇鬲賴丕 (乇睾賲 丕賳賴丕 賱賲 鬲賰賳 丕賱賲賱丕賲丞 賱賰賳 毓賳丕丿賴丕 丿毓丕賴丕 賱鬲丨賲賾賱 賰賱 丕賱賱賵賲) 賵匕賴亘鬲 丕賱賶 丕賱賲賰丕賳 丕賱兀賮囟賱 亘廿乇丕丿鬲賴丕.
丕賳 毓賲賱 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 賷毓賳賷 亘賳丕亍 噩爻賵乇 亘賷賳 丕賱賲丕囟賷 賵丕賱丨丕囟乇貙 賵賲賱丕丨馗丞 賰賱鬲丕 丕賱囟賮鬲賷賳 賱賱賳賴乇貙 賵丕賱賲卮丕乇賰丞 亘賮丕毓賱賷丞 賮賷 賰賱丕 丕賱噩丕賳亘賷賳
- 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 毓匕亘丞 亘胤乇賷賯丞 睾乇賷亘丞貙 爻賱爻丞 噩丿丕賸 乇睾賲 賰賲賷丞 丕賱兀賮賰丕乇 丕賱鬲賷 鬲丨鬲賵賷賴丕貙 賵鬲賲爻賰 亘鬲賱丕亘賷亘 丕賱賯丕乇卅 丕賱賶 丕賳 賷賳賴賷賴丕貙 賱賰賳 丕賱鬲乇噩賲丞 丕賮鬲賯丿鬲 賱賱鬲丨乇賷乇 賮鬲賰丕孬乇鬲 丕賱兀禺胤丕亍 丕賱廿賲賱丕卅賷丞 丕賱爻丕匕噩丞 賵亘毓囟 丕賱兀禺胤丕亍 丕賱賱睾賵賷丞 賲賲丕 賳睾賾氐 丕賱賯乇丕亍丞 亘毓囟 丕賱卮賷卅.
丕賳 胤亘賯丕鬲 丨賷丕鬲賳丕 賲卮賷賾丿丞 亘廿丨賰丕賲賺 賵丕丨丿丞賺 賮賵賯 丕賱兀禺乇賶 賱丿乇噩丞 丕賳賳丕 賳氐胤丿賲 丿丕卅賲丕賸 亘丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賱爻丕亘賯丞 賮賷 丕賱兀賷丕賲 丕賱賱丕丨賯丞貙 賱賷爻鬲 賰賲爻兀賱丞 鬲卮賰賱鬲 賵匕賴亘鬲 賱丨丕賱賴丕貙 賵賱賰 賰賲爻兀賱丞 乇丕賴賳丞 賵丨賷賾丞
- 兀賵丿賾 丕賱廿卮丕乇丞 禺鬲丕賲丕賸 丕賱賶 禺賷胤賺 丨乇賷乇賷 丕爻鬲賲乇 賮賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 亘賷賳 賴丕賳丕 賵賲丕賷賰賱貙 亘丿兀 丨賷賳賲丕 夭噩乇鬲賴 賵兀賳亘賾鬲賴 賱賷賳鬲亘賴 賱賲丿乇爻鬲賴 賵丕爻鬲毓賲賱鬲 爻賱胤鬲賴丕 丕賱賲賰鬲爻亘丞 賱鬲丨孬賴 毓賱賶 丕賱賳噩丕丨 賵賳噩丨.. 賵丕賳鬲賴賶 賲毓 鬲毓賱賲賴丕 賱賱賰鬲丕亘丞 賵丕賱賯乇丕亍丞 賲毓 賳賴丕賷丞 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 亘毓丿 鬲卮噩賷毓賴 賱賴丕 賲賳 禺賱丕賱 丕賱鬲爻噩賷賱丕鬲 丕賱氐賵鬲賷丞.
July 23, 2017
Hace unos d铆as una compa帽era de GR me recomend贸 esta lectura, y no dud茅 ni un segundo en ir a la biblioteca para ver si ten铆an este libro. Es m谩s, como s茅 que m谩s o menos nos gustan las mismas lecturas, ni tan siquiera perd铆 el tiempo en leer la sinopsis. 驴Para qu茅 lo iba hacer? Adem谩s, 驴no es m谩s interesante abrir un libro sin saber lo que te vas a encontrar en su interior? 驴Dejarte llevar hacia donde 茅l quiera conducirte? Pues bien, he de decir que esta lectura me ha gustado y sorprendido a partes iguales: he disfrutado con el amor de Michael por Hanna, y cuestionado el pasado de ella. Y al final, supongo, los he perdonado y entendido a los dos.
