"The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink
A testament to life’s motto: “I never said it would be easy.”
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“The Reader” is narrated by a law historian and starts his story when he is 15 years old in postwar Germany. He encounters an older woman and a relationship ensues. Years after the relationship ends, his studies bring him to witness trials - one where his ex-lover is a defendant.
Like the narrator, unable to decide what is the right and wrong thing to do, we readers find it difficult to justify our feelings to the events in this book. For me, there was a lot of these types of questions running through my head:
“Ew, that is so wrong… but if they are happy… is it?”
“I feel so bad for them. But does feeling sympathy for that character make me a bad person?”
“Why didn’t he say something? But if I were in his shoes, would I be brave enough? Was that actually the right thing to do?”
As the reader, we become the juror to the characters’ decisions in this book. It’s heartbreaking because there is no clear right or wrong answer, and the judge now wants our verdict.
| Pub Date: | June 26, 1997 | Page Count: | 216 Pages | ISBN: | 9780375408267 |