The Reader

The Reader

Author: Bernhard Schlink 1995 218 pp

My rating 3.5*

Started January 9 2011, Finished January 10

For such a minor work, One Day has become somewhat central to my current from of reference for appreciating other books. One Day comes to mind when assessing The Reader as they both concisely yet movingly convey the emotional arc of an entire life. This novel(ette), the movie version of which won Kate Winslet an Oscar, is set in Germany and narrated by its protagonist, Michael Berg. In the unremarkable first half of the book, set in the late 1950s, Michael is a teenager who has a consuming affair with a woman, Hannah, in her mid thirties who one day without notice disappears from Micheal’s town and life. In the far more provocative second half of the book, Micheal chances upon a trial for war crimes committed as part of the Holocaust in which Hannah is the central defendant. This section is something of an exploration of the motives of “Hitler's willing executioners” and raises the surprisingly hard to answer question “what would you have done?” had you been a German citizen of age during WWII. The book also raises the interesting idea that our small personal shames can become so consuming that maintaining their secrecy can become more important than self preservation.

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. (134)

There is no need to talk, because the truth of what one says lies in what one does. (174)