October 5, 2020
Just not for me.
Hated both characters.
I didn't feel sorry for either of them.
Hated both characters.
I didn't feel sorry for either of them.
March 10, 2025
"Pero el que huye no s贸lo se marcha de un lugar, sino que llega a otro. Y el pasado al que llegu茅 a trav茅s de mis estudios era tan v铆vido como el presente.".
4,5猸愶笍. Una lectura que no deja indiferente.
Dice la sinopsis:
Un adolescente conoce a una mujer madura con la que inicia una relaci贸n amorosa. Antes de acostarse juntos, ella siempre le pide que le lea fragmentos de Goethe, Schiller& hasta que un d铆a ella desaparece. Siete a帽os despu茅s, el joven, que estudia derecho, acude al juicio de cinco mujeres acusadas de cr铆menes nazis y descubre que una de ellas es su antigua amante. Una deslumbrante novela sobre el amor, la culpa, el horror y la piedad.
Qu茅 destaco del libro.
La prosa del autor, fluida, rica en matices, delicada, reflexiva y madura. Engancha y se lee con facilidad. Destaca su manera de conectar con el lector a la hora de transmitir reflexiones, emociones y sentimientos. Una doble conexi贸n, la intelectual y la emocional que me ha dejado impresionada.
La trama se articula en tres partes que corresponden a tres momentos en la vida del protagonista, adolescencia, primera juventud y madurez. La acci贸n transcurre en la Alemania de finales de los 50 y d茅cada de los 60. Ser谩 el propio Michael quien nos narre en primera persona la historia. Vamos a conocer al adolescente enamorado de Hanna, una mujer que le dobla la edad, al joven universitario horrorizado e impotente ante los cr铆menes de la generaci贸n anterior y al hombre maduro que, a sabiendas de que existen realidades para las que no cabe el olvido, s铆 es capaz de mostrar cierta compasi贸n por Hanna. Es una novela corta, pero compleja, que aborda cuestiones como la culpa, la responsabilidad, la connivencia, la b煤squeda de la verdad, la redenci贸n y el perd贸n para los dem谩s y para s铆 mismos.
Los personajes tan bien trazados en una obra de poco m谩s de 200 p谩ginas. Destaca la importancia que tiene el pasado en el presente de cada personaje. Un pasado que determina no solo las acciones de Michael y Hanna, sino la de los pocos secundarios que aparecen en la novela. Algunos, como Michael, viven marcados por las atrocidades de un pasado reciente del que no son culpables. Otros, los que s铆 lo son, conviven con las consecuencias de sus actos, unos actos de los que muchos no se sienten responsables e intentan justificar o blanquear.
鈥淟os estratos de nuestra vida reposan tan juntos los unos sobre los otros que en lo actual siempre advertimos la presencia de lo antiguo, y no como algo desechado y acabado, sino presente y v铆vido鈥�.
Las reflexiones sobre temas varios, como las consecuencias de la guerra y el Holocausto, la dicotom铆a entre decisi贸n y acci贸n, el eterno dilema de si es l铆cito revelar "por su bien" los secretos de otro y el poder de la literatura. Podr铆a poner frases y m谩s frases sobre cada uno de estos temas, pero creo preferible que cada lector se encuentre con las suyas, as铆 que me contentar茅 con una.
鈥淧ero la acci贸n no se limita a llevar a cabo lo que he pensado y decidido previamente. Surge de una fuente propia, y es tan independiente como lo es mi pensamiento y lo son mis decisiones鈥�.
En conclusi贸n. Una novela compleja con una trama atractiva y que mueve a la reflexi贸n. Imperdible.
4,5猸愶笍. Una lectura que no deja indiferente.
