Der Vorleser

Rating:
Summary: The Reader
Review: "Der Vorleser" braids two themes into one complex novel. Part I narrates the love affair between a clever young man of good family and an uneducated woman twenty years his senior. Somerset Maugham explores the same topic in "Of Human Bondage", as does J W Goethe in "Die Leiden des jungen Werther." Schlink adds his own twist by making Michael only 15-years-old at the start of the affair, two years younger than he tells 36-year-old Hanna and several years younger than he behaves.

Michael's youth emphasizes his innocence in the affair, his seduction by an older woman, and allows a light-hearted, romantic introduction: Michael and Hanna bicycling through the German countryside; Michael and Hanna making tender love; Michael reading the classics to an enthralled Hanna.

Fast-forward seven years to Part II, when law-student Michael attends a Nazi war crime trial as part of his studies. There is Hanna again: Hannah as a former prison guard at the concentration camp in Krakow; Hanna making the prisoners read classics to her before "selecting" them for extermination at Auschwitz; Hanna letting prisoners burn to death in a locked church, because "otherwise they might have escaped."

Schlink lets the action slow as Michael holds a prolonged conversation with himself about the morality of the situation. Should he tell the judges of Hanna's lack of education, not to mention apparent complete lack of human intelligence, as a mitigating factor to lessen her sentence? Was he right to condemn all members of that generation equally, even those who were not actively supportive of the Nazi regime, such as his father?

The final section of the trilogy provides a satisfying solution to the paradox, at least as far as Michael is concerned: Hanna nobly enduring her punishment; Hanna painfully teaching herself to read; Hanna educating herself about the role of women as prisoners and guards; Hanna saving her meager pay as "restitution." Finally, and most necessary for justice, there is Hanna hanging herself so that she does not become a burden on Michael.

Bernhard Schlink has written extensively on the subject of justice and the third Reich. "Der Vorleser" assumes knowledge of those times, as well as of the conflict between the Nazi and post-Nazi generations in Germany. His unadorned German prose leaves it to the reader to distinguish truth from irony.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: This book is worth the read; if not for the story itself, then for the situation it puts the reader in: "What would I do if...?" The author has written the book in mainly the first person, like a memoir, so there is very little actual dialogue between the characters. I find this aspect rather apealling. The author takes the reader on a journey with the 15 year old Michael Berg & his 36 year old lover, Hanna. One day Hanna disappears and Michael has to wrestle with the question of "why?". He goes on to become a law student & unexpectedly discovers that Hanna is now on trial for a Nazi war crime. What happens after that is a series of unanswerable questions that Michael has to deal with and he doesn't seem to get any satisfaction one way or the other. The ending is both bittersweet and sad. The German version of this book is not extremely difficult to understand, but German students will probably want a dictionary just in case.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: This book is worth the read; if not for the story itself, then for the situation it puts the reader in: "What would I do if...?" The author has written the book in mainly the first person, like a memoir, so there is very little actual dialogue between the characters. I find this aspect rather apealling. The author takes the reader on a journey with the 15 year old Michael Berg & his 36 year old lover, Hanna. One day Hanna disappears and Michael has to wrestle with the question of "why?". He goes on to become a law student & unexpectedly discovers that Hanna is now on trial for a Nazi war crime. What happens after that is a series of unanswerable questions that Michael has to deal with and he doesn't seem to get any satisfaction one way or the other. The ending is both bittersweet and sad. The German version of this book is not extremely difficult to understand, but German students will probably want a dictionary just in case.

Rating:
Summary: Depressing--a German book?!?
Review: This is a good read, although it is very bleak. Be prepared to have your dictionary in tow, as Schlink uses some esoteric words. I read the English translation and it is rather free. If you can, stick to the better: auf Deutsch.

Rating:
Summary: Depressing--a German book?!?
Review: This is a good read, although it is very bleak. Be prepared to have your dictionary in tow, as Schlink uses some esoteric words. I read the English translation and it is rather free. If you can, stick to the better: auf Deutsch.