Dice la sinopsis:
Un adolescente conoce a una mujer madura con la que inicia una relaci贸n amorosa. Antes de acostarse juntos, ella siempre le pide que le lea fragmentos de Goethe, Schiller& hasta que un d铆a ella desaparece. Siete a帽os despu茅s, el joven, que estudia derecho, acude al juicio de cinco mujeres acusadas de cr铆menes nazis y descubre que una de ellas es su antigua amante. Una deslumbrante novela sobre el amor, la culpa, el horror y la piedad.
Qu茅 destaco del libro.
La prosa del autor, fluida, rica en matices, delicada, reflexiva y madura. Engancha y se lee con facilidad. Destaca su manera de conectar con el lector a la hora de transmitir reflexiones, emociones y sentimientos. Una doble conexi贸n, la intelectual y la emocional que me ha dejado impresionada.
La trama se articula en tres partes que corresponden a tres momentos en la vida del protagonista, adolescencia, primera juventud y madurez. La acci贸n transcurre en la Alemania de finales de los 50 y d茅cada de los 60. Ser谩 el propio Michael quien nos narre en primera persona la historia. Vamos a conocer al adolescente enamorado de Hanna, una mujer que le dobla la edad, al joven universitario horrorizado e impotente ante los cr铆menes de la generaci贸n anterior y al hombre maduro que, a sabiendas de que existen realidades para las que no cabe el olvido, s铆 es capaz de mostrar cierta compasi贸n por Hanna. Es una novela corta, pero compleja, que aborda cuestiones como la culpa, la responsabilidad, la connivencia, la b煤squeda de la verdad, la redenci贸n y el perd贸n para los dem谩s y para s铆 mismos.
Los personajes tan bien trazados en una obra de poco m谩s de 200 p谩ginas. Destaca la importancia que tiene el pasado en el presente de cada personaje. Un pasado que determina no solo las acciones de Michael y Hanna, sino la de los pocos secundarios que aparecen en la novela. Algunos, como Michael, viven marcados por las atrocidades de un pasado reciente del que no son culpables. Otros, los que s铆 lo son, conviven con las consecuencias de sus actos, unos actos de los que muchos no se sienten responsables e intentan justificar o blanquear.
鈥淟os estratos de nuestra vida reposan tan juntos los unos sobre los otros que en lo actual siempre advertimos la presencia de lo antiguo, y no como algo desechado y acabado, sino presente y v铆vido鈥�.
Las reflexiones sobre temas varios, como las consecuencias de la guerra y el Holocausto, la dicotom铆a entre decisi贸n y acci贸n, el eterno dilema de si es l铆cito revelar "por su bien" los secretos de otro y el poder de la literatura. Podr铆a poner frases y m谩s frases sobre cada uno de estos temas, pero creo preferible que cada lector se encuentre con las suyas, as铆 que me contentar茅 con una.
鈥淧ero la acci贸n no se limita a llevar a cabo lo que he pensado y decidido previamente. Surge de una fuente propia, y es tan independiente como lo es mi pensamiento y lo son mis decisiones鈥�.
En conclusi贸n. Una novela compleja con una trama atractiva y que mueve a la reflexi贸n. Imperdible.
Shelved as 'watched-the-movie-instead'
July 19, 2020"You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me."
Best quote ever :)
December 27, 2024
Set in post WWII Germany, The Reader is the story of the 鈥榓ffair鈥� between the 15 year old student, Michael Berg and the 36 year old Hanna Schmitz who was a tram conductor.
The book is divided into three parts.
The first is about Michael and Hanna鈥檚 relationship and Hanna鈥檚 obliging Michael to read for her every time before their sexual intercourse.
In the second part, six years have passed since Hanna鈥檚 disappearance, when Michael learns that she is on trial for war crimes committed at Auschwitz.
In the third part of the book, Michael is going through his feelings of love , grief and betrayal as after 18 years, Hanna is going to be released.
The story was one I would have loved to read about, but for the flat and sparse writing style of the author, didn鈥檛 care much about the characters, nor about the events.
Or maybe it was the translation which was lacking?
The book is divided into three parts.
The first is about Michael and Hanna鈥檚 relationship and Hanna鈥檚 obliging Michael to read for her every time before their sexual intercourse.
In the second part, six years have passed since Hanna鈥檚 disappearance, when Michael learns that she is on trial for war crimes committed at Auschwitz.
In the third part of the book, Michael is going through his feelings of love , grief and betrayal as after 18 years, Hanna is going to be released.
The story was one I would have loved to read about, but for the flat and sparse writing style of the author, didn鈥檛 care much about the characters, nor about the events.
Or maybe it was the translation which was lacking?
March 28, 2008
This book just fell short with me, on oh so many levels. One thing that did intrigue me and that I have not yet seen much of is the perspective of Germans after the Holocaust and their views on the Third Reich and Hitler's agenda, especially of the younger generation of that time. That was really the only thing that struck me about this book. The rest was just not enough. For one, the affair between MIchael and Hanna was deplorable. Is it supposed to not be as bothersome because it is an older woman with a teenage boy, rather than an older man with a teenage girl? Either way, in my opinion, it's just not palatable and I felt neither sympathy for either of the characters nor did I feel that it was relatable on many levels at all whatsoever. The writing fell flat for me and was rather dry. Not in the beautiful sparse language trends of Hemingway, but in an annoying succinct manner that just left each situation as it occurred "as is" with nothing left to ponder. I noticed that this novel has won awards and while it means absolutely nothing to me because her choices are not always great or even good in the least, but it was on Oprah's Book Club list a number of years back. Neither are good enough reasons for anyone to read this book, in my opinion. Spare yourselves and read a nice historical account of Germany after the Holocaust, if you are inclined. I am sure it would be much richer reading in any case than this novel.
July 10, 2018
There are certain books which have an impact on one, without one being able to put one's finger exactly on the reason why. 'The Reader' by Bernhard Schlink is such a book.
The experience of reading this book was like taking a train ride through a pleasant landscape: you mosey along comfortably, enjoying the view and the climate, settled and relaxed. The journey is comfortable enough without being anything out of the ordinary. Then suddenly, the train enters a section of the countryside which is breathtaking in its beauty, and you are jolted out of your somnolence. You sit up and watch, your nose glued to the window, watching with rapt attention. You are unaware of the journey's passing, of temporal time, so engrossed are you in the present experience.
The tale of 15-year-old Michael Berg (the first-person narrator) and thirty-something Hanna Schmidt, a tram conductor in post WW-2 Germany is pretty sordid in the beginning; having collapsed from hepatitis in front of her house, he is taken care of and helped home by her. Michael's thank-you visit to Hanna after convalescing, however, becomes a voyeuristic session and it's not long before they are lovers. It is an adolescent's fantasy come true, a bit like in reverse.
The tale takes on a different twist once Michael starts reading to Hanna. Apparently, she can't get enough of his stories. So their sexual escapades are now connected to prolonged reading sessions which each one of them enjoys. But Hanna still remains an enigma to Michael with her erratic behaviour, an enigma which becomes all the more inexplicable when she disappears on the threshold of her promotion as tram driver.
The next time he sees her, she is in the dock. Hanna is charged as a Nazi war criminal, a guard of a small concentration camp near Cracow, a satellite camp for Auschwitz. She is accused, along with others, of causing the death of a group of camp inmates by locking them up in a burning church. As a law student, Michael is covering her trial. Hanna's strange, self-destructive behaviour in the courtroom as well as her unusual acts as the camp guard (providing vulnerable young inmates with special status in the camp, to read books to her, until they were sent to Auschwitz to their death) intrigue him. One day, linking it to their sex-cum-reading sessions, he makes a startling discovery about his one-time lover...
Later on, Michael is a disillusioned middle-aged man, with a failed marriage and a colourless life. He finds that he cannot exorcise Hanna from his psyche. At the end of his tether, he hits upon a unique solution: Michael finds solace for himself, as well as redemption for Hanna, through his old medium - that of reading.
***
Ultimately, what is this book about? Is it about paedophilia, or an adolescent fantasy? Is it about Nazism, and man's cruelty towards man? Is it the tale of a Germany coming to terms with its Nazi past, disguised as a coming-of-age story?
I, personally, would like to see it as an allegory on the redemptive power of storytelling. In all cultures, bards enjoyed a special, revered status - in India, it approaches the divine (think of Vyasa and Valmiki). Here, Hanna's sins - both the carnal as well as the homicidal - are linked with getting stories read to her; so, unusually, is her redemption in the last part of the book.
Hanna Schmidt is a masterly creation. In the short span of 200+ pages, the author has brought to life an engrossing character who remains a puzzle until the very end.
This is one holocaust story which does not take the trodden path.
The experience of reading this book was like taking a train ride through a pleasant landscape: you mosey along comfortably, enjoying the view and the climate, settled and relaxed. The journey is comfortable enough without being anything out of the ordinary. Then suddenly, the train enters a section of the countryside which is breathtaking in its beauty, and you are jolted out of your somnolence. You sit up and watch, your nose glued to the window, watching with rapt attention. You are unaware of the journey's passing, of temporal time, so engrossed are you in the present experience.
The tale of 15-year-old Michael Berg (the first-person narrator) and thirty-something Hanna Schmidt, a tram conductor in post WW-2 Germany is pretty sordid in the beginning; having collapsed from hepatitis in front of her house, he is taken care of and helped home by her. Michael's thank-you visit to Hanna after convalescing, however, becomes a voyeuristic session and it's not long before they are lovers. It is an adolescent's fantasy come true, a bit like in reverse.
The tale takes on a different twist once Michael starts reading to Hanna. Apparently, she can't get enough of his stories. So their sexual escapades are now connected to prolonged reading sessions which each one of them enjoys. But Hanna still remains an enigma to Michael with her erratic behaviour, an enigma which becomes all the more inexplicable when she disappears on the threshold of her promotion as tram driver.
The next time he sees her, she is in the dock. Hanna is charged as a Nazi war criminal, a guard of a small concentration camp near Cracow, a satellite camp for Auschwitz. She is accused, along with others, of causing the death of a group of camp inmates by locking them up in a burning church. As a law student, Michael is covering her trial. Hanna's strange, self-destructive behaviour in the courtroom as well as her unusual acts as the camp guard (providing vulnerable young inmates with special status in the camp, to read books to her, until they were sent to Auschwitz to their death) intrigue him. One day, linking it to their sex-cum-reading sessions, he makes a startling discovery about his one-time lover...
Later on, Michael is a disillusioned middle-aged man, with a failed marriage and a colourless life. He finds that he cannot exorcise Hanna from his psyche. At the end of his tether, he hits upon a unique solution: Michael finds solace for himself, as well as redemption for Hanna, through his old medium - that of reading.
***
Ultimately, what is this book about? Is it about paedophilia, or an adolescent fantasy? Is it about Nazism, and man's cruelty towards man? Is it the tale of a Germany coming to terms with its Nazi past, disguised as a coming-of-age story?
I, personally, would like to see it as an allegory on the redemptive power of storytelling. In all cultures, bards enjoyed a special, revered status - in India, it approaches the divine (think of Vyasa and Valmiki). Here, Hanna's sins - both the carnal as well as the homicidal - are linked with getting stories read to her; so, unusually, is her redemption in the last part of the book.
Hanna Schmidt is a masterly creation. In the short span of 200+ pages, the author has brought to life an engrossing character who remains a puzzle until the very end.
This is one holocaust story which does not take the trodden path.
March 18, 2019
[Before reading: posted late 2009]
Haven't read it, but was completely blown away by the movie. Masterpiece! Kate Winslet was even better than I'd expected, and that's saying quite a bit.
Maybe I'll finally get serious about improving my German... no question about the appropriateness of the book.
_______________________
[After reading: posted early 2019]
It's funny how all the books you read link up inside you and start talking to each other. I finished Der Vorleser a week or so ago, and for once I just didn't know what to say. Everything I thought of seemed inadequate. But then yesterday I started Romain Gary's Chien blanc, which a French friend had recommended to me, and after a couple of hours I found a scene that brought everything into focus.
In Gary's supposedly autobiographical novel, the author, who's living in 1968 LA, adopts a stray dog, a German shepherd he calls Batka. Gary is a dog person, Batka is a kind, good-natured dog, and they really hit it off. Within days, Gary and his wife feel he's part of the family. But then a terrible and unexpected thing happens. A guy comes to clean their pool, and the moment Batka sees the visitor he's transformed into a murderous, snarling beast. Teeth bared, he lunges at the terrified pool cleaner, who's luckily still on the other side of the gate. Gary can barely hold him back. He apologises profusely and the pool cleaner, still shaking, leaves. A couple of days later, the same thing happens again, this time with a Western Union delivery boy.
Gary thinks about it, and there's a link between the two incidents which is distressingly obvious: the pool cleaner and the delivery boy were both black, all their other visitors that week have been white. He takes Batka to a friend who's an expert on animals, and the friend confirms his suspicions. Batka is a "white dog", a dog who's been painstakingly trained to attack blacks. They have them in the American South. Originally, they tracked escaped slaves; now the police use them against demonstrators. Gary's friend says Batka, who is about seven, is way too old to be retrained and is highly dangerous. The only sensible thing is to put him down.
Gary sits with the dog for several hours. Then he takes Batka to his car and visits a friend who lends him a revolver. They drive out to an isolated place in the woods. They get out of the car. Batka is happy to be with his master. He sits expectantly, waiting for new instructions. Gary takes out the revolver. Batka knows what is is, but he doesn't run. He just sits where he is, looking at Gary sadly. Gary aims, but he's now crying so much that he can't see properly. He fires and misses. Batka still doesn't run. Instead, he slowly walks over to Gary and licks the barrel of the gun. Gary can't take any more. They get back in the car and drive home.
Well, Der Vorleser is like that. Except that it's not a stray dog he's known for a week, it's the love of his life.
Haven't read it, but was completely blown away by the movie. Masterpiece! Kate Winslet was even better than I'd expected, and that's saying quite a bit.
Maybe I'll finally get serious about improving my German... no question about the appropriateness of the book.
_______________________
[After reading: posted early 2019]
It's funny how all the books you read link up inside you and start talking to each other. I finished Der Vorleser a week or so ago, and for once I just didn't know what to say. Everything I thought of seemed inadequate. But then yesterday I started Romain Gary's Chien blanc, which a French friend had recommended to me, and after a couple of hours I found a scene that brought everything into focus.
In Gary's supposedly autobiographical novel, the author, who's living in 1968 LA, adopts a stray dog, a German shepherd he calls Batka. Gary is a dog person, Batka is a kind, good-natured dog, and they really hit it off. Within days, Gary and his wife feel he's part of the family. But then a terrible and unexpected thing happens. A guy comes to clean their pool, and the moment Batka sees the visitor he's transformed into a murderous, snarling beast. Teeth bared, he lunges at the terrified pool cleaner, who's luckily still on the other side of the gate. Gary can barely hold him back. He apologises profusely and the pool cleaner, still shaking, leaves. A couple of days later, the same thing happens again, this time with a Western Union delivery boy.
Gary thinks about it, and there's a link between the two incidents which is distressingly obvious: the pool cleaner and the delivery boy were both black, all their other visitors that week have been white. He takes Batka to a friend who's an expert on animals, and the friend confirms his suspicions. Batka is a "white dog", a dog who's been painstakingly trained to attack blacks. They have them in the American South. Originally, they tracked escaped slaves; now the police use them against demonstrators. Gary's friend says Batka, who is about seven, is way too old to be retrained and is highly dangerous. The only sensible thing is to put him down.
Gary sits with the dog for several hours. Then he takes Batka to his car and visits a friend who lends him a revolver. They drive out to an isolated place in the woods. They get out of the car. Batka is happy to be with his master. He sits expectantly, waiting for new instructions. Gary takes out the revolver. Batka knows what is is, but he doesn't run. He just sits where he is, looking at Gary sadly. Gary aims, but he's now crying so much that he can't see properly. He fires and misses. Batka still doesn't run. Instead, he slowly walks over to Gary and licks the barrel of the gun. Gary can't take any more. They get back in the car and drive home.
Well, Der Vorleser is like that. Except that it's not a stray dog he's known for a week, it's the love of his life.
April 28, 2018
Kitab谋'n 莽ok ak谋c谋 bir dili var, betimlemeler, duygusal ve psikolojik tahliller 莽ok iyiydi..
Ke艧ke Hanna n谋n ne d眉艧眉nd眉臒眉n眉 kendi a臒z谋ndan 枚臒renebilseydim..
翱办耻苍补蝉谋..
Ke艧ke Hanna n谋n ne d眉艧眉nd眉臒眉n眉 kendi a臒z谋ndan 枚臒renebilseydim..
翱办耻苍补蝉谋..
September 28, 2022
An excellent story, which has remained with me for more than a decade.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 13,920 